  Active centres and hot spots of proteins have a paramount importance in
enzyme action, protein complex formation and drug design. Recently a number of
publications successfully applied the analysis of residue networks to predict
active centres in proteins. Most real-world networks show a number of
properties, such as small-worldness or scale-free degree distribution, which
are rather general features of networks, from molecules to society at large.
Using analogy I propose that existing findings and methodology already enable
us to detect active centres in cells, and can be expanded to social networks
and ecosystems. Members of these active centres are termed here as creative
elements of their respective networks, which may help them to survive
unprecedented, novel challenges, and play a key role in the development,
survival and evolvability of complex systems.
