More than two centuries ago Henri de Saint-Simon envisaged physical laws to describe human societies. Driven by advances in statistical physics, network science, data analysis, and information technology, this vision is becoming a reality. Many of the grandest challenges of our time are of a societal nature, and methods of physics are increasingly playing a central role in improving our understanding of these challenges, and helping us to find innovative solutions.

The Social physics Collection at Scientific Reports is dedicated to this research.

M. Perc, The social physics collective, Scientific Reports 9 (2019) 16549