Complex Adaptive Matter: Emergent Phenomena in Materials
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Complex Adaptive
Matter: Emergent Phenomena in Materials
Daniel L. Cox and David Pines, Guest Editors Abstract In the study of matter, both living and inanimate, the breakthrough discoveries and most scientists’ intellectual obsessions often flow from what we call emergent behavior: phenomena not readily predictable from a detailed knowledge of the material subunits alone. We call systems that display emergent behavior complex adaptive matter, and their relevant organizing principles are unique to their scales of length and time. This issue of MRS Bulletin provides an overview of the aggregate of research on complex adaptive matter through a survey of five examples, ranging from intrinsically disordered electron matter in high-temperature superconductors to protein aggregates in amyloid diseases like Alzheimer’s. We explain the philosophy and motivation for this research, noting that the study of emergent phenomena complements a globally reductionist scientific approach by seeking to identify, with intellectual precision, the relevant organizing principles governing the behavior. Our authors focus on the character of emergence for their particular systems, the role of materials research approaches to the problems, and the efforts to identify the organizing principles at work. Keywords: complex adaptive matter, emergent behavior.
Introduction In the study of matter, both living and inanimate, the breakthrough discoveries and most scientists’ intellectual obsessions often flow from what we call emergent behavior: phenomena that owe their existence to interactions between many subunits, but whose existence cannot be deduced from a detailed knowledge of those subunits alone. A classic scientific question that illustrates this notion of emergence is how can an assembly of molecules (us) actually know just what a molecule is? Surely, consciousness and cognition are emergent phenomena. As another example, consider high-temperature superconductivity, a phenomenon that has been known for nearly two decades, but that still eludes a comprehensive understanding. No quantum mechanical calculations predicted the existence of this remarkable phase of matter, and to date, no microscopic calculations or numerical simula-
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 30 • JUNE 2005
tions have conclusively post-dicted it, either, despite the efforts of many brilliant minds working on the problem. We call materials exhibiting emergent behavior complex adaptive matter, and their relevant organizing principles are characterized by given scales of length and time. This issue of MRS Bulletin is organized around the research problems in this area and the general theme of emergent phenomena in matter, rather than a specific class of material or materials-related problems. The ordering of the articles in this issue roughly follows a progression of length scales, from atomic-scale modulation of electron density in the cuprate superconductors to the large-scale protein aggregates visible in the brains of victims of amyloid diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In each c
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