Competition to publish in elite journals is fierce, yet the confidentiality of the peer-review process — the gold standard for assessing whether a study meets the criteria for publication — has long made the process itself hard to study. A new paper in Science Advances offers a first look.

New study examines publication trends at top journals

The small fraction of papers that make it to publication in the top scientific journals plays a powerful role in scientific discourse, shaping both public policy and scientific careers, yet the confid...

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In aviation, nations run their own airspace but follow shared rules that keep thousands of planes from colliding. Space needs the same. In an article for Nature, SFI's France Córdova, lead author Gioia Rau, and colleagues call for a shared framework to coordinate operations as orbital debris grows.

Coordinating international operations with “Space Diplomacy”

In the comment article  “Space diplomacy: bridging the operating gaps between myriad missions,” which was recently published in Nature, SFI External Professor France Córdova, lead author Gioia Rau, an...

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From HIV and hepatitis C to Zika, Ebola, and mpox viruses, the list of multiroute pathogens is growing rapidly. In a Focus article recently published in Science Advances, SFI's Samuel Scarpino explains why new modelling techniques are needed to capture the dynamics of these multiroute pathogens.

Multiroute Pathogen Transsmission is Different

In a Focus article recently published in Science Advances, SFI External Professor Samuel Scarpino (Northeastern University) explains why new modelling techniques are needed to capture the dynamics of ...

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Applications are open for SFI's 2027 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. SFI is looking for recent Ph.D. graduates with strong quantitative and computational skills who want to pursue independent, transdisciplinary research. Deadline: September 30, 2026 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Catch up on our most recent Community Lecture: "Why Your Brain Hates Losing" with Colin Camerer, on loss aversion and how different regions of the brain encode gains and losses. Watch here:

Why Your Brain Hates Losing

YouTube video by Santa Fe Institute

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There's a paradox in anthropology: the larger a population gets, the better protected it should be from random fluctuations that could cause collapse. Yet the record is rife with large civilizations that failed. New research from SFI's Marcus Hamilton points to an unexpected culprit: cooperation.

Cooperation both protects and weakens societies

When mega-societies like Rome collapse, it shows that no group is too big to fail. New research from SFI External Professor Marcus Hamilton shows why.

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Join us today at the Lensic Performing Arts Center for SFI's Community Lecture with Colin Camerer, "Why Your Brain Hates Losing." 7:30 pm MT Free tickets: lensic.org/events/why-y... or watch the live stream on SFI's YouTube (www.youtube.com/live/atJ0APP...)

Why Your Brain Hates Losing | The Lensic

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In this SFI Seminar, John Harte (University of California, Berkeley) explores how to identify the causes of disturbance in degrading ecosystems and determine whether they're recovering. Using empirical datasets and new theory, he addresses how complex systems respond to perturbation and recovery.

Disturbance and Recovery Dynamics in Complex Systems

YouTube video by Santa Fe Institute

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SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Kaleda Denton (@kaledadenton.bsky.social) was among roughly 30 early-career researchers selected for this year's Rising Stars in Computational and Data Sciences workshop, held at SFI in April.

Kaleda Denton selected as a “Rising Star in Computational and Data Sciences”

SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Kaleda Denton was among roughly 30 early-career researchers selected to participate in the Rising Stars in Computational and Data Sciences Annual Workshop, held this...

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SFI's Andreas Wagner (University of Zurich) was awarded the European Research Council’s Advanced Grant to study fitness landscapes in evolutionary biology. The award will help the SEASCAPES project. Wagner believes this could have strong implications in fields like medicine and protein engineering.

Andreas Wagner awarded ERC Advanced Grant

SFI External Professor Andreas Wagner has been awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council to study fitness landscapes in evolutionary biology.

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AI now touches every step of criminal justice, from police investigation to trial, with implications both desirable and less so. Last month, SFI's Cristopher Moore, Melanie Mitchell, and Melanie Moses addressed them at the National Judicial Summit in Santa Fe, attended by about 300 judges.

SFI Professors Give Judges Advice on AI

In June, three SFI Faculty members participated in panel discussions at the National Judicial Summit on the Foundation and Future of the Judiciary, addressing issues around AI use in the criminal just...

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Last fall, SFI's John Krakauer was named director of the Centre for Restorative Neurotechnology (CRN) at Lisbon's Champalimaud Foundation, a center he helped create. Krakauer has been connected to Champalimaud for more than a decade, first as a visiting scientist at its Centre for the Unknown.

John Krakauer named director of Champalimaud's Centre for Restorative Neurotechnology

Last fall, SFI External Professor John Krakauer was named director of the Centre for Restorative Neurotechnology (CRN) — a center he helped create — at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon. He takes ...

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Reserve free tickets for SFI's Community Lecture with Colin Camerer, July 21, 7:30 pm at the Lensic. Why does losing $10 hurt roughly twice as much as gaining $10 feels good? This talk explores loss aversion, and how emotion, not just cold calculation, creates our aversion to loss. Tickets:

Why Your Brain Hates Losing | The Lensic

lensic.org

New book by SFI's Marten Scheffer. Our crises are intertwined: a warming planet, a rising human footprint, inequality, polarization. Yet Scheffer is hopeful: societies, like other complex systems, can tip suddenly toward a better, more stable state. Reviewed by SFI's Tim Kohler.

Book Review: "Tipping out of Trouble: How Societies Transformed and How We Can Do So Again"

"Marten Scheffer’s book, Tipping out of Trouble, will open your mind to how scientific knowledge can be turned into social change to address our most dire problems," writes Tim Kohler in this book rev...

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Present-day LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude can write poetry and solve algebra problems. Some researchers call this "emergence," but not everyone agrees. A new paper by SFI's David Krakauer, Melanie Mitchell, and John Krakauer proposes a framework to clarify whether AI capabilities are truly emergent.

Does intelligence ‘emerge’ in large language models?

Present-day LLMs, such as ChatGPT and Claude, can perform complex tasks, such as writing poetry and solving difficult algebra problems, with astounding speed and precision. Some researchers have refer...

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Your dominant hand isn't better because it's "born" that way. It's just had more practice, a new PNAS study finds. The skill gap appears only when you pick up a tool, suggesting handedness is, in part, a fingerprint of human tool-use culture.

Your dominant hand is made, not born

Most people favor one hand, and that hand tends to be the better one at writing, at throwing, at managing chopsticks. The long-standing view is that the dominant hand is “born” more capable, its skill...

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Catch up on our most recent Community Lecture: “The Beautiful Engineering of Us: From Neurons to Collective Minds” with Thalia Wheatley, exploring how human intelligence emerges not only from individual brains, but from networks of interacting people.

The Beautiful Engineering of Us: From Neurons to Collective Minds

YouTube video by Santa Fe Institute

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Join us tomorrow for SFI’s Community Lecture with Thalia Wheatley. Wheatley will explore conversation as a powerful mechanism for coupling minds — and what this means in the age of AI. 7:30 pm MT | Free tickets: lensic.org/events/the-b... or watch the live stream on SFI’s YouTube

The dominant model of opinion dynamics has long assumed that people average all views, outliers included. In a new paper, SFI's Kaleda Denton and colleagues test a different model, based on the most popular opinion, against real-world data and find it consistently beats DeGroot averaging.

Model redefining conformity excels against real-world data

In a new paper in PNAS, SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Kaleda Denton, SFI External Faculty Fellow, and Science Board Fellow Marcus Feldman, and independent researcher Jonathan F. Johannemann offer...

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SFI's Nicholas de Monchaux has been named the new dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. De Monchaux, an acclaimed architect, urbanist, and scholar, has led MIT’s Department of Architecture since 2020 and is returning to UC Berkeley, where he was a professor from 2006 to 2019.

SFI External Professor Nicholas de Monchaux named Dean of UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

SFI External Professor Nicholas de Monchaux has been named the new dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED), with a term commencing July 1, 2027.

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SFI Science Board Fellow Simon Levin (Princeton University) has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society. Since the 1970s, his work has been rooted in mathematical theories and models to better understand a range of environmental issues.

Simon Levin named Fellow of the Royal Society

SFI Science Board Fellow Simon Levin (Princeton University) has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Society announced on May 27, 2026.

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In this SFI Seminar, Eric Goles of the University of Adolfo Ibáñez explores fungal automata, a cellular automaton model in which information flows only horizontally or vertically. He shows that despite these constraints, it can simulate arbitrary Boolean circuits and are computationally universal.

Computational Universality of Fungal Sandpile Automata

YouTube video by Santa Fe Institute

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SFI's Brian Enquist has received the Ecological Society of America’s Robert H. MacArthur Award, one of the field’s highest honors for mid-career ecologists. The award recognizes Enquist’s work linking functional traits in organisms to the structure and functioning of communities and ecosystems.

Brian Enquist receives Robert H. MacArthur Award

SFI External Professor Brian Enquist (University of Arizona) has been awarded the Ecological Society of America's prestigious Robert H. MacArthur Award, which celebrates a mid-career ecologist for “me...

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SFI's Han van der Maas has been named the next director of the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). A professor of psychological methods, he has been involved with the IAS since its founding in 2016, previously as a principal investigator and with the management team.

Han van der Maas named director of Amsterdam’s Institute for Advanced Study

SFI External Professor Han van der Maas has been named the next director of the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). Van der Maas, a professor of psychological methods at the ...

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SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Marina Dubova (@mdubova.bsky.social) has received a 2026 Glushko Dissertation Prize from the Cognitive Science Society and the Glushko-Samuelson Foundation. The prize recognizes recent Ph.D. dissertations for groundbreaking work in cognitive science.

Marina Dubova receives Dissertation Prize

The Cognitive Science Society and the Glushko-Samuelson Foundation have awarded SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Marina Dubova a 2026 Glushko Dissertation Prize. The prize recognizes up to five rece...

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In March, SFI's Aaron Clauset (University of Colorado Boulder) received two notable honors: he was elected a 2025 Fellow of the @aaas.org and named 2026 Distinguished Alumni by UNM. Both honors recognize Clauset’s foundational contributions to network science and computational social science.

Aaron Clauset receives honors from AAAS and University of New Mexico

In March, SFI External Professor Aaron Clauset (University of Colorado Boulder) received two notable honors: he was elected a 2025 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and...

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SFI's Laurent Hébert-Dufresne has received the 2026 Erdős-Rényi Prize, the top honor for early-career researchers in network science. “This recognition reflects the deeply collaborative nature of complex systems research,” says Hébert-Dufresne.

Laurent Hébert-Dufresne receives Erdős-Rényi Prize

SFI External Professor Laurent Hébert-Dufresne (University of Vermont) is the 2026 recipient of the Erdős-Rényi Prize, the top honor for early-career researchers working in network science.

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Is the scientific enterprise too risk-averse? SFI's Brandon Ogbunu joined an Open to Debate event at Johns Hopkins University, alongside other scientists and scholars, to discuss whether today’s incentive structures reward safe, incremental work over bold scientific thinking. Watch the debate:

Is the Scientific Enterprise Too Risk-Averse?

YouTube video by Open to Debate

youtube.com

In this SFI Seminar, Gianfranco Bertone of the University of Amsterdam traces the search for dark matter, from the observations and arguments that made it central to cosmology, to the experiments shaping the next decade of inquiry — such as using gravitational waves to probe dark matter.

The Quest for Dark Matter

YouTube video by Santa Fe Institute

youtube.com

All of biology is transient. Over time, identical cells can diverge into subgroups with different behaviors (size, protein expression, metabolism). A new paper by SFI’s James Holehouse shows these population patterns don’t always reflect single-cell behavior or mechanisms.

Why noise may be the key to understanding cell group patterns

All of biology is transient. Over time, a population of identical cells can change so that some subgroups exhibit different behaviors — everything from varying sizes to the expression of certain prote...

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