It's complicated: Self-organized patterns identify emergent behavior near critical transitions

From the perspective of complex systems, a range of events - from chemistry and biology to extreme weather and population ecology - can be viewed as large-scale self-emergent phenomena that occur as a consequence of deteriorating stability. Based on observing the self-organized patterns associated with these phenomena, the elusive goal has been the ability to interpret these emergent patterns to predict the related critical events. Recently, scientists at HRL Laboratories, LLC in Malibu, Califor...