Allowing Little Traumas Prevents Major Collapses

Image Courtesy of the USDA When the stock market collapses, a country erupts in rebellion, an electric grid blacks out or a child throws a tantrum in a crowded supermarket, the people nominally in charge of the systems often try harder to rein things in. But a new paper in Physical Review Letters shows that too much control is often at the heart of a major breakdown. It's not an entirely new idea. Many people have noted that major wildfires are more devastating in areas where small fires are vig...