In a new book, The (Mis)Behavior of Markets, Benoit Mandelbrot, father of the fractal, says the world’s central banks need a risk model that “takes into account long-term dependency, or the tendency of bad news to come in waves” to avoid further global financial system crises.

He recommends that they fund “an international commission for systematic, rigorous, and replicable research into market dynamics.

“If we can map the human genome, why can’t we map how a man loses his livelihood? If millions can contribute a few cycles of their PCs to the search for a signal from outer space, why can’t they join a coordinated search for patterns in financial markets?”