The graduate student environment and the post-doctoral research environment which follows completion of a PhD, are ever-increasingly complex and specialized. By design, scientists are directed into deeper and deeper levels of understanding of a specific subject. It should not be surprising that one consequence of this ever-increasing specialization can be a loss of perspective, integration, and connectivity to other areas of research. Yet many times, these same perspectives and connectivities are necessary for reaching breakthroughs in understanding, as well as for effectively communicating with audiences who may lack background in the subject

The on-going explosion and fragmentation of knowledge demands a renewed effort at integration. This has always been the dream of the systems theorists; all they lacked was the appropriate technology to attack the complexity of the task

Complexity is the most common term used to label those developing theories--made possible by recent advances in computing power--of how the living world works. These theories provide a new understanding of how living entities from cells, to individual beings, to the institutions of society (particularly corporations) are organised and how they function.