Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means rating: asin: 0452284392 binding: Paperback list price: $15.00 USD amazon price: $10.20 USD

Networks are everywhere. The Internet is one; so is your circle of friends. The power grid is another network and so are the various systems of your body. Understanding the fundamental properties of networks may well be key to our survival in the future.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, one of the top researchers in the field of network theory, lays out the state of the art in this book. Barbasi's research has yielded some surprising insights into the way networks function. An attack on random 'nodes' on a network can be surprisingly ineffective at shutting it down - up to 80% of the nodes can be eliminated or disabled before the system itself starts to break down. On the other hand, a focused attack on a few of the major hubs in a network can cause the whole thing to collapse quickly.