Social Presence And Children: Praise, Intrinsic Motivation, And Learning With Computers, J. Communication 
Abstract: The computers are social actors (CASA) paradigm asserts that human computer users interact socially with computers, and the paradigm has provided extensive evidence that this is the case for adults. This experiment examined whether or not children have similar reactions to computers by comparing children's predictable responses to praise from a teacher to their responses to praise from a computer. Results provide evidence that children do have social responses to computers and that such social responses can lead to increases in learning (recall and recognition) in young children.
Trade Flows: A Facet Of Regionalism Or Globalisation?, Cambridge J. Econ.
Abstract: This paper examines the evidence about the extent of globalisation by focusing on some aspects of international trade flows. The focus is on whether the increase in trade flows has been predominantly a global or regional phenomenon. The analysis points to the tentative conclusion that the dominant tendency is the increase in trade within regional blocs (North America, the EU and the Asia-Japan blocs) (...). Our results indicate that the degree of openness converges faster across the countries of a given region rather than at the global level (...) trade integration is more of a 'regional' phenomenon than a 'global' one.
Near Rationality and Competitive Equilibria in Networked Systems, arXiv
Abstract: A growing body of literature in networked systems research relies on game theory and mechanism design to model and address the potential lack of cooperation between self-interested users. Most game-theoretic models applied to system research only describe competitive equilibria in terms of pure Nash equilibria, that is, a situation where the strategy of each user is deterministic, and is her best response to the strategies of all the other users. However, the assumptions necessary for a pure Nash equilibrium to hold may be too stringent for practical systems. Using three case studies on computer security, TCP congestion control, and network formation, we outline the limits of game-theoretic models relying on Nash equilibria, and we argue that considering competitive equilibria of a more general form may help reconcile predictions from game-theoretic models with empirically observed behavior.
The Productivity Of Failures, Nature
Excerpt: (...) fairness concerns permeate many other aspects of economic and social life - (...), exploitation of common property resources and they are the basis of many political conflicts. In addition, fairness norms probably played a decisive role in the evolution of human sociality. What began as research on involuntary unemployment turned into basic research about the nature of human altruism (...) and led to the concept of strong reciprocity - a term invented by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis to describe the widespread human propensity to reward helpers and to punish cheaters.
Variation In Behaviour Promotes Cooperation In The Prisoner's Dilemma Game, Nature
Excerpt: Thus in a single play of the game, each player should defect. In our game, a fixed maximum number of rounds of the Prisoner's Dilemma game is played against the same opponent. A standard argument based on working backwards from the last round shows that defection on all rounds is the only stable outcome. In contrast, we show that if extrinsic factors maintain variation in behavior, high levels of co-operation are stable. Our results highlight the importance of extrinsic variability in determining the outcome of evolutionary games.
The Truth About Lying, Nature
Excerpt: The security agencies desperately need new tools to help them identify terrorists. Can brain fingerprinting help? Farwell says he has been able to tell FBI agents from civilians by checking for P300s elicited by terms learned during FBI training. So in theory, a P300 test could pick out a terrorist by finding records in the brain of something only a terrorist would know - phrases from an al-Qaeda training manual, for instance. The trick is finding information that no innocent person would know.
Get Mellow, Fellow: Male Baboons Cooperate After Cultural Prodding, Science Now
Excerpt:  Peacemakers. Female olive baboons, such as this mother, may have transmitted cooperative attitudes to males that entered an African troop.
PhotoDisk |
Adult male baboons are bad dudes. They regularly square off in bloody fights over access to food and females, whom they will also attack. In this vicious pecking order, males at the top bully bottom dwellers into a demoralized state of submission. (...)
So, it startled Stanford University biologists Robert M. Sapolsky and Lisa J. Share to find a baboon troop in which even top-rung males exhibited remarkably peaceful behaviors. The big honchos often left weak males alone and refrained from attacking females, focusing instead on fighting each other.
Come Together: The Mystery of Collective Intelligence, WIE Magazine
Excerpt: Is it possible for groups to access a level of wisdom far beyond what is available to individuals? WIE takes an in-depth look at the miraculous phenomenon of collective consciousness that many feel is the next step in human evolution. (...) introduces you to pioneers who are discovering that wholes are far more than the sum of their parts. When individuals unite in a shared intention, something mysterious comes into beingUwith capacities and intelligences that far transcend those of the individuals involved.
Empathy May Not Be Uniquely Human Quality, NewScientist
Excerpts: The ability to empathise is often considered uniquely human, the result of complex reasoning and abstract thought. But it might in fact be an incredibly simple brain process (...) no reason why monkeys and other animals cannot empathise too.
(...) The team used a functional MRI scanner to monitor volunteers while their legs were touched and while they watched videos of other people being touched and of objects colliding.
(...) secondary somatosensory cortex, thought only to respond to physical touch, was strongly activated by the sight of others being touched.
'Virgin Birth' Mammal Rewrites Rules Of Biology, NewScientist.com
Excerpt:  Virgin birth |
In parthenogenesis, the egg becomes the sole source of genetic material for the creation of an embryo. (...) In mammals parthenogenesis can begin if an egg is accidentally or experimentally activated as if it had been fertilised - but this parthenote never grows past a few days.
This is because of there a biological phenomenon known as imprinting. During sperm and egg formation in mammals, certain genes necessary for embryo development are shut down with a series of chemical marks, or imprints, some in the sperm, other in the egg.
-
Excerpt:
 The scientists combined two sets of chromosomes from different eggs |
Scientists have created two female mice without fertilising the eggs (...).
The eggs had two sets of chromosomes from two female mice, rather than one from the mother and one from the father as in a normally fertilised embryo.
(...) switched off a key gene in the donor eggs which affected imprinting - a barrier to parthenogenesis in mammals.
(...) injected the genetic material from immature mouse eggs into mature eggs with their own set of chromosomes. They then "activated" the combined eggs, prompting them to start growing as embryos.
Food Hoarding: Future Value In Optimal Foraging Decisions, Ecol. Modelling
Abstract: Food storage, which permits animals to manage the availability of food in space and time, adds a complex dimension to foraging decisions, and may influence the predictions of traditional foraging theory. One key question about the role of caching behavior in optimal foraging theory is the degree to which information about future value might influence foraging decisions. To investigate this question, we use a simple prey selection model that minimizes the time spent foraging and is modified to include food storage (...). These results provide a framework for identifying subtle differences in foraging behavior when future value is accounted for (...).
- Source: Food Hoarding: Future Value In Optimal Foraging Decisions, L. R. Gerber - leah.gerber
asu.edu, O. J. Reichman - reichmannceas.ucsb.edu, J. Roughgarden - roughpangea.stanford.edu, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2003.10.022, Ecological Modelling, online 2004/01/23 - Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
Songbirds Check Compass Against Sunset to Stay on Course, Science
Excerpt: They captured several dozen gray-cheeked thrushes and Swainson's thrushes near Champaign, Illinois, and glued small radio transmitters to them. Before releasing the birds, they exposed some to "false" magnetic fields, rotated 80º to the east, during sunset. (...)
Control birds flew northerly, but those that had been in the altered magnetic field flew westward for the entire night. The next evening, after sunset, the experimental birds corrected their course and headed north.
The birds seem to calibrate their compass at sunset, perhaps from the position of the sun (...).
Migrating Songbirds Recalibrate Their Magnetic Compass Daily from Twilight Cues, Science
Excerpt: Night migratory songbirds can use stars, sun, geomagnetic field, and polarized light for orientation when tested in captivity. We studied the interaction of magnetic, stellar, and twilight orientation cues in free-flying songbirds. We exposed Catharus thrushes to eastward-turned magnetic fields during the twilight period before takeoff and then followed them for up to 1100 kilometers. Instead of heading north, experimental birds flew westward. On subsequent nights, the same individuals migrated northward again. We suggest that birds orient with a magnetic compass calibrated daily from twilight cues. This could explain how birds cross the magnetic equator and deal with declination.
Even Redwoods Can't Grow Forever, Science Now
Excerpt: Scientists take to the treetops to see what limits the tallest trees ![](http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/content/vol2004/issue422/images/200442231.jpg") Reaching for the sky. But even redwoods can't surpass 130 meters, new research suggests.
CREDIT: R. G. STOKSTAD |
What keeps the tallest trees from growing even taller? A new study in statuesque redwoods finds that the trees stop growing when their highest leaves start dying of thirst.
Biologists have long thought that the height limit for trees comes down to a plumbing problem. Water rises through a simple process: As water evaporates from leaves, tension within the tree's pipes pulls water from the roots to replenish what's been lost. But after a certain height, the force of gravity becomes too much, and this flow peters out.
Beyond Nature and Nurture, Science
Excerpt: Behavior is orchestrated by an interplay between inherited and environmental influences acting on the same substrate, the genome (...). For behavior, gene expression in the brain is the initial readout of the interaction between hereditary and environmental information. (...) The environment ("nurture") also influences gene expression in the brain during the lifetime of an individual. Environmental effects occur over developmental and physiological time scales. Gene expression in the brain constitutes the first measurable indicator of the interaction between the genome and the environment.
RNAi Takes Evo-Devo World by Storm, Science
Excerpt: In 1998, geneticists working on the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, one of the first beasts to have its genome sequenced, struck gold. They discovered a simple way to find out the functions of many of its 20,000 sequenced genes. A stampede ensued, with researchers racing to try the procedure, called RNAi, in their favorite study organisms. (...) new results made possible through RNAi. From planaria and jellyfish to beetles and crickets, RNAi is unearthing the roles of certain genes in development and evolution--information that can also help illuminate human genes.
-
Abstract: Why do trees change their colour in autumn? This is a fascinating question for which we still do not have an evolutionary explanation. We describe here a possible answer: the coevolution theory. According to this theory, the bright colours of leaves are a warning signal to parasites that migrate to the trees in autumn. In this way bright trees reduce their parasite load and parasites (especially insects) can locate the best hosts for their eggs. We discuss current and possible future work on autumn colours.
Variable Female Preferences Drive Complex Male Displays, Nature
Excerpt: Complexity in male sexual displays is widely appreciated but diversity in female mate choice has received little attention. Males of many species have sexual displays composed of multiple display traits, and females are thought to use these different traits in mate choice. Models of multiple display trait evolution suggest that these traits provide females with different kinds of information in different stages of the mate choice process, or function as redundant signals to improve the accuracy of mate assessment.
Early Life Thrived In Lava Flows, BBC News
Excerpt:
The microbes broke down volcanic glass to extract nutrients
|
Geologists have discovered microscopic burrows where some of Earth's earliest lifeforms bored their way into volcanic glass 3.5 billion years ago.
The tubes, from rocks in South Africa's Barberton Greenstone Belt, retain traces of organic carbon left behind by the microorganisms, the authors say.
The microbes etched their way into rocks that formed as lava oozed out across a sea floor in Archaean times.(...)
In the inner walls of these microtubules, the geologists found traces of carbon, which the authors claim is organic.
Neural Basis of Solving Problems with Insight, plosbiology
Excerpt:  Eureka! Just before Archimedes had the stroke of genius that sent him streaking through the streets of Syracuse babbling about buoyancy, his right superior temporal gyrus (yellow region above) may have fired up. That region is the site of insight, according to a new study--at least in people working on tricky word problems. |
Recent findings suggest that people think about solutions, at an unconscious level, prior to solving insight problems, and that the right cerebral hemisphere (RH) appears to be preferentially involved. Jung-Beeman et al. predicted that a particular region of the RH, called the anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG), is likely involved in insight because it seems critical for tasks that require recognizing broad associative semantic relationships-exactly the type of process that could facilitate reinterpretation of problems and lead to insight.
Molecular Basis For Mozart Effect Revealed, NewScientist
Excerpt: New research has revealed a molecular basis for the "Mozart effect" - the observation that a brief stint of Mozart, but not other music, may improve learning and memory.
Rats that heard a Mozart sonata expressed higher levels of several genes involved in stimulating and changing the connections between brain cells, the study showed. The team, including the researcher who first proposed the Mozart effect, hope the results will help them design music therapy treatments for people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Unpublished Data Reverses Risk-Benefit Of Drugs, NewScientist
Excerpt: Unpublished studies on the effects of anti-depressant drugs on children suggest some are both ineffective and potentially harmful, according to a new review of research. The unpublished data contradict published results, fuelling the debate on how pharmaceutical companies reveal trial data.
The new study was conducted by Tim Kendall, deputy director of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Research Unit in London, UK, and colleagues. One of Kendall's roles is to help analyse medical research to draw up the clinical guidelines on which the UK government bases its drug regulations.
Testosterone Gets You Thinking, Alphagalileo
Excerpts: People often say that their performance on certain tasks differs throughout the day, and explanations for these fluctuations in mental abilities have focussed on factors such as changes in body temperature or diet. New research by psychologists suggests however that alterations in the hormone testosterone may be responsible for these mental changes. They asked males and females to carry out various verbal and spatial tasks between 8am and10am when testosterone levels are high; and between 3pm and 5pm when testosterone levels have declined. Saliva samples were collected before and after both sessions to measure actual levels of the hormone.
Brain Areas Identified That 'Decode' Emotions Of Others, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: Queen's psychologists have discovered that our ability to assess how other people are feeling relies on two specific areas of the brain. The study helps us understand the neural bases of everyday "theory of mind": our ability to explain behaviour in terms of mental states like intentions and desires. "What we're showing is that an important first step [in theory of mind] is being able to decode other people's mental states (...) not only will this brain activity happen when people passively react to an emotional stimulus, it also occurs when they actively search for mental state information," says Dr. Sabbagh.
Global Warming and the Next Ice Age, Science
Excerpt: A popular idea in the media, exemplified by the soon-to-be-released movie The Day After Tomorrow, is that human-induced global warming will cause another ice age. But where did this idea come from? Several recent magazine articles report that abrupt climate change was prevalent in the recent geological history of Earth and that there was some early, albeit controversial, evidence from the last interglacial--thought to be slightly warmer than preindustrial times --that abrupt climate change was the norm.
A Slowing Cog in the North Atlantic Ocean's Climate Machine, Science
Excerpt: Oceanographers, who have begun to watch the slow churnings of the ocean much the way meteorologists observe the daily weather in the atmosphere, believe they have seen a new shift in ocean "climate." The giant vortex of an ocean current, or gyre, tucked into the northwestern North Atlantic appears to have slowed.
The weakening of this subpolar gyre in the 1990s may have been just a random fluctuation in one part of the complex of ocean currents that carries warm waters into the high North Atlantic.
The Effects of Iron Fertilization on Carbon Sequestration in the Southern Ocean, Science
Excerpt: An unresolved issue in ocean and climate sciences is whether changes to the surface ocean input of the micronutrient iron can alter the flux of carbon to the deep ocean. During the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment, we measured an increase in the flux of particulate carbon from the surface mixed layer, as well as changes in particle cycling below the iron-fertilized patch. The flux of carbon was similar in magnitude to that of natural blooms in the Southern Ocean and thus small relative to global carbon budgets and proposed geoengineering plans to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide in the deep sea.
Ironing Out Algal Issues in the Southern Ocean, Science
Excerpt: In a third of oceanic waters, termed high-nitrate low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions, plant nutrients are abundant, yet puzzlingly phytoplankton stocks remain constantly low. It was hypothesized that this HNLC condition resulted from iron limitation of phytoplankton growth, and thus that observed reductions in atmospheric CO2 concentrations over geological time scales were mediated by periods of elevated iron supply to the ocean. In the last decade, purposeful iron enrichment of >100-km2 patches of HNLC waters have resulted in massive phytoplankton blooms with concurrent uptake of nutrients and CO2 drawdown .
Devilish Dust Packs a Charge, Science Now
Excerpt:  Thar she blows. Dust devils generate serious voltage, a new study finds.
Credit: University Of Michigan |
Dust devils have an electric secret. These funnels of whirling dust that haunt dry parking lots, fields, and deserts can pack an electrical punch of several thousand volts. And although terrestrial dust devils are just a curiosity, their martian cousins may drive the lightning and dust storms of our neighbor planet.
Dust devils spin into life when a difference in temperature, like that created by the edge of a hot asphalt road meeting a cooler patch of sand, sets the air rising and whirling into a funnel.
A Simple Model Of Propulsive Oscillating Foils, Ocean Engineering
Abstract: The design of thrusters inspired by the locomotion of fishes is currently investigated in many research centres for unmanned underwater vehicles. Fast fishes propel themselves in water through the rhythmic motion of their tail. Propulsion is achieved by means of the periodic shedding of vortex structures by the edges of the tail. Assuming that the fish tail can be modelled by a two-dimensional plate in steady forward motion and oscillating with a combination of harmonic heaving and pitching movements (...) is presently used to determine the dynamics of the vortex structures shed by plate edges.
- Source: A Simple Model Of Propulsive Oscillating Foils, L. Guglielmini - blxdiam.unige.it, P. Blondeaux, G. Vittori, DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2003.08.007, Ocean Engineering, 2004/01/28
- Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com
Wrappers Smarten Up To Protect Food, NewScientist
Excerpt: (...) label that tracks the temperature a package has been kept at and for how long. (...) dark ring around a lighter circle. The central ring contains a chemical which polymerises, changing colour as it does so from clear to dark.
If the package is kept cool, the reaction is slow, but increasing the temperature speeds up the polymerisation. Since bacteria on food respond to temperature in the same way, consumers can see from the colour of the TTI if the food has been kept too warm for too long.
Enzyme "Ink" Shows Potential for Nanomanufacturing, NSF
Excerpt:  Duke University's Ashutosh Chilkoti explains how a nanoscale "pen" laid down thin trails of enzyme "ink," which then carved out the 400-nanometer-wide channels shown in the background.
Credit: Duke University photo by Jim Wallace |
In their experiments, the engineers used an enzyme called DNase I as an "ink" in a process called dip-pen nanolithography -- a technique for etching or writing at the nanoscale level. The dip-pen allowed them to inscribe precise stripes of DNase I ink on a gold plate, which they had previously coated with a thick forest of short DNA strands. The stripes of the enzyme were 100 nanometers wide - (...).
Once the researchers had created the stripes, they then activated the enzyme with a magnesium-containing solution.
Getting Molecules To Do The Work, Business Week
Excerpt: The era of nano-manufacturing is being born in hundreds of labs that are racing to perfect a technique called self-assembly.
If you just listen casually to a description of what Sandia National Laboratories has been working on, you would think it had wasted its time reinventing the wheel: It has developed a robot that can walk and pick up and deliver loads of cargo. In an age of advanced assembly and landings on Mars, that hardly sounds impressive -- except that Sandia's robot is a molecule.
Coupling Qubits by Waves on the Electron Sea, Science
Excerpt: If the spin of the measured dot is locked to the spin of another dot, rather than being fully screened by the itinerant spins of the two-dimensional electron gas, then the Kondo effect is destroyed or strongly suppressed, and the corresponding enhancement of the conductance goes away. (...)
The experiment (...) has launched an interesting line of research. On its applied side, the extended nature of the RKKY [Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida, Ed.] interaction may allow creation of a "spin bus"--a controllable coupler of many qubits.
A Compromised Voting System, NYTimes
Excerpt: Electronic voting is no doubt the wave of the future, but it is being rolled out with too little thought, and without the necessary safeguards. The two new California reports, which are online at www.ss.ca.gov, provide strong evidence that this is the case. The study of electronic voting in the March 2 primary describes a slapdash system that falls far short of the minimum standards for running an election. (...) reports of teenagers' "rebooting" machines for poll workers who could not operate them, a clear security breach.
Security Companies: Shadow Soldiers in Iraq, NYTimes
Excerpt: Private security companies are performing crucial jobs once entrusted to military far more in Iraq than in any other conflict in American history; (...); company executives see clear boundary between their defensive roles as protectors and offensive operations of military, but as insurgency increases, companies are becoming more deeply enmeshed in combat, in some cases all but obliterating distinctions between professional troops and private commandos; security firms have sent force of roughly 20,000 to Iraq on top of American military presence of 130,000;
Privatizing Warfare, NYTimes
Excerpt: It's one thing for the military to outsource food and laundry services to private firms, (...), but it's quite another to outsource the actual fighting. That is what the Pentagon is perilously close to doing in Iraq.
The grisly deaths of four American security contractors in Falluja last month underscored America's troubling reliance on hired guns. (...) private security firms now form the second-largest contingent - surpassing the British - in the coalition of the willing, although a private guard's services cost as much as $1,500 a day.
Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
The Real Nuclear Danger, NYTimes
Excerpt: North Korea is potentially more dangerous than the mess in Iraq. It probably has at least 1 to 3 nuclear weapons (...).
Yet because President Bush's policy has failed in North Korea, Washington is determinedly looking the other way. When we next focus on North Korea, after the election, it could be a nuclear Wal-Mart.
North Korea not only has genuine nuclear weapons programs, but it is also the model of a rogue state: it gets its U.S. currency by printing it. That's right; it counterfeits excellent American $100 bills.
-
Excerpt: Earlier this month an unlucky bird landed on a power line and sent Los Angeles International Airport into a tailspin.
With power out in the air traffic control towers on one of the busiest travel days of the year, about 100 L.A.-bound airliners were forced to circle or stay on the ground elsewhere for up to 90 minutes.
That incident illustrates a troubling vulnerability that could affect security nationwide, according to security expert David Holtzman. (...)
"Imagine what might happen if somebody had malignant intent," (...).
World Powers Try To Squeeze Terrorist Financing, AFP/channelnewsasia.com
Excerpt: "We urge more capacity building through technical assistance to shore up identified gaps in the regimes to fight terrorism finance and money laundering," it said.
Cash represented one of the widest gaps.
"We recognize the danger posed by terrorist financiers using cash couriers or transferring cash across borders and undertake to combat this growing threat by strengthening the control of cross-border cash movements," the industrialized countries said.
"We pledge our best efforts to keep terrorists from raising, holding, transferring, or using financial assets to carry out their inhumane acts."
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
- Why Male Bowerbirds Decorate As Well As Dance, Virginia Morell, - ref_date 04/04/16, Science : 372
- Spiders' Sticky Feet, Fiona Proffitt, 04/04, Science Now,
 Hairy feet. Setae on the bottoms of their feet (right) help spiders stick to ceilings.
CREDIT: KESE ET AL., AIP SMART MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES (19 APRIL 2004) |
- Evolutionary Biology: Lost And Found, Neil H. Shubin, Randall D. Dahn, 04/04/15, Nature 428, 703 - 704, Can we ever hope to pin down the genetic changes that underlie the big steps in evolution? Possibly so, if a study of the variation in the pelvic fins of sticklebacks is anything to go by., DOI: 10.1038/428703a
- Cancer: Kip Moving, John G. Collard, 04/04/15, Nature 428, 705 - 708, The p27Kip1 protein inhibits cell proliferation, helping to prevent tumours developing. We now know that it also affects cell migration, by regulating Rho proteins. Does this function influence tumour progression?, DOI: 10.1038/428705a
- Network Dynamics: Jamming Is Limited In Scale-Free Systems, ZOLT¢XNUTOROCZKAI, KEVINUE.UBASSLER, 04/04/15, Nature 428, 716, A large number of complex networks are scale-free U that is, they follow a power-law degree distribution. Here we propose that the emergence of many scale-free networks is tied to the efficiency of transport and flow processing across these structures., DOI: 10.1038/428716a
- Chaotic Electron Diffusion Through Stochastic Webs Enhances Current Flow In Superlattices, T.Um.Ufromhold, A.Upatan, S.Ubujkiewicz, P.Ub.Uwilkinson, D.Ufowler, D.Usherwood, S.Up.Ustapleton, A.Ua.Ukrokhin, L.Ueaves, M.Uhenini, N.Us.Usankeshwar, F.Uw.Usheard, 04/04/15, Nature 428, 726 - 730, Understanding how complex systems respond to change is of fundamental importance in the natural sciences. There is particular interest in systems whose classical newtonian motion becomes chaotic as an applied perturbation grows., DOI: 10.1038/nature02445
- Predictability Of El Nino Over The Past 148 Years, Dakeuchen, Markua.Ucane, Alexeyukaplan, Stephenue.Uzebiak, Dajiuhuang, 04/04/15, Nature 428, 733 - 736, Forecasts of El Ni¡§o climate events are routinely provided and distributed, but the limits of El Ni¡§o predictability are still the subject of debate. Some recent studies suggest that the predictability is largely limited by the effects of high-frequency atmospheric 'noise (...)., DOI: 10.1038/nature02439
- Neural Activity Predicts Individual Differences In Visual Working Memory Capacity, Edwarduk.Uvogel, Maroug.Umachizawa, 04/04/15, Nature 428, 748 - 751, DOI: 10.1038/nature02447
- Capacity Limit Of Visual Short-Term Memory In Human Posterior Parietal Cortex, J.Ujayutodd, Renoumarois, 04/04/15, Nature 428, 751 - 754, DOI: 10.1038/nature02466
- Fat Chance: Hormone Boosts Metabolic Rate, Induces Weight Loss In Mice, AudioFat cells secrete a hormone that tells the brain to boost the body's metabolic rate., 04/04/17, Science News
- Materials Factory: RNA Manufactures Palladium Particles, 04/04/17, Science News, Chemists have evolved RNA fragments in the lab that spontaneously synthesize highly uniform, hexagonal-shaped nanoparticles of palladium.
- Reinventing the Yo-Yo, Peter Weiss, 04/04/17, Science News,
 STOP ACTION. Multiple loops of string entrap a whirling yo-yo's axle during one stage of an elaborate string trick.
Dean MacAdam |
No longer simple toys, today's pricey yo-yos sport high-tech featuresUsuch as ball bearing transaxles and precision string-snagging mechanismsUthat permit dazzling new styles and complex tricks. - Nanotubes Take On The Grand Canyon, 04/04/17, Science News, A new technique can turn forests of carbon nanotubes into a foamlike material with ideal properties for making lightweight shock absorbers.
- Bacteria Churn Out New Type Of Electronic Paper, 04/04/17, Science News, Researchers have developed a new way of making flexible electronic paper displays using cellulose derived from bacteria.
- A Drug To Stop Diabetes' Onset?, 04/04/17, Science News, Individuals susceptible to developing type 1 diabetes may find hope in a vaccinelike drug that is showing promise in mouse studies.
- Flame-Retardant Cotton Gets A Boost From Clay, 04/04/17, Science News, Mixing cotton fibers with nanoparticles of clay increases the materials' heat tolerance, ultimately rendering new cotton fabrics flame retardant.
- Rock-Solid Choices Of First Toolmakers, 04/04/17, Science News, Human ancestors who took up stone toolmaking in Africa around 2.6 million years ago already showed a proclivity for choosing high-quality pieces of rock, a new study finds.
- Israeli Cave Yields Stone Age Kills, 04/04/17, Science News, A recently discovered Israeli cave has yielded some of the earliest known evidence of hunting by humans or our evolutionary ancestors, from around 300,000 to 200,000 years ago.
- Drug For Preemies Linked To Problems, 04/04/17, Science News, A steroidal drug used to combat lung inflammation in premature infants appears to have long-term negative effects.
- Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize Winning Biologist, Pulitzer Prize Winning Biologist Dr. Edward O. Wilson speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., 04/04/19
- John Maynard Smith Dies, Jay Withgott, 04/04/20, Science Now, One of evolutionary biology's leading theorists, John Maynard Smith, died peacefully yesterday at his home. He was 84.
- Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To, Celeste Biever, 04/04/21, New Scientist
- Peer Review Policy, Joe Palca, John Graham, Granger Morgan, David Guston, 04/04/23, NPR TOTN, New guidelines could change the way the government informs the public about science. Some worry the new rules may bias what should be unbiased scientific information. Others see them as a way to make sure that government policies are rooted in sound research. In this hour, Joe Palca and guests look at how the government decides what should be considered good science.
- New Science Museum, Joe Palca, Peter Schultz, 04/04/23, NPR TOTN
- Apparent Hysteresis in a Driven System with Self-Organized Drag, Mikko Haataja, David J. Srolovitz, Ioannis G. Kevrekidis, 04/04/23, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 160603
- Real-Time Construction of Optimized Predictors from Data Streams, Frank Kwasniok, Leonard A. Smith, 04/04/23, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 164101
- Mixing by Polymers: Experimental Test of Decay Regime of Mixing, T. Burghelea, E. Segre, V. Steinberg, 04/04/23, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 164501
- Ultimate Limit to Human Longevity, Byung Mook Weon, 2004-04-22, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0404026
- Control Decisions And Personal Beliefs: Their Effect On Solving Mathematical Problems, C. M. Lerch - lerchdwc.edu, 2004/01/04, The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.jmathb.2003.12.002
- What Is The Meaning Of "Meaning"? A Case Study From Graphing, W.-M. Roth - mrothuvic.ca, 2004/01/04, The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.jmathb.2003.12.005
- Chronic Accessibility And Individual Cognitions: Examining The Effects Of Message Frames In Political Advertisements, F. Shen, 2004/03/01, Journal of Communication
- How Species Respond To Multiple Extinction Threats, N. J. B. Isaac, G. Cowlishaw, 2004/04/19, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- Detectability And Content As Opposing Signal Characteristics In Fruits, H. M. Schaefer, V. Schmidt, 2004/04/19, Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
- Exposure To Food Increases Brain Metabolism, 2004/04/21, ScienceDaily & Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Not Guilty! Evidence Exonerates 328, But Many Still Falsely Imprisoned, 2004/04/22, ScienceDaily & University Of Michigan
- Following Complex Motions: Optical Imaging Study Supports Ancient Origin For MT Visual Center, 2004/04/23, ScienceDaily & Vanderbilt University
- The Birth Of ANZUS: America's Attempt To Create A Defense Linkage Between Northeast Asia And The Southwest Pacific, H. Umetsu - umetsu22k9.dion.ne.jp, Feb. 2004, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
- The Varieties Of Capitalism Paradigm: Not Enough Variety?, M. Allen - m.m.allenbham.co.uk, Jan. 2004, Socio-Economic Review
- New Growth Regimes, But Still Institutional Diversity, R. Boyer - robert.boyercepremap.cnrs.fr, Jan. 2004, Socio-Economic Review
- The Place Of Time In Cognition, D. A. Weiskopf - weiskopfeluna.cas.usf.edu, Mar. 2004, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
- That Von Neumann Did Not Believe In A Physical Collapse, L. Becker, Mar. 2004, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
- Exploring Genome Architecture Through GOV: a WWW-based Gene Order Visualizer, K. R. Sakharkar - kishorebii.a-star.edu.sg, V. T. K. Chow, Online 2004/02/05, Bioinformatics
- Chaotic Firing In The Sinusoidally Forced Leaky Integrate-And-Fire Model With Threshold Fatigue, M. J. Chacron, A. Longtin, K. Pakdaman, Online 2004/02/13, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2003.12.009
Webcast Announcements
-
Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
- World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland
- Riding the Next Democratic Wave, Al-Thani, Khan, Vike-Freiberga, Wade, Soros, Zakaria, World Economic Forum, 04/01/25
- The Future of Global Interdependence, Kharrazi, Held, Owens, Shourie, Annan, Martin, Schwab, World Economic Forum, 04/01/25
- Why Victory Against Terrorism Demands Shared Values
- The Process of Curricular Review: Redefining a World-Class Education, Benedict Gross, Thomas Bender, Harvard@home, 04/01/21, Dean of Harvard College Benedict Gross discusses Harvard's first comprehensive review of the undergraduate curriculum in almost 3 decades. This program introduces the process of curricular review by presenting two segmented lectures. The first, by Dean Gross, outlines the approach and considerations in undertaking the current review. The second lecture, presented by NYU Professor Thomas Bender, presents a historical perspective on academic culture.
- Cancer Biology , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, How the spread of cancer is like wound healing gone awry.
- Tracking Ebola , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, A new study might help scientists predict where Ebola may! strike next.
- CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And Intelligent Systems, 2004 Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
- EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
- The Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Po tential and Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
- ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
- New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
- SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
- NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
- 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
- CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
- Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
- Edge Videos
Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
-
New Horizons In Search Theory
, Newport, RI, 04/04/26-28
-
Human Systems Dynamics at Work: Complexity Tools for Today, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 04/04/27-28
-
Life, a Nobel Story , Brussels, BE, 04/04/28
- Urban
Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences
of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse, Manchester, UK,
04/04/29-30
- Strategic Thinking in a Complex World, Smithsonian Resident Associates Program, 04/05/01-22
-
What Really Matters ?The Global Forum 2004, Santa Fe, NM, 04/05/02-04
- International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 04/05/11-14
- 5th
International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004),
Boston, MA, USA, 04/05/16-21
-
Understanding Complex Systems: Networks, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 04/05/17-20
- 3rd Intl Conf on
Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming
Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success",
Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 04/05/19-21
- 4th Intl Conf on
Fractals And Dynamic Systems In Geoscience, München, Germany, 04/05/19-22
- 9th
Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction Agents
(WEHIA04), Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29
- 13th
International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious
Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05
!
- ECC8
Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
04/06/14-17
- An Intl Tribute to Francisco Varela, Paris,04/06/18-20
- 7th
Intl Conf on Linking Systems Thinking, Innovation,Quality, Entrepreneurship and Environment (STIQE),
MARIBOR, SLOVENIA, 04/06/24-26
-
Biannual Meeting Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, Whistler, BC, 04/06/24-26
-
NAACSOS 2004, North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science, Pittsburgh PA, 04/06/27-29
-
Statphys - Kolkata V An International Conference on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes , Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
-
ICAD 2004 10th International Conference on Auditory Display, Sydney, Australia, 04/07/06-09
-
3rd Intl School Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics Discrete Dynamical Systems and Applications , Urbino (Italy), 04/07/07-09
- `Perspectives on Nonlinear Dynamics 2004 (PNLD-2004), Chen!
nai, India, 04/07/12-15
- From Animals To Animats
8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior
(SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17
- 14th Annual International Conference The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences , Milwaukee, WI, USA, 04/07/15-18
-
Facing Complexity, Wellington, NZ, 04/07/15-17
-
Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Security Bytes, Security/Life/Terror
, Lancaster, 04/07/17-19
- Gordon Research Conference on "Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities In Chemical Systems", Lewiston, ME, 04/07/18-23
- 3rd
Intl Conf Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2004), New York City, 04/07/19-23
- 7th
Intl Workshop on: Trust in Agent Societies , New York City, 04/07/19-20
- 8th
World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21
-
The 4 th International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex Systems
(MCS'2004) , Beijing, 04/07/22-23
- 2004
Summer Simulation MultiConference (SummerSim'04), San Jose
Hyatt, San Jose, California, 04/07/25-29
- SME 2004 Symposium on Modeling
and Control of Economic Systems , University in Redlands, CA, 04/07/28-31
- 6th
International Mathematica Symposium (IMS 2004), Banff,
Canada, 04/08/02-06
- Fractals and Natural Hazards at
32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28
-
ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, ,
Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01
- ANTS
2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony
Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium,
04/09/05-08
- Dynamic
Ontology,
An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of Reality,
and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy,
04/09/08-11
- 9th
Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems
(ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15
- TNew Economic Windows 2004: Complexity Hints for Economic Policy, Salerno, Italy, 04/09/16-18
- The
Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18
- The
8th Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature
(PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22
- XVII Brazilian
Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao -
Brazil, 04/09/22-24
- TEDMED Conference ,
Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15
- Wolfram
Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois,
04/10/21-23
- 6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce
ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape, Delft, The Netherlands, 04/10/25-27
- Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference , Rio de Janeiro, 04/11
[ Discussion ]
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