Balancing stability and adaptation: a new concept to understand complex systems 

Mathematical description of natural systems enables to understand how their dynamics emerges and is regulated. Researchers have now introduced a groundbreaking concept with an intriguing name – ghost scaffolds. Using ghost channels and ghost cycles, they can explain how systems remain stable for prolonged periods of time, but are still flexible to change the state when required. This new mathematical framework challenges traditional ideas of stability of complex systems and could potentially improve predictions of events like biodiversity loss, or information processing in the brain.