As science probes the nature of life, society, and technology ever more closely, what it finds there is complexity. The sophisticated group behavior of social insects, the unexpected intricacies of the genome, the dynamics of population growth, and the self-organized structure of the World Wide Web – these are just a few examples of complex systems that still elude scientific understanding. Comprehending such systems seems to require a wholly new approach, one that re-maps long-standing disciplinary boundaries. In this lecture, Dr. Mitchell will describe how the interdisciplinary field of complex systems science is discovering common principles underlying different natural and technological systems, and will discuss the implications of these common principles for science and society.