he closing lecture of this tenth semester of the Encompass series explores how relationships are established and develop on the Internet. In his introduction, psychologist Csaba Pléh, a member of MTA, reviews the theme of relationships as viewed by a variety of disciplines. Economist and media researcher Balázs Bodó introduces the websites that facilitate relationship building and information sharing. The lecture is supported by a Hungarian study published in Nature magazine, in which Hungarian scientists Albert-László Barabási, Tamás Vicsek and Gergely Palló modelled the workings of over 30,000 relationships. The analysis of research collaboration and mobile telephone relationships came up with some truly surprising results. For example, the more constant the composition of a big group, the more likely it is to unexpectedly break up.

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