But while Mr Buchanan explains all this well, he also makes a sweeping claim: that human society too is an example of self-organised criticality, and that it is therefore possible to use science to explain the patterns of history.

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In the absence of a written language, these patterns record the history and legends of Li culture as well as aspects of worship, taboos, beliefs, traditions and folkways.

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Aidan Dwyer won the Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History after studying tree branch patterns during hikes through the forests of the Catskill Mountains.

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This is part of his case for thinking that there is a very complex relationship between evolution in particular populations and the patterns we see in the history of life.

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It will change literally everything, from cultural patterns to the location of the major theaters of history to conceptions of human freedom to the ways in which nations interact and cooperate or compete.

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That history reveals patterns, some of which, the domination of terrestrial flora by the flowering plants, for example, are vast in space and time.

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One theory is that the city is captured by its history, locked into multi-generational patterns of bad behaviour that get passed from parent to child.

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Shorter-term seasonal patterns include that September tends to be the worst month of the year, and has a history of being more negative in years when August was already down, and when the market was down for the year-to-date as of the end of August, which were the conditions at the end of August this year.

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