Communication and rapid spread of information is the focus of anew study conducted by Northwestern professors and studentsreleased Aug. 2 by the Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences.

“We are trying to figure out how consensus is reached amongunconnected people,” said Andr� Moreira, a doctoral fellowin chemical and biological engineering and collaborator on thestudy.

Moreira, along with two other NU professors and another student,used a computer to make a mathematical model that simulates thisprincipal.

One of the events studied was a grassroots effort a few weeksbefore the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 in which thousands ofprotesters gathered seemingly spontaneously. Most people did whattheir neighbors told them to do and followed simple decision-makingrules.

“(The program) tries to model people and their decisions,” saidchemical and biological engineering Prof. Luis Amaral, collaboratoron the study and an author of the paper released.

Models of mass behavior, like voting boycotts and revolutions,can be explained by this research too, said Daniel Diermeier,co-director of NU’s Institute of Complex Systems and a collaboratoron this project.

“It’s very interesting for the study of social learning andparticularly why it is that very simple decision rules worksurprisingly well,” Diermeier said.

The study also brings a new scientific understanding to the wayhuman cells interact with each other, Amaral said.

“All the cells have to reach a consensus so they canspecialize,” Amaral said. “They need to communicate and thenagree.”

Reach Ashima Singal at [email protected].