An important characteristic of a small-world network is that a little perturbation, e.g. the introduction of a virus or a joke, can lead to anything from an insignificant event to a bandwagon effect of unpredictable size. This unpredictability applies to the dimension of epidemics, revolutions or even the success of a gene within the scientific community.

The scientific community is known to share important characteristics of a small-world network, where all members are permanently interacting and influencing each other. Given a certain complexity, the flow of information within the scientific community can no longer be understood in terms of the behaviour of individuals; small events can have effects out of proportion to their cause, leading, for instance, to the outstanding success of CD4 or p53. In other words, trends also exist in the scientific community.