One challenge in understanding network effects is to spot the differences between several sorts of network.

ECONOMIST: Managing power networks should be a priority

Mr. WISE: You didn't have the special effects there in the shots that they belonged, just have a spot for them to look at and then you'd tell them what they were going--what was going to be up there eventually so they could react to what would be eventually up on that screen.

NPR: A Robert Wise Reprise

Toward this end, Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) recently bought biotech boutique Rosetta InPharmatics, which employs astrophysicists and engineers to crunch reams of gene data to spot telltale patterns that help predict if a drug will perform as promised or might have intolerable side effects.

FORBES: Healthy Wealthy & Wise