Connected [antikvár]

Preface ocial networks are intricate things of beauty. They are so S elaborate and so complex—and so ubiquitous, in fact— that one has to wonder what purpose they serve. Why are - we embedded in them? How do they form? How do they work? How do they affect us? I (Nicholas) have been animated by these questions for the better part of the past ten years. I began by being interested in the simplest social network of all: a pair of people, a dyad. Initially, the dyads I studied were husbands and wives. As a physician caring for terminally ill patients and their families, I noticed the serious toll that a loved one's death had on a spouse. And I became interested in how illness in one person might cause illness in another. For it seemed to me that if people are interconnected, their health must also be interconnected. If a wife falls ill or dies, her husband's risk of death assuredly rises. Eventually, I began to realize that there were all kinds of dyads I might study, such as pairs of siblings or pairs of friends or pairs of neighbors who are connected {not separated) by a backyard fence. IX