Proteins at the Edge

What do a flock of starlings, solar flares, traffic jams, the event horizon of a black hole, and the human brain have in common? Each of these systems operates at a critical point, on the boundary dividing order from disorder. Tip the scales one way and you have a chaotic cluster of birds, the other way and you have a stable flock that can't respond efficiently to its environment. Only at the critical point, at the edge of chaos, can the swarm remain stable and quickly adapt when a predator come...