Milan Janosov, a Hungarian researcher in network science, found that there are about 600 Nobel laureates who have bonded with each other, mainly by working together, because they are in the same institution, working with a Nobel laureate, or because of family kinship, which is the weakest link.
Nobel Links
"Network science" is defined as the scope that studies complex networks such as telecommunications networks, computer networks, and social networks, by identifying distinct actors in these networks (called "nodes"), and the connections between these elements (called connections or edges).
This field adopts theories and methods derived from several sciences, for example, some of its tools are inspired by graph theory (mathematics), statistical mechanics (from physics), data extraction (from computer science), and social structure (from sociology).
Map of relations between Nobel laureates consisted of 682 knots and 588 possible connections (Milan Janusov – Tech Explore)
To reach the findings, published in a paper on the ArCave platform, which houses an archive of drafts of papers written in fields such as physics and mathematics, Janosov examined the relationships between the vast majority of Nobel laureates through the material that talks about them on the Internet, especially Wikipedia links.
The researcher then created a map representing the relations between Nobel laureates consisting of 682 nodes and 588 possible links between these nodes, and the map showed that a large number of Nobel laureates were socially connected to each other in one way or another.
According to the study, 30 percent of Nobel laureates were at the center of that network and were heavily interconnected.
In addition, it turned out that there were (but faint) links that represented a single bridge between two distinct groups of Nobel laureates, the first comprising the three scientific fields (physics, medicine and chemistry), and the second comprising the Nobel Prizes in the humanitarian fields (peace, literature and economics), according to statements by Jonasov to the platform "Tech Explore".
Networking science plays an important role in understanding the hidden connections between seemingly completely divergent things (Shutterstock)
The hidden power of network science
The study concludes that one-third of Nobel Prize winners engaged with each other and new researchers in new scientific achievements, while two-thirds of the prize winners leave and return to work separately, which is sad, because the expertise of so many scientists in their domains would have helped them thrive better.
This study illustrates how network science can play a very important role in understanding the hidden connections between seemingly completely different things, and in turn helping us understand and improve different aspects of our world, such as biology, chemistry, medicine, business, finance, and social sciences.
In this study, for example, networking science helps to understand how people behave and interact in different contexts, whether friendship, communication, collaboration, or influence, and how to foster collaboration or innovation by studying those relationships.
In this context, network science is a tool that benefits all other sciences: in biology, for example, it helps to understand how genes work together to produce certain traits or diseases; in medicine, it helps to understand how diseases spread and consequently prevent or treat them; and in business, it helps to understand how markets work and consequently improve them.