PHYSICAL CONNECTEDNESS AND BODY HEIGHT M. Hermanussen1 , K. Staub2 1 Aschauhof, Germany 2 Centre for Evolutionary Medicine, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Switzerland 3 OttoFriedrichUniversit t Bamberg, Germany 4 University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Germany Recent evidence suggests that social networks play an important role in the regulation of adolescent growth and adult height. <...> We further investigated the effect of physical connectedness on height. <...> We considered Switzerland as a geographic network with 169 nodes (district capitals) and 335 edges (connecting roads) and studied effects of connectedness on height in Swiss conscript from 1884-1891, 1908-1910, and 20042009. <...> In 1884-1891, in 1908-1910, and in 2004-2009, 1st , 2nd and 3rd order neighbouring districts significantly correlate in height (p<0.01) indicating that height in a district depends on height of physically connected neighbouring districts. <...> The present data suggest that people can be short because their neighbours are short; or tall because their neighbours are tall (community effect on growth). <...> The vision adds a new dimension to the current concept of growth as a mirror of health and economic prosperity. <...> Keywords: body height, connectedness, community effect, conscripts, Switzerland , C. A mann3 , D. Groth4 There are two contrasting aspects of human growth and final height in modern auxology: there is the idea of growth as a target-seeking process regulated by genes, nutrition, health, and the state of an individual’s social and economic environment – optimal conditions are expected to result in the achievement of a person’s maximum height reflecting full genetic potential [Tanner, 1986] – and on the other hand, there is the observation that historic populations even under apparently prosperous socio-economic circumstances, were significantly shorter than today. <...> European populations of all social strata have increased in height by some 1519 cm since the mid-19th Sch nbeck et al., 2013]. century [Komlos, 2009; There are good arguments for the assumption that some steady improvements of living conditions, food, health, and modern environment, must have led to the observed rise in recent European adult height [Hermanussen, 2013]: the implementation of modern health surveillance systems, the successful fighting against most <...>