Complexity Digest 2003.22

02-Jun-2003

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Content

  1. Global Collaboration on SARS Bears Fruit, NYTimes
  2. The Cost Of Complexity And The Use Of Grids, Grid Today
    1. Untraceable Email Cluster Bombs: On Agent-Based Distributed Denial of Service, arXiv
  3. Working Remotely, Robots in Place, Wired
    1. Video-Game Killing Builds Visual Skills, Researchers Report, NYTimes
  4. Pentagon Explores a New Frontier in the World of Virtual Intelligence, NYTimes
    1. This Palm Reads Your Mind, Wired
  5. Software Systems as Complex Networks: Structure, Function, and Evolvability of Software Collaboration Graphs, arXiv
  6. Copied Citations Give Impact Factors A Boost, Nature
    1. Scientific Literacy: Clear As Mud, Nature
  7. Speculative Behavior And Asset Price Dynamics, Nonlin. Dyn., Psycho. & Life Sc.
  8. A Complexity Theory Model In Science Education Problem Solving, Nonlin. Dyn., Psycho. & Life Sc.
    1. Community Dynamics In A University Environment, Nonlin. Dyn., Psycho. & Life Sc.
  9. Scientists Use DNA Fragments To Trace The Migration Of Modern Humans, ScienceDaily
  10. Spontaneous Emergence Of Leaders And Followers In Foraging Pairs, Nature
    1. Competitive Fates Of Bacterial Social Parasites: Extinction Of Cheaters, Alphagalileo & Proc. B.
  11. A Mathematical Model Of Cell-To-Cell Spread Of HIV-1 That Includes A Time Delay, J. Math. Biol.
  12. Born Under The Sun: UV Light And The Origin Of Life, Alphagalileo
  13. Save Those Molecules! Molecular Biodiversity And Life, J. of Appl. Ecol.
    1. Genomics: Not Junk After All, Science
  14. Dynamic Nature Of African Great Ape Social Communication, Anthropological Theory
  15. Bad Dancers: Childhood Chills Give Bees Six Left Feet, Science News
  16. Three-Gorges Dam--Experiment in Habitat Fragmentation?, Science
  17. Nonlinear Dynamical Model Of Human Gait, Phys. Rev. E
  18. Doppler Effect In Larval Biology: Theory And Applications, Ecol. Modelling
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. The Looting of Iraq's Nuclear Facilities: What Do We Do Now?, The Globe and Mail
    2. Are We Winning the War on Terrorism?, Brookings Middle East Memo
    3. "Terrorism After the War in Iraq," U.S.-France Analysis, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere
    4. Waggy Dog Stories, NYTimes
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts
    3. Conference Announcements & Call for Papers
      1. Public Conference Calls
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

  1. Global Collaboration on SARS Bears Fruit, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The potential of SARS to seed itself rapidly around the world and touch off a chain reaction of deadly epidemics galvanized the World Health Organization to start an international collaboration to identify the cause of the disease and to try to develop ways to diagnose, contain, treat and prevent it. The effort got results, and with extraordinary speed. The investigation has ranged from universities and besieged hospitals to live-animal markets in southern China to high-tech genetics laboratories and the sprawling C.D.C. complex.

  2. The Cost Of Complexity And The Use Of Grids, Grid Today Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: For more than 40 years, the industry has created tools for dealing with increasingly complex tasks. We're doing the same thing today. Take computing "grids," for example. Like the Internet, grids were once the realm of universities and laboratories, but now they're showing up in commercial settings -- Sun alone powers more than 7,000 of them. Linking departmental and even enterprise-wide resources, then allocating them based on business goals and priorities, grids put computing power where it's needed most. (...) not only in increased utilization but, more importantly, simplified management.

    1. Untraceable Email Cluster Bombs: On Agent-Based Distributed Denial of Service, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We uncover a vulnerability that allows for an attacker to perform an email-based attack on selected victims, using only standard scripts and agents. What differentiates the attack we describe from other, already known forms of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is that an attacker does not need to infiltrate the network in any manner -- as is normally required to launch a DDoS attack. Thus, we see this type of attack as a poor man's DDoS. Not only is the attack easy to mount, but it is also almost impossible to trace back to the perpetrator. Along with descriptions of our attack, we demonstrate its destructive potential with (limited and contained) experimental results. We illustrate the potential impact of our attack by describing how an attacker can disable an email account by flooding its inbox; block competition during on-line auctions; harm competitors with an on-line presence; disrupt phone service to a given victim; cheat in SMS-based games; disconnect mobile corporate leaders from their networks; and disrupt electronic elections. Finally, we propose a set of countermeasures that are light-weight, do not require modifications to the infrastructure, and can be deployed in a gradual manner.

  3. Working Remotely, Robots in Place, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Fears of severe acute respiratory syndrome and terrorism, combined with drastically reduced travel budgets, mean more companies are considering video conferencing as an alternative to face-to-face meetings. (...) Hewlett-Packard doesn't consider it a robot, but a "surrogate," since it would have the face and the voice of the person who remotely controls it. (...) The robot's "head" is a four-way computer monitor that displays images of the head of the person remotely controlling the surrogate. That person must sit in a small room with screens and projectors all around, (...).

    1. Video-Game Killing Builds Visual Skills, Researchers Report, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Experienced players of these games are 30 percent to 50 percent better than nonplayers at taking in everything that happens around them, according to the research, which appears today in the journal Nature. They identify objects in their peripheral vision, perceiving numerous objects without having to count them, switch attention rapidly and track many items at once. Nor are players simply faster at these tasks, (...). First-person action games increase the brain's capacity to spread attention over a wide range of events.

  4. Pentagon Explores a New Frontier in the World of Virtual Intelligence, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The Pentagon is shopping for ways to capture everything a person sees, says and hears, as part of a project it says is meant to help create smarter robots. The projected system, called LifeLog, would take in all of a subject's experience, from phone numbers dialed and e-mail messages viewed to every breath taken, step made and place gone. The idea is to index the material and make patterns easily retrievable, in an effort to make machines think more like people, learning from experience.

    1. This Palm Reads Your Mind, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Call it a two-minute drill for the mind. A Palm OS application will tell users whether or not they're sober enough to drive, attentive enough to impress a cynical corporate recruiter or responsive enough to prevail in a bloody bout of WWF Smackdown. In fact, researchers at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute http://www.nsbri.org/ claim their new MiniCog PDA application will help people determine if they "need to eat, sleep, exercise or better focus (their) thoughts." (...) MiniCog consists of nine simple tests (...).

  5. Software Systems as Complex Networks: Structure, Function, and Evolvability of Software Collaboration Graphs, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Software systems emerge from mere keystrokes to form intricate functional networks connecting many collaborating modules, objects, classes, methods, and subroutines. Building on recent advances in the study of complex networks, I have examined software collaboration graphs contained within several open-source software systems, and have found them to reveal scale-free, small-world networks similar to those identified in other technological, sociological, and biological systems. I present several measures of these network topologies, and discuss their relationship to software engineering practices. I also present a simple model of software system evolution based on refactoring processes which captures some of the salient features of the observed systems. Some implications of object-oriented design for questions about network robustness, evolvability, degeneracy, and organization are discussed in the wake of these findings.

  6. Copied Citations Give Impact Factors A Boost, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientific papers that are not widely read and that lack any great influence can end up being classed as high-impact, (...). The mistake occurs because citations are often just copied (...). A largely unremarkable or unread paper can therefore end up becoming highly cited, (...). In results posted on the arXiv preprint server, they predicted that 40 papers would be cited 500 times or more. In reality, 44 articles in Physical Review D are renowned. "If people cite randomly, the citation distribution would be the same as in reality," (...).

    1. Scientific Literacy: Clear As Mud, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Language experts generally agree that a better measure of accessibility is whether a piece of writing contains words in common usage (...). As a general principle, the greater the percentage of common words an article contains, the easier it is to comprehend. (...) He calls it lexical difficulty, and has developed a numerical scale, known as LEX, to quantify it. (...) fiction for nine-year-olds scored about -32, and a transcript of farm workers talking to dairy cows (...) had a value of -59. Scientific papers in Nature and Science scored about 30.

  7. Speculative Behavior And Asset Price Dynamics, Nonlin. Dyn., Psycho. & Life Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: This paper deals with speculative trading. Guided by empirical observations, a nonlinear deterministic asset pricing model is developed in which traders repeatedly choose between technical and fundamental analysis to determine their orders. The interaction between the trading rules produces complex dynamics. The model endogenously replicates the stylized facts of excess volatility, high trading volumes, shifts in the level of asset prices, and volatility clustering.

  8. A Complexity Theory Model In Science Education Problem Solving, Nonlin. Dyn., Psycho. & Life Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The present study examines the role of limited human channel capacity from a science education perspective. A model of science problem solving has been previously validated by applying concepts and tools of complexity theory (the working memory, random walk method). In this work, we apply the same nonlinear approach to a different data set, taken from chemical-equilibrium problem solving. In contrast to the organic-synthesis problems, these problems are algorithmic, require numerical calculations, and have a complex logical structure.. As the complexity of the problem increases, the fractal dimension of the working memory random walk demonstrates a sudden drop (...).

    1. Community Dynamics In A University Environment, Nonlin. Dyn., Psycho. & Life Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Scholars have characterized academic communities of faculty, administration, and students in U.S. universities as "organized anarchies." In contrast, we offer evidence that the community structures of two representative public university systems are notably systematic by applying empirical phase-diagram techniques from the nonlinear dynamics literature to reconstruct low-dimensional deterministic behavior from historic data on the coevolution of faculty, administration, and student populations in each system. This work offers empirical evidence that ecological principles, typically reserved for characterizing nonhuman interactions in biological systems, can shed light on human interactions in social systems.

  9. Scientists Use DNA Fragments To Trace The Migration Of Modern Humans, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Human beings may have made their first journey out of Africa as recently as 70,000 years ago, (...) researchers estimate that the entire population of ancestral humans at the time of the African expansion consisted of only about 2,000 individuals. "This estimate does not preclude the presence of other populations of Homo sapiens sapiens [modern humans] in Africa (...) that contemporary worldwide populations descend from one or very few of those populations," The small size of our ancestral population may explain why there is so little genetic variability in human DNA compared with that of chimpanzees and other closely related species (...).

  10. Spontaneous Emergence Of Leaders And Followers In Foraging Pairs, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Competitive Fates Of Bacterial Social Parasites: Extinction Of Cheaters, Alphagalileo & Proc. B. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The bacterium (...) cooperates to build fruiting bodies that help it survive environmental stresses as spores. Some strains of this species 'cheat' during fruiting-body development (...). In this study, several cheaters mixed with a cooperative strain were observed over several sequential cycles of starvation-induced development. The cheaters rose to high frequencies because of their cheating ability. Upon reaching high frequencies, some cheaters greatly disrupted the total spore output of mixed populations (...) even drove themselves or the entire population to extinction. These results empirically show how 'selfish' behaviour can disrupt cooperative productivity- even in microorganisms.

  11. A Mathematical Model Of Cell-To-Cell Spread Of HIV-1 That Includes A Time Delay, J. Math. Biol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We consider a two-dimensional model of cell-to-cell spread of HIV-1 in tissue cultures, assuming that infection is spread directly from infected cells to healthy cells and neglecting the effects of free virus. (...) the model is a system of two differential equations with distributed delay, which includes the differential equations model with a discrete delay and the ordinary differential equations model as special cases. The results indicate that, differing from the cell-to-free virus spread models, the cell-to-cell spread models can produce infective oscillations in typical tissue culture parameter regimes and the latently infected cells are instrumental in sustaining the infection.

  12. Born Under The Sun: UV Light And The Origin Of Life, Alphagalileo Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Early evolution of life as we know it may have depended on DNA's ability to absorb UV light. The research fills in one of the major gaps in our understanding about the origins of life: how single molecules were able to join together to create the self-replicating long chain molecules of RNA, the precursors of DNA. With no ozone layer the primordial Earth was a hostile place. This was especially true for long-chain molecules that would be broken up by UV radiation (...). Most existing theories about how life evolved involve hiding the first life forms away from the light.

  13. Save Those Molecules! Molecular Biodiversity And Life, J. of Appl. Ecol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Biodiversity involves diversity of species, genetics and habitats. But there is a fourth source of biodiversity - molecular biodiversity - without which evolution cannot occur (...) is distinct from genetic diversity, though both ultimately depend on inheritable DNA. It occurs within one individual, between individuals of the same species, between related species (...). These highlight what Darwin and Wallace missed, the origin of a biological process, or a species. But, although molecules are at the centre of modern biology and medicine, science begins and ends with a curiosity about the whole - the cell, the organ or the individual organism, within a particular ecosystem.

    1. Genomics: Not Junk After All, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: From bacteria to mammals, the DNA content of genomes has increased by about three orders of magnitude in just 3 billion years of evolution. Early DNA association studies showed that the human genome is full of repeated segments, such as Alu elements, that are repeated hundreds of thousands of times. The vast majority of a mammalian genome does not code for proteins. (...) "Why do we need so much DNA?" (...) Alu elements in the introns of human genes end up in the coding exons, and in so doing influence evolution.

  14. Dynamic Nature Of African Great Ape Social Communication, Anthropological Theory Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We argue that dynamic-systems theory (DST) offers researchers a promising alternative to the information-processing framework that has dominated the study of primate social communication. DST rejects a linear view of communication in which a sender transmits a signal to a receiver, who then decodes that signal for its information content. Instead, dynamic-systems theory envisions communication as an intrinsically creative process that unfolds as communicating partners continuously adjust their behaviors to one another. This process of continual adjustment, termed co-regulation, can be identified in the social communication of the African great apes. When researchers study communication in terms of co-regulated social interaction, new insights and research questions emerge that may help anthropologists better understand the nature of the vocal and gestural behaviors of our closest living relatives.

  15. Bad Dancers: Childhood Chills Give Bees Six Left Feet, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) tested learning in the bees by giving them whiffs of a citronella smell along with a treat of sugar water. A minute later, the bees from the warmest pupahood were most likely to associate the scent cue with the treat and stick out their tonguelike proboscises in response to a puff of citronella odor. The difference between the two colder-and the warmest-pupahood bees became even more pronounced when researchers waited 10 minutes to administer the test. Such a difference in cognitive powers might affect bees' performance (...).

  16. Three-Gorges Dam--Experiment in Habitat Fragmentation?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Habitat fragmentation is the primary cause of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, but its underlying processes and mechanisms remain poorly understood. Studies of islands and insular terrestrial habitats are essential for improving our understanding of habitat fragmentation. We argue that the Three-Gorges Dam, the largest that humans have ever created, presents a unique grand-scale natural experiment that allows ecologists to address a range of critical questions concerning the theory and practice of biodiversity conservation.

  17. Nonlinear Dynamical Model Of Human Gait, Phys. Rev. E Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We present a nonlinear dynamical model of the human gait control system in a variety of gait regimes. The stride-interval time series in normal human gait is characterized by slightly multifractal fluctuations (...) becomes more pronounced under both an increase and decrease in the average gait. Moreover, the long-range memory in these fluctuations is lost when the gait is keyed on a metronome. The central nervous system is coupled to the motocontrol system, and together they control the locomotion of the gait cycle itself. The metronomic gait is simulated by a forced nonlinear oscillator with a periodic external force (...).

  18. Doppler Effect In Larval Biology: Theory And Applications, Ecol. Modelling Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Temperature is an important biological factor, affecting numerous biological processes and phenomena. In this paper, I model several aspects of the larval biology of the dungeness crab Cancer magister Dana. (...) to analyse published laboratory data, under three regimes of water temperature. I then interpret changes in larval abundance and the instantaneous rate of natural mortality in terms of survival analysis, estimating their parameters as a function of water temperature. I also derive and calculate the values of simple indices of the changing effects of water temperature in the dynamics of larval abundance and in larval development.

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. The Looting of Iraq's Nuclear Facilities: What Do We Do Now?, The Globe and Mail Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The primary problem is not that the weapons we were so certain existed have not yet been found, however unsettling or embarrassing that may be. The most pressing problem is that Iraqi nuclear facilities containing valuable documents, partially enriched uranium and other radiological materials ideal for "dirty bombs" have been looted and ransacked under the noses of U.S. forces. As a consequence, the U.S. government has no idea how much radioactive material may have been stolen and could now be available to the highest bidder.

    2. Are We Winning the War on Terrorism?, Brookings Middle East Memo Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Ironically, U.S. efforts to fight terrorism have resulted in the fostering (...) of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world. Washington's embrace of sordid governments such as the Karimov regime in Uzbekistan, its silence regarding Russian brutality in Chechnya, and other distasteful, albeit perhaps necessary, concessions needed to ensure vital cooperation against al Qaeda are paradoxically bolstering al Qaeda's claims that the United States supports the oppression of Muslims and props up brutal governments.(...) If the United States mishandles the reconstruction of Iraq, it too might become a new training ground (...).

    3. "Terrorism After the War in Iraq," U.S.-France Analysis, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Unfortunately, while much progress has been made, the terrorist threat from Al-Qa'eda (...) remains grave. Claiming otherwise may itself create a security risk. The war in Iraq did not reduce the terrorist threat, and in fact, has increased the risk of attacks in the United States and Europe by increasing the level of Islamist and anti-American rhetoric, by diverting the attention of political leaders from the central issue of the war on terrorism, and by encouraging the view among the public that the war on terrorism is nearly won.

    4. Waggy Dog Stories, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: An administration hypes the threat posed by a foreign power. It talks of links to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism; it warns about a nuclear weapons program. The news media play along, and the country is swept up in war fever. (...) The 1997 movie "Wag the Dog" had quite a plot. (...) Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, recently told Vanity Fair that the decision to emphasize W.M.D.'s had been taken for "bureaucratic reasons . . . because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. SFI Working Papers
        1. External and Internal Control in Plant Development, Beáta Oborny, DOI: SFI-WP 03-05-034
        2. Survival and Competition of Clonal Plant Populations in Spatially and Temporally Heterogeneous Habitats, Adám Kun, Beáta Oborny, DOI: SFI-WP 03-05-033
        3. Self-Organization from Structural Refrigeration, D. Eric Smith, DOI: SFI-WP 03-05-032
        4. The Evolution of Cooperation in Heterogeneous Populations, Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, DOI: SFI-WP 03-05-031
        5. Cooperation in Balinese Rice Farming, J. Stephen Lansing, John H. Miller, DOI: SFI-WP 03-05-030
      2. Estimation Of Entropy And Mutual Information, L. Paninski, Neural Computation, Vol.15, Number: 6, pp:1191-1253, Jun. 2003, DOI: 10.1162/089976603321780272
      3. Integrated Fuzzy Modeling And Adaptive Control For Nonlinear Systems, Y. C. Hsu, G. Chen, S. Tong & H. X. Li,  Info. Sciences, Vol.153, pp:217-236, Jul. 2003, doi:10.1016/S0020-0255(03)00063-X
      4. How Do Simple Energy Activities Comprise Complex Behavior Of Life Systems? A Conceptual Synthesis And Decomposition Of The Energy Structure Of Life Systems, X. Huang,  Ecol. Modelling, Vol. 165, Issue 1, pp:79-89, 2003/07/01, doi:10.1016/S0304-3800(03)00063-2
      5. Climate Change Good For The Birds?, T. Reynolds, Alphagalileo & Proc. B, 2003/05/26
      6. Keeping Pace Of Mobile Phone Safety, M. Cain, Alphagalileo, 2003/05/28
      7. Trophic Interactions Under Climate Fluctuations: The Atlantic Puffin As An Example, J. M. Durant, T. A. Nilssen & N. C. Stenseth, Alphagalileo & Proc. B, 2003/05/28
      8. Gene Mapping Key To Unlocking Human Secrets, Says Geneticist, ScienceDaily & Texas A&M Univ., 2003/05/26
      9. Just How Many Species Are There, Anyway?, ScienceDaily, 2003/05/26
      10. Monogamous Animals May Be More Likely To Die Out, ScienceDaily, 2003/05/27
      11. Sleep Disorder Linked To Common, Serious Heart Rhythm Problem, ScienceDaily & Mayo Clinic, 2003/05/27
      12. Fish Oils In Heart Cells Can Block Dangerous Heart Rhythms, ScienceDaily, 2003/05/29
      13. A Dam Shame? Project May Slam China's Biodiversity, When the Three Gorges Dam begins to impound the waters of the Yangtze River in China later this year, dozens of mountains and other elevated areas upstream will become islands-an outcome that will probably devastate the rich diversity of species now living along the river. 2003/05/24
      14. Repeat After Me, New research suggests that the ability to infer the thoughts and feelings of others grows out of a capacity for imitation exhibited by human infants and perhaps by other animals, as well. 2003/05/24
      15. Scripted Brains: Learning To Read Evokes Hemispheric Trade-Off, From childhood through adolesence, the process of learning to read involves an amplification of specific types of left-brain activity and a dampening of right-brain responses, a new brain-imaging study finds. 2003/05/24
      16. ARKive Launched, New Online Archive For Endangered Species Begins Loading, Fred Pearce, The Scientist, 2003/05/23
      17. Repeat After Me, Atoms with long memories could enhance supersecure quantum communications, 2003/05/22
      18. From PlayStation to Supercomputer for $50,000, John Markoff, NYTimes, 2003/05/26
      19. Geiger Counter In Every Human Revealed, Philip Cohen, New Scientist, 2003/05/03 19:00
      20. Mimicry Makes Computers The User's Friend, Anil Ananthaswamy, New Scientist, 2003/05/28
      21. Making Your Mind Up, Kevan Martin, Nature 423, 383 - 384 (2003); doi:10.1038/423383a, reviews Cortex and Mind: Unifying Cognition, by Joaquin M. Fuster, Oxford University Press: 2002. 314 pp, Neurons with sustained activity could help us to understand cognition
      22. Vision: The Retina's Fancy Tricks, Richard H. Masland, Nature 423, 387 - 388 (2003); doi:10.1038/423387a
      23. Home Schooling in Cyberspace, Bonnie Rothman Morris, NYTimes, 2003/05/29
      24. Where Parents Can Do Their Homework, Bonnie Rothman Morris, NYTimes, 2003/05/29
      25. Worriers More Prone To Cancer, New Scientist, It is not going to help those people prone to anxiety, but a study suggests they are 25% more likely to have premalignancies, 2003/05/28
      26. Europe's Satellite Navigation System Gets Final Approval, New Scientist, The Galileo satellite network will provide a more accurate commercial service than the US Global Positioning System, 2003/05/27
      27. Alchemy With Light Shocks Physicists, New Scientist, An unexpected and stunning new phenomenon could allow light to be turned into heat, or X-rays into radio waves, 2003/05/21
      28. Stem Cell 'Immortality' Gene Found, New Scientist, A master gene that directs embryonic stem cells to remain in a state of perpetual youth is reveale, 2003/05/30
      29. Quantum Dots Boost Tissue Imaging, New Scientist, An ultra-high resolution technique for imaging living tissue just got better, thanks to the addition of tiny nanocrystals, 2003/05/30
      30. Code Diagrams Enable 'Point-And-Click' Programming, Will Knight, New Scientist, Non-programmers using a new computer language can design and modify Java software with a few clicks of a mouse, 2003/05/19

       


    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. U.S. Militarism Threatens the Destiny of Humanity, Ramsey Clark, c-span, 03/05/12
      2. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      3. Robert Baer, Fmr. CIA Field Officer Baer discusses his article in the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly on Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism efforts, c-span, 4/30/2003, 1 hr., (Video clip13399)
      4. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and Unknowable, The University of Texas Austin, Texas USA, 2003/04/10-12
      5. Autonomous Agents, Stuart Kauffman, FRIAM Group sponsored Applied Complexity Lecture Series at the Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/03/13
      6. New Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management At European Research Laboratories, CERN, Geneva, 2003/03/19 (with webcast)
        1. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      7. "New Frontiers of Neuroscience" Symposium, Taipei, Taiwan, 2003/03/07
      8. INSC 2003, International Nonlinear Sciences Conference, Vienna, Austria, 2003/02/07-09
      9. World Economic Forum Meeting "Building Trust", Davos, Switzerland, 2003/01/23-28
      10. Artificial Life Conference (A-Life 8), Sydney, Australia, 2002/12/09-13
      11. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

       


    3. Conference Announcements & Call for Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      2. The First International Workshop on "Socio-Cognitive Grids: The Net as a Universal Human Resource", Santorini, Greece, 2003/06/01-04
      3. 21st ICDE World Conf on Open Learning and Distance Education, Hong Kong, 2003/06/01-05
      4. The Co-Revolutionary Competition An Alternative War Game Inspired By The New Sciences, Newport, RI, 2003/06/03-05
      5. Summer School on Nonlinear Phenomena In Computational Chemical Physics, Barcelona, Spain, 2003/06/09-14
      6. 17th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS 2003), San Diego, California, 2003/06/10-13
      7. One-Week Intensive Course: Complex Physical, Biological and Social Systems, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 2003/06/16-20
      8. 2003 Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC '03), Montreal, Canada, 2003/06/20-24
      9. 5th Intl Conf "Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics", Kiev, Ukraine, 2003/06/23-29, Mirror
      10. Workshops of Dynamical Systems with Applications to Biology, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 2003/06/24-28 (Postponed!)
      11. NKS 2003 Conference & Minicourse, Boston, MA, 03/06/27-29
      12. The 2003 World Technology Summit & World Technology Awards, San Francisco, CA
      13. UQÀM Summer Institute in Cognitive Sciences 2003: Categorization In Cognitive Sciences, Montreal, 2003/06/30-07/11
      14. 9th International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, 2003/07/07-09, Wkshp on Assistive Technologies for the Blind, 2003/07/07-09
      15. 47th Meeting of the Intl Soc for the System Sciences: Conscious Evolution Of Humanity: Using Systems Thinking To Construct Agoras Of The Global Village, Iraklion, Crete, Greec, 2003/07/07-11
      16. 2nd International School Topics In Nonlinear Dynamics, Siena (Italy), 2003/07/09-11
      17. 2003 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, IL,2003/07/12-16
      18. 2nd Intl Joint Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-2003), Melbourne, Australia, 2003/07/14-18
      19. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Orlando, Florida, 2003/07/27-30
      20. BIFURCATIONS 2003, Southampton, UK, 03/07/28-30
      21. Intl Conf on Socio Political Informatics and Cybernetics: SPIC '03, Orlando, Fl, USA, 2003/07/31-08/02
      22. 13th Annual International Conference, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences,Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      23. Call for Papers on Dynamical Hierarchies, Special Issue of Artificial Life, Deadline: 2003/09/05
      24. A Dual International Conference on Ethics, Complexity & Organisations & Creativity, London WC2, UK, 2003/09/16-18
      25. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 2003/09/22-25
      26. Dynamics Days 2003, XXIII Annual Conference, 4 Decades of Chaos 1963-2003, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 03/09/24-27
      27. Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2003/09/24-25
      28. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 2003/09/14-17
      29. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Beijing, China, 2003/10/13-17
      30. American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2003 Conference (H.v.Foerster), Vienna, Austria , 2003/11/10-15
      31. Trends And Perspectives In Extensive And Non-Extensive Statistical Mechanics, In Honour Of The 60th Birthday Of Constantino Tsallis, Angra Dos Reis, Brazil, 2003/11/19-21
      32. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 2003/11/19-22
      33. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 2003/11/29-30
      34. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2003/12/15-17
      35. 4th Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS 2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02
      36. Fractal 2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf , Vancouver, Canada, 2004/04/04-07
      37. Fifth International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004), Boston, MA, USA, 2004/05/16-21

       


      1. Public Conference Calls Next Article Bookmark and Share

        1. PlexusCalls: "Surprise! Surprise!", McDaniel, Reuben, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        2. Complexity And Medical Practice, Pat Rush & Bob Lindberg, PlexusCalls, 2003/01/10, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        3. John Holland in Conversation, PlexusCalls, - Audio File Available Now, mp3
        4. Are Disease and Aging Information/Complexity Loss Syndromes?, PlexusCalls, 2002/11/08, 1 - 2 pm EST (To learn more about Ary Goldberger’s work and HeartSongs, Music of the Heart.) Audio File Available Now, mp3
        5. Brenda Zimmerman in Conversation, PlexusCalls, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        6. The Complexity of Entrepreneurship: A Launchcyte Story, Tom Petzinger, PlexusCalls, 2002/11/22, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        7. A Practical and Appreciative Approach to Complex and Chronic Challenges, Keith McCandless, PlexusCalls, Jan 2003, Audio File Available Now, mp3

         


    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test Bookmark and Share

      We are in the process of upgrading the Complexity Digest archives to a format with improved search capabilities. Also, we will finally be able to adequately publish the valuable feedback and comments from our knowledgable readers. You are cordially invited to become a beta tester of our new ComDig2 archive.


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