The purpose of this talk is to describe some recent progress in applying scaling concepts to various systems in nature. We review several systems characterized by scaling laws such as DNA sequences, heartbeat rates and weather variations. We discuss the finding that the exponent α quantifying...

We present several recent studies based on statistical physics concepts that can be used as diagnostic tools for heart failure. We describe the scaling exponent characterizing the long-range correlations in heartbeat time series as well as the multifractal features recently discovered in...

We review evidence supporting the idea that the DNA sequence in genes containing noncoding regions is correlated, and that the correlation is remarkably long range — indeed, base pairs thousands of base pairs distant are correlated. We do not find such a long-range correlation in the coding...

Even under healthy, basal conditions, physiologic systems show erratic fluctuations resembling those found in dynamical systems driven away from a single equilibrium state. Do such “nonequilibrium” fluctuations simply reflect the fact that physiologic systems are being constantly perturbed...

We review the present status of the studies of DNA sequences using methods of statistical physics. We present evidence, based on systematic studies of the entire GenBank database, supporting the idea that the DNA sequence in genes containing noncoding regions is correlated, and that the...

We discuss multiple-time scale properties of neurophysiological control mechanisms, using heart rate and gait regulation as model systems. We find that scaling exponents can be used as prognostic indicators. Furthermore, detection of more subtle degradation of scaling properties may provide a...

We find that a universal homogeneous scaling form describes the distributions of cardiac variations for a group of healthy subjects, which is stable over a wide range of time scales. However, a similar scaling function does not exist for a group with a common cardiopulmonary instability...

We discuss examples of complex systems composed of many interacting subsystems. We focus on those systems displaying nontrivial long-range correlations. These include the one-dimensional sequence of base pairs in DNA, the sequence of flight times of the large seabird Wandering Albatross, and the...

We illustrate the general principle that in biophysics, econophysics and possibly even city growth, the conceptual framework provided by scaling and universality may be of use in making sense of complex statistical data. Specifically, we discuss recent work on DNA sequences, heartbeat intervals,...

We review evidence supporting the idea that the DNA sequence in genese containing non-coding regions is correlated, and that the correlation is remarkably long range — indeed, nucleotides thousands of base pairs distant are correlated. We do not find such a long-range correlation in the coding...