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Science 10 May 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5570, pp. 1035 - 1037
DOI: 10.1126/science.1072080
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Perspectives

ECOLOGY:
From Elton to Mathematics and Back Again

Dave Raffaelli

Food webs can be thought of as intricate spider webs that despite their complexity remain stable. In his Perspective, Raffaelli discusses a new mathematical analysis (Neutel et al.) that reveals how even the most complex food webs retain their stability by having many weak interactions between species in their long loops.

The author is in the Environmental Department, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK. E-mail: dr13{at}york.ac.uk

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)