Portal:Systems science

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Complex systems approach

Systems science is an transdisciplinary[1] field that studies the nature of systems—from simple to complex—in nature, society, cognition, engineering, technology and science itself. To systems scientists, the world can be understood as a system of systems. The field aims to develop interdisciplinary foundations that are applicable in a variety of areas, such as psychology, biology, medicine, communication, business management, engineering, and social sciences.

Systems science covers formal sciences such as complex systems, cybernetics, dynamical systems theory, information theory, linguistics or systems theory. It has applications in the field of the natural and social sciences and engineering, such as control theory, operations research, social systems theory, systems biology, system dynamics, human factors, systems ecology, systems engineering and systems psychology. Themes commonly stressed in system science are (a) holistic view, (b) interaction between a system and its embedding environment, and (c) complex (often subtle) trajectories of dynamic behavior that sometimes are stable (and thus reinforcing), while at various 'boundary conditions' can become wildly unstable (and thus destructive). Concerns about Earth-scale biosphere/geosphere dynamics is an example of the nature of problems to which systems science seeks to contribute meaningful insights.


The Sun. Planets in order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Earth's one moon: the Moon. Mars's two moons: Deimos and Phobos. Jupiter's Galilean moons: Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. Saturn's six largest moons: Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan. Uranus's five largest moons: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon. Neptune's largest moon: Triton. Dwarf planets in order: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Quaoar, Orcus, Eris, Gonggong, Sedna.
Montage of the largest bodies in the Solar System. The asteroid belt and Kuiper belt are not added because the individual asteroids are too small to be shown.

The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. It was formed 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc. The Sun is an ordinary main sequence star that maintains a balanced equilibrium by the fusion of hydrogen into helium at its core, releasing this energy from its outer photosphere.

The largest objects that orbit the Sun are the eight planets. In order from the Sun, they are four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars); two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn); and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). All terrestrial planets have solid surfaces. Inversely, all giant planets do not have a definite surface, as they are mainly composed of gases and liquids. Over 99.86% of the Solar System's mass is in the Sun and nearly 90% of the remaining mass is in Jupiter and Saturn. (Full article...)

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Dennis Lynn Meadows (born June 7, 1942) is an American scientist and Emeritus Professor of Systems Management, and former director of the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research at the University of New Hampshire. He is President of the Laboratory for Interactive Learning and widely known as a coauthor of The Limits to Growth. (Full article...)

Did you know

  • ... * and next a science of action, called "Interactive management".
  • ... that the Yugoslavian Mihajlo D. Mesarovic in 1970s wanted to provide a unified and formalized mathematical approach to all major systems concepts.
  • ... * then a science of complexity,
  • ... that the American systems scientist John Nelson Warfield found systems science to consist of a hierarchy of sciences.

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