We used to think the way in which web pages, power grids and people tied together was more or less random. But recently two young physicists independently discovered that fundamental laws govern networks. It’s a discovery that may prove as important as Newton’s observations of gravity or Darwin’s theory of evolution.

How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer brings us a new view of the world, as we unfold the science behind the popular trivia game ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’. Based on the idea that anyone on the planet can be connected in just a few steps of association, ’six-degrees of separation’ was supposedly an urban myth. Through this documentary we discover it’s at the heart of a major scientific breakthrough.

The explosion in the new science of networks started with an Australian PhD student Duncan Watts while studying, of all things, crickets, and the mechanism that allows them to chirp in unison. He investigated networks as varied as the actors of Hollywood, the neural pathways of the brain and the US power grid and discovered that they are all ’small worlds’ where every actor, neuron, cricket and transformer is only a few ‘handshakes’ away.

Meanwhile a Hungarian physicist, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi coincidentally mapped the World Wide Web and found an underlying law that shapes small-world structures. Whether natural or man-made, vast diverse networks share a common blueprint, a structure that describes their strengths and weaknesses. In the near future network science will fundamentally change how we control epidemics; power failures; fight wars; save endangered species; prevent crime and disease.

The documentary ‘How Kevin Bacon cured cancer’ airs tonight [Tuesday 28th Oct @ 8.30pm] on ABC1 as part of the ABC’s Future Makers series.

Article taken from www.abc.net.au