RE: [Fis] probability versus power laws

From: Loet Leydesdorff <[email protected]>
Date: Wed 07 Jul 2004 - 18:28:44 CEST

Dear Bob,

In scientometrics the first derivation of a powerlaw distribution for
citations was by Derek de Solla Price in 1965: "Networks of Scientific
Papers," Science Vol. 149, 1965, pp. 510-515.

With kind regards,

Loet

> -----Original Message-----
> From: fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es
> [mailto:fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Robert Ulanowicz
> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 4:01 PM
> To: fis@listas.unizar.es
> Subject: RE: [Fis] probability versus power laws
>
> On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, Loet Leydesdorff wrote:
>
> > Would one not expect that the systems disturb each other in their
> > recursive selections albeit perhaps at the margins? If these
> > disturbances are also recursive, this would again lead to
> powerlaws,
> > wouldn't it? In biological systems one would therefore expect
> > powerlaws to prevail. But in social systems, innovations
> are possible
> > that would change the shape (exponent) of the powerlaw?
> What would be
> > the expectation in these cases (e.g., discourses)?
>
> Dear Loet et al.,
>
> Surprising as it may seem, Wilfried Wolff and I discovered
> power- law distributions in ecosystem flow magnitudes back in
> 1990. (We called them Cauchy-like distributions then.) We
> ascribed them to both the conditional nature of the
> interactions (Conditional distribution was also a label for
> power laws at the time.) and to the distorting nature of
> autocatalytic feedback.
>
> Unfortunately, none of the shining stars in the physics of
> networks in the late 90's ever picked up on our work.
>
> See:
>
> Ulanowicz, R.E. and W.F. Wolff. 1991. Ecosystem flow
> networks: Loaded dice? Math. Biosci 103:45-68.
>
> Cheers,
> Bob
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------
> Robert E. Ulanowicz | Tel: (410) 326-7266
> Chesapeake Biological Laboratory | FAX: (410) 326-7378
> P.O. Box 38 | Email <ulan@cbl.umces.edu>
> 1 Williams Street | Web
> <http://www.cbl.umces.edu/~ulan>
> Solomons, MD 20688-0038 |
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> ------------
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Jul 7 18:30:39 2004

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