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Note: The slides and further material of the talks would be available at the conference website.
Autopoiesis and Enaction
Barry McMullin. "30 Years of Computational Autopoiesis: A Review". Full talk Audio 40:01 [mp3: 24Kbps, 5.7 Mb]. Reimplementation of the first computer simulation created to illustrate the concept of autopoiesis.
Eric Goles. "Discrete Dynamical Systems and Undecidability (sand pile and ants)". Full talk Audio 25:26 [mp3: 24Kbps, 3.6 Mb]. Simple discrete dynamical system capable of universal computation.
Steven Rose. "The Autopoietic Brain/Mind". Full talk Audio 31:40 [mp3: 24Kbps, 4.5 Mb]. Brain, mind, development, genes, and consciousness.
Susan Oyama. "Development 'sin techo, sin muros'". Full talk Audio 50:38 [mp3: 24Kbps, 7.2 Mb]. Video Summary [asf: 2.4 Mb]. Issues in development: nature vs. nurture, boudnaries of 'self'...
Enaction and Cognition
Antonio Coutinho. "Second Generation Immune Network". Full talk Audio 42:11 [mp3: 24Kbps, 6.0 Mb]. Model of the immune system. Autoimmune diseases have increased at the same rate that infectious diseases have decreased by the use of vaccines. The treatment of autoimmune disease should promote the activation of the immune system, not to repress it.
Luc Steels. "Embodied Semiotics Dynamics". Full talk Audio 39:12 [mp3: 24Kbps, 5.6 Mb]. Computer experiments exploring the theories of the origins of shared colour categories, implementing ideas of embodiment, enactive cognition, and self-organization. See Also: Video Summary at EELC, with Tony Belpaeme [asf: 2.7 Mb].
Alva Noë. "Experience Without the Head". Full talk Audio 47:20 [mp3: 24Kbps, 6.8 Mb]. Video Summary [asf: 2.4 Mb]. Issues on the boundaries of the mind, perception, and consciousness.
Andy Clark. "Profound Embodiment". Full talk Audio 33:40 [mp3: 24Kbps, 4.8 Mb]. Video Summary [asf: 2.6 Mb]. The mind and its relationships with the body and environment. We are OF our world not just IN it.
Cognition and Neurosciences
- Paul Bach-y-Rita. "Emerging Concepts of Brain Function". Full talk Audio 33:07 [mp3: 64Kbps, 15.1 Mb, 24Kbps, 4.7 Mb] (Note: the audio was edited, removing moments where videos were shown demonstrating the remarkable results of sensory substitution). Video Summary [asf: 3.2 Mb]. Results of sensory substitution during the last 40 years. Blind people report seeing when a camera is connected to a 144-point touchpad in their tongue. Within minutes they are able to perform hand-eye coordination required to catch a ball rolling over a table. Resluts change the common view of what it is to feel.
- Diego Cosmelli. "Of Mountains and Valleys: Binocular Rivalry and the Flow of Human Experience". Full talk Audio 30:14 [mp3: 64Kbps, 13.8 Mb, 24Kbps, 4.3 Mb]. When each eye is shown a different image, there is spontaneus oscillation between the images, which can be measured.
- Jean-Philippe Lachaux and Michel Lê Van Quyen. "The Brain Web : Large-scale Integration in the Neural System". Full talk Audio 43:13 [mp3: 64Kbps, 19.7 Mb, 24Kbps, 6.1 Mb]. Part 1: Structures in subjective experience can trap attention. Can we correlate with structures in brain function? Some correlates have been detected with brain scans during perception of faces (compared with the same image upside down, which is not recognized). Part 2: Does the brain operate near a critical state (Turing, 1957)? The Brain-web seems to be scale-free, since there are power law distributions both functionally and structurally. Therefore, there is (some) scale invariance in the brain.
(L to R) Paul Bach-y-Rita, Diego Cosmelli, Michel Lê Van Quyen, and Jean-Philippe Lachaux
Consciouness and Practice
- Matthieu Ricard. "From Mind Training to Brain Plasticity, Cultivating the Inner Conditions for Well-being". Full talk Audio 33:30 [mp3: 64Kbps, 15.3 Mb, 24Kbps, 4.8 Mb]. Video Summary [asf: 3.1 Mb]. First person experiences on Buddhist meditation. Gamma activity of the brain, detected during moments of visual consciousness (e.g. face recognition), is increased for long periods of time during meditation.
- Alan Wallace. "Three Dimensions of Consciousness: A Buddhist Phenomenology of Mind". Full talk Audio 40:09 [mp3: 64Kbps, 18.4 Mb, 24Kbps, 5.7 Mb]. There have been several explorations in consciousness by Buddhism. This cannot be measured properly from a third person perspective, it has to be experienced. People are having thousands of hours of Buddhist training, to test which insights could be gained.
- Michel Bitbol. "Downward Causation: Concept and Experience". Full talk Audio 39:45 [mp3: 64Kbps, 18.2 Mb, 24Kbps, 5.7 Mb]. Downward causation is impossible as a concept but established as a fact. Philosophical arguments for solving this paradox, in favour of the concept of downward causation.
(L to R) Matthieu Ricard, Michel Bitbol, Alan Wallace, and John Searle
The film Monte Grande: What is Life?, directed by Franz Reichle is an excellent and moving documentary developed around the life, and death, of Francisco Varela. On knowledge, consciousness, meditation and dying, with the participation of his holiness the Dalai Lama and Heinz von Foerster a.m.o. Neurophenomenology and Consciousness
Thomas Metzinger. "Being No One - The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity". Full talk Audio 40:13 [mp3: 64Kbps, 18.4 Mb, 24Kbps, 5.7 Mb] Slides [pdf: 458 Kb]. Phenomenal model of intentionality development.
Evan Thompson. "Life and Mind: From Autopoiesis to Neurphenomenology". Full talk Audio 42:01 [mp3: 64Kbps, 19.2 Mb, 24Kbps, 6.0 Mb]. Mind-body problem not only philosophical, but also of (first-person) experience. Experience is, in a certain sense, irreducible. There is the need to put human life back into science. Life = autopoiesis -> emergence of bodily self -> emergence of world = sense-making (meaning + valence) = cognition (perception/action) Intentionality emerges from coupling of body and environment.
Wolf Singer. "The Observer in the Brain: A Dynamic State". Full talk Audio 48:09 [mp3: 64Kbps, 22.0 Mb, 24Kbps, 6.9 Mb] (Note: the talk begins in French for few minutes, but continues in English). With eyes wide shut, the brain knows how the world ought to be. Where is the observer in the brain? Conscious representations seem to be correlated to high synchronization of neuronal activity. Consciousness is in no place, it is a dynamical state.
Shaun Gallagher. "Towards a Neurophenomenological Account of Autism". Full talk Audio 34:47 [mp3: 64Kbps, 15.9 Mb, 24Kbps, 5.0 Mb]. Comparison of theory of mind (TOM) and neurophenomenology. TOM cannot give account for autism, whereas neurophenomenology can. Autism seems to have basis at the neurological level, in sensorimotor processes. These are required for the development of intersubjectivities.
Practice and Social
- Andreas Roepstorff. "Webs of Significance: From Social Interaction to Brain Dynamics". Full talk Audio 41:29 [mp3: 64Kbps, 19.0 Mb, 24Kbps, 5.9 Mb]. First person experience cannot be reduced to a third person experience. Issues in the study of mind and consciousness.
- Jean-Pierre Dupuy. "The Social as Autonomous, Complex System". Full talk Audio 51:57 [mp3: 64Kbps, 23.8 Mb, 24Kbps, 7.4 Mb]. Organizational closure illustrated with Ian McEwan's "Atonement". Then applied to religious anthropology, political science, philosophy... part of the rules is to break the rules.
(L to R) Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Andreas Roepstorff, and Jean Petitot
Contributed by Nadia Gershenson (video) and Carlos Gershenson (audio and html)
Webserver space kindly provided by the Centrum Leo Apostel of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Note: Audio files are in downloadable mp3 format for portable mp3 players or mp3 software players. Video files are in asf format and can be played e.g. with windows media player. If you have problems, suggestions, or comments with the file formats, please contact Carlos Gershenson.
Critical Brain Networks, Physica A
Abstract: Highly correlated brain dynamics produces synchronized states with no behavioral value, while weakly correlated dynamics prevents information flow. We discuss the idea put forward by Per Bak that the working brain stays at an intermediate (critical) regime characterized by power-law correlations.
- Source: Critical Brain Networks, Dante R. Chialvo, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.05.064, Physica A, Article in Press, Uncorrected Proof, 2004/06/15
Neuronal Oscillations in Cortical Networks, Science
Excerpts: Clocks tick, bridges and skyscrapers vibrate, neuronal networks oscillate. Are neuronal oscillations an inevitable by-product, similar to bridge vibrations, or an essential part of the brain's design? Mammalian cortical neurons form behavior-dependent oscillating networks of various sizes, which span five orders of magnitude in frequency. These oscillations are phylogenetically preserved, suggesting that they are functionally relevant. Recent findings indicate that network oscillations bias input selection, temporally link neurons into assemblies, and facilitate synaptic plasticity, mechanisms that cooperatively support temporal representation and long-term consolidation of information.
Ontological Uncertainty and Innovation, SFI Working Papers
Excerpts: This paper explores the relationship between uncertainty and innovation. It distinguishes three kinds of uncertainty: truth uncertainty, semantic uncertainty, and ontological uncertainty, the latter of which is particularly important for innovation processes. The paper then develops some implications of ontological uncertainty for innovation processes at three levels of organization, by means of three theories: a narrative theory of action at the level of individual economic actors; the theory of generative relationships at the meso-level of agent interaction; and the theory of scaffolding structures at the macro-level of market systems. These theories are illustrated by means of examples drawn from a prospective study on the emergence of a new market system around a technology for distributed control. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relation between theory, stories and models. (...)
Modelling Selforganization and Innovation Processes in Networks, arXiv
Abstract: In this paper we develop a theory to describe innovation processes in a network of interacting units. We introduce a stochastic picture that allows for the clarification of the role of fluctuations for the survival of innovations in such a non-linear system. We refer to the theory of complex networks and introduce the notion of sensitive networks. Sensitive networks are networks in which the introduction or the removal of a node/vertex dramatically changes the dynamic structure of the system. As an application we consider interaction networks of firms and technologies and describe technological innovation as a specific dynamic process. Random graph theory, percolation, master equation formalism and the theory of birth and death processes are the mathematical instruments used in this paper.
The Intelligent Internet The Promise of Smart Computers and E-Commerce, Government Computer News
Excerpts: (...) more-complex applications - online voting, e-health, the virtual university, virtual reality, and the global grid - are likely to follow later. These forms of e-commerce lag because they involve more exotic and costly technology, difficult institutional changes, and new forms of consumer behavior. Making the virtual university a reality, for instance, requires professors to switch from traditional lectures to communication technologies that are poorly developed, college administrators to justify the economic feasibility of more expensive systems, (...). E-health demands a similar transformation among physicians, hospitals, and patients.
Net Pioneer Predicts Web Future, BBC News Online
Excerpts: The net is only in the Bronze Age of evolution, according to the pioneer who invented the Domain Name System (DNS).
In 1983, Dr Paul Mockapetris created the now familiar system which gives net pages names such as ".com" and ".uk".
Celebrating DNS's 21st birthday he says: "Ten years from now, we will look back at the net and think how could we have been so primitive."
All communication will be over the net, he predicts, and we will no longer need phone numbers, just web addresses.
Microsoft Patents Body-As-Network, IDG News Service
Excerpts: (...) received a U.S. patent for a "method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body." (...)
Microsoft proposes linking portable devices such as watches, keyboards, displays, and speakers using the conductivity of "a body of a living creature."
A variety of devices could be powered selectively from a single power source carried on the body, via multiple power supply signals at different frequencies, (...). In addition, data and audio signals could be transmitted over that same power signal. (...) connected to the body via electrodes.
Power Implant Aims To Run On Body Heat, NewScientist
Excerpts: Life-saving medical implants like pacemakers and defibrillators face a big drawback: their batteries eventually run out. So every few years, patients need surgery to have the batteries replaced.
Now a company in New York state is planning to tackle the problem by providing patients with an implantable power source that recharges their implant's batteries using electricity generated by the patient's own body heat.
By continuously recharging the batteries, it saves the patient from frequent surgery. In some low power devices, it could even replace the batteries altogether, making such operations unnecessary.
Implanted power source
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Mr. Universe Jr.: Child's Gene Mutation Confirms Protein's Role In Human-Muscle Growth, Science News
Excerpts: A boy born with extra-large muscles has mutations in a gene regulating muscle growth.
"Mighty Mouse" Gene Found In Humans, NewScientist
Excerpts: By studying the genes of an unusually muscular child, scientists have identified a gene in humans which has also been used to create "mighty mice" in the lab.
The discovery means that successful therapies for degenerative muscle diseases in mice that target this gene might be also be effective in humans.
The strapping German boy, whose mother is a professional sprinter, is so strong that at the age of just four and a half he can hold a three kilogram weight in each hand with his arms outstretched horizontally.
De Novo Design of an Enzyme, Science
Excerpts: Enzymes catalyze biological reactions under mild conditions with high specificities and rate enhancements of up to 1017-fold . This enormous catalytic power is the product of natural evolution, and biochemists have tried for more than a century to understand the underlying chemical principles. The salient test of our understanding of enzyme catalysis would be the design of an enzyme from scratch. (...)Using computer-based rational protein design, they turned the catalytically inert ribose-binding protein (RBP) into an enzyme that is highly active as a triose phosphate isomerase (TIM).
Computational Design of a Biologically Active Enzyme, Science
Excerpts: Rational design of enzymes is a stringent test of our understanding of protein chemistry and has numerous potential applications. Here, we present and experimentally validate the computational design of enzyme activity in proteins of known structure. (...) The resulting designs contain 18 to 22 mutations, exhibit 105- to 106-fold rate enhancements over the uncatalyzed reaction, and are biologically active, in that they support the growth of Escherichia coli under gluconeogenic conditions. The inherent generality of the design method suggests that many enzymes can be designed by this approach.
Putting Flu on the Map, Science Now
Excerpts:
All over the map. Flu virus strains gather in 11 clusters on the new antigenic map. Letters refer to the location (Hong Kong, England, Victoria, Texas, Bangkok, Suchan, Beijing, Wuhan, Sydney, and Fujian) and numbers to the year of isolation.
CREDIT: D. J. SMITH ET AL., SCIENCE
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Like fashion devotees, influenza viruses change their looks every year. Mutations in the viral surface help the virus elude the human immune system, leading to yearly epidemics. Now, researchers have developed a mathematical tool that helps analyze and visualize this "antigenic drift." The study, applicable to other viruses as well, may help make the yearly choice of the best flu vaccine easier. (...)
(...) To keep track of its evolutionary tricks, researchers worldwide infect animals with well known H3N2 strains, harvest antiserum, and routinely test how well it binds with unknown varieties of H3N2.
Chaos In A Periodically Forced Chemostat With Algal Mortality, Alphagalileo & Proc. B
Abstract: We study the possibility of chaotic dynamics in the externally driven Droop model which describes a phytoplankton population in a chemostat under periodic supply of nutrients. Previously it has been proven under very general assumptions that such systems are not able to exhibit chaos. Here we show that the introduction of algal mortality may lead to chaotic oscillations of algal density, representing recurrent algal blooms in real aquatic ecosystems. Our results give insight into the dynamics of nutrient limited growth in a time-varying environment and should be of relevance for the understanding and role of deterministic chaos in ecological systems.
Farming Origins Gain 10,000 Years, BBC News
Excerpts:
Wild types of emmer wheat like those found at Ohalo were forerunners of today's varieties
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Humans made their first tentative steps towards farming 23,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought.
Stone Age people in Israel collected the seeds of wild grasses some 10,000 years earlier than previously recognised, experts say.
These grasses included wild emmer wheat and barley, which were forerunners of the varieties grown today.(...)
The evidence comes from a collection of 90,000 prehistoric plant remains dug up at Ohalo in the north of the country.
The Ohalo site was submerged in prehistoric times and left undisturbed until recent excavations by Ehud Weiss of Harvard University and his colleague
Russians Change Weather For McCartney Concert, Chicago Sun Times
Excerpts: Planes go over the top of the clouds - (...) -- to disperse ice-forming agents such as silver iodide or dry ice. The agent causes icelets to freeze and grow. (...)
But what makes the Russian experiment over the McCartney concert unusual is that weather modification was used to chase the rain away.
Mark Solak, vice president of industry-leading North American Weather Consultants Inc., said the Russians may have saturated the cloud with dry ice. That would create so many ice particles that they would be too small to fall.
Weather Modification, NPR ATC
Excerpts: Organizers of an outdoor Paul McCartney concert in Russia wanted the show to go off without a hitch. So when storm clouds began gathering over St. Petersburg on Sunday, they were treated with chemicals to keep the rain away.
Mercury's Capture Into The 3/2 Spin-Orbit Resonance As A Result Of Its Chaotic Dynamics, Nature
Excerpts: Here we show that the chaotic evolution of Mercury's orbit can drive its eccentricity beyond 0.325 during the planet's history, which very efficiently leads to its capture into the 3/2 resonance. In our numerical integrations of 1,000 orbits of Mercury over 4 Gyr, capture into the 3/2 spin-orbit resonant state was the most probable final outcome of the planet's evolution, occurring 55.4 per cent of the time.
Planetary Science: How Mercury Got Its Spin, Nature
Excerpts: The orbital period of Mercury and its period of rotation are known to be in a 3/2 ratio,(...).
So how did Mercury enter this resonance? There are two terms in the equation of motion for the planet. One term describes the strength of the resonance (the depth of the potential well), which in this case depends on the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit and the resonant integers - (...). The second term depends on the tidal torque exerted by the Sun that drives the spin towards the resonant encounter.
Distributed Robustness Versus Redundancy as Causes of Mutational Robustness, SFI Working Papers
Abstract: A biological system is robust to mutations if it continues to function after genetic changes in its parts. Such robustness is pervasive on different levels of biological organization, from macromolecules to genetic networks and whole organisms. I here ask which of two possible causes of such robustness are more important on a genome-wide scale, for systems whose parts are genes, such as metabolic and genetic networks. The first of the two causes is redundancy of a system's parts: A gene may be dispensable if the genome contains redundant, back-up copies of the gene. The second cause, distributed robustness, is more poorly understood. It emerges from the distributed nature of many biological systems, where many (and different) parts contribute to system functions. I will here discuss evidence suggesting that distributed robustness is equally or more important for mutational robustness than gene redundancy. This evidence comes from large-scale gene deletion studies, as well as from the functional divergence of redundant genes. I also ask whether one can quantify the extent to which redundancy or distributed robustness contributes to mutational robustness.
Face-Keeping Strategies In Reaction To Complaints: English And Persian, J. Asian Pacific Communi.
Excerpts: This paper discusses a number of differences between English and Persian in the area of speech acts and links them with different cultural values and norms. The Persian speakers' use of face-keeping strategies in reaction to complaints was compared with American English speakers' performance. The most frequent face-saving strategy used by both groups in reaction to complaints was the apology speech act. (...) It is shown that Persian speakers are more sensitive to contextual factors and vary their face-keeping strategies accordingly whereas English speakers mostly use one apology strategy and intensify it based on contextual factors.
Noisy Secret Of Mona Lisa's Smile, NewScientist
Excerpts:
Manipulating Mona
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A new study suggests that the power of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece comes in part from random noise in our visual systems
(...) manipulated a digital image of the painting by introducing random visual noise (...) - and asked 12 observers how they rated the resulting expression on a four-point scale from sad to happy.
As would be expected, noise that lifted the edges of her mouth made Mona Lisa seem happier, (...). More surprising though, was how readily the visual noise changed people's perception of the Mona Lisa's expression.
Working And Training: A Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis Of Human Capital Development, Jap. Econ. Rev.
Abstract: We tend to think of workers completing their education and then entering the workforce, where they will gradually develop their skills. In fact, however, a worker's career may be characterized not only by this gradual buildup of job-related skills but also by recurrent education, i.e. the phenomenon whereby a worker alternates between earning-intensive periods and training-intensive periods along his career path. In this study, we build a dynamic optimization model of earning/training decisions of a worker in which these patterns of his career path can be explained in an integrated manner.
Mything The Point: What's Wrong With The Conventional Wisdom About The C.I.A, Intell. & National Security
Abstract: This article examines seven myths about the Central Intelligence Agency. These misperceptions persist because of an inadequate understanding of the relationship between intelligence and policy, outdated stereotypes that ignore recent reforms, and the politics that accompany delivering bad news to senior officials. Scholars and intelligence officers looking to advance the debate on intelligence issues could usefully focus their research on several core dynamics: sharpening the distinction between intelligence failures and policy failures; deconstructing intelligence successes to determine whether those 'best practices' can be replicated elsewhere; and monitoring the risks when an apolitical intelligence agency closely interacts with the policy community.
Out Of Sight But Not Out Of Mind: Home Range Marking In Ants, Animal Behaviour
Excerpts: Animals can acquire a global knowledge about their environment that exceeds their individual capacities by estimating the local density and activity of nestmates in an area. In ants, home range marking can indicate the density and activity of nestmates, allowing scouts to assess the potential interest of the area as a foraging site. We investigated how home range marking through footprints influences the foraging behaviour of Lasius niger scouts at a sugary food source (...). Over a marked apparatus the discovery time of food sources decreased while the probability of scouts recruiting nestmates and of continuing to lay a trail increased. (...)
U.S. Struggled Over How Far to Push Tactics, Washington Post
Excerpts: Rumsfeld, for example, approved in December 2002 a range of severe methods including the stripping of prisoners at Guantanamo, and using dogs to frighten them. He later rescinded those tactics and signed off on a shorter list of "exceptional techniques" (...), even though the panel pointed out that, historically, the U.S. military had rejected the use of force in interrogations. "Army interrogation experts view the use of force as an inferior technique that yields information of questionable quality," and distorts the behavior of those being questioned, the group report noted.
UN Seeks 'Terror Inmates' Access, BBC News
Excerpts: UN human rights experts say they want to visit inmates in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and also terror suspects in other countries.
A group of 31 experts issued a rare joint statement on concerns about the effects of some US counter-terrorism measures on human rights worldwide.
The move follows a global outcry at the abuse of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib.
UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said military tribunals set for Guantanamo did not meet international standards.
U.N. Investigators Appeal to U.S., Washington Post
Excerpts: A group of 31 U.N. human rights investigators issued a rare joint appeal to the United States to give them access to detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The request came at the end of a week-long meeting in Geneva on the impact of the U.S.-led counterterrorism campaign on human rights. (...)
The statement asks that four specialists -- trained to check for evidence of torture, arbitrary detention, medical and physical abuse, and judicial independence -- be invited to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay (...).
UK Alarm Over Guantanamo Trials, BBC News
Excerpts: Planned military tribunals for terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay are unacceptable, the UK's attorney general has said.
Four British men are still being held at the camp in Cuba.
In a speech on Friday, Lord Goldsmith argued there can be "no compromise" on certain principles and the US tribunals would not offer a fair trial.
The UK Government has always voiced reservations over the trial plans. Lord Goldsmith is underlining the point.
Complex Challenges: Terrorist Networks
US Doubles Its Count of 2003 Terrorism Casualties, Reuters
Excerpts: The Bush administration (...) more than doubled its count of people killed and injured by international terrorism in 2003 as it revised a faulty report used to argue it was winning a war on terrorism.
(...) international terrorism killed 625 people last year, up from the 307 it reported on April 29 but below 2002's 725 fatalities. It found 3,646 were wounded last year, above the 1,593 initially cited and the 2,013 in 2002.
The errors in the annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report have embarrassed the administration (...).
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
- Plasma Pockets Could Reduce Aircraft Noise
- This Terrorist Is Bad Enough on His Own, Peter Bergen, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is probably not the missing link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, even if he is arguably the world's most dangerous terrorist.
- Making Mona Lisa Frown, Sad and happy expressions revealed by mouth, not eyes
- U.S. Drops Plan to Exempt G.I.'s From U.N. Court, Warren Hoge, The outcome, while a defeat for Washington, will have no effect on the vulnerability to prosecution of U.S. troops in Iraq.
- Saudis Offer Limited Amnesty to Rebels, Neil MacFarquhar, The offer suggested that the country's rulers, while shaken by terrorist violence, believe their grip on power to be firm.
- A Crowning at the Capital Creates a Stir, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The Rev. Sun Myung Moon donned a crown in a Senate office building and declared himself the Messiah while members of Congress watched.
- Tooth Growing Experiments Bring Smiles, Remarkable progress is being made towards growing replacement teeth from stem cells, but major obstacles remain
- Horn Damage Hints At Triceratops Battles, The three-horned dinosaur could apparently wrestle head-to-head with other members of its own species
- Cell Biology: A Channel For Protein Waste 817, Randy Schekman, Cells destroy misshapen proteins; viruses use the same methods to destroy healthy cellular proteins that are involved in antiviral defences. A long-sought intermediary in the process has now been uncovered.
- Confronting The Coral Reef Crisis 827, D. R. Bellwood, T. P. Hughes, C. Folke, M. Nyström
- Hot Bother: Ground Squirrels Taunt In Infrared, California ground squirrels broadcast an infrared signal when confronting a rattlesnake.
- Misbehavin' Meson: Perplexing Particle Flouts The Rules, The discovery of what appears to be a new subatomic particle with bizarre properties is challenging theorists' understanding of how matter behaves.
- Stone Age Ear for Speech: Ancient finds sound off on roots of language, Ancestors of Neandertals that lived at least 350,000 years ago heard the same range of sounds that people today do, suggesting that the ability to speak arose early in the Stone Age.
- When Protein Breakdown Breaks Down: Bacterial Toxin Yields Signs Of Parkinson's, Certain compounds that hinder cells from destroying waste proteins can produce symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rats.
- Long Dry Spell, Falling reservoir levels in the western United States are just one symptom that the region is suffering through a drought that may be the worst to strike in the past 500 years.
- Thoroughly Modern Migrants, Butterflies and moths are causing scientists to devise a broader definition of migration and this has raised some old questions in new ways.
- Beg Your Indulgence, The Japanese concept of amae, in which one person presumes that another will indulgently grant a special request, may apply to different forms of behavior at different ages, even in Western countries.
- Sleepy Brains Take Learning Seriously, After people practice a hand-eye coordination task, electrical activity in specific areas of the brain during sleep reflects neural processes involved in learning to perform that task better.
- Bee Cool, 04/06/23, Science Now, Genetic diversity in honey bees aids thermoregulation
- JAG Lawyers Warned of Manipulation of Prisoner Rules , 04/06/22, NPR ME, Last spring, a group of military lawyers known as judge advocate generals warned that civilian lawyers within the Bush administration were creating "legal ambiguity" on how international treaties should be applied to people in U.S. detention. Many JAG lawyers say their advice was disregarded as the White House sought to tweak the laws of war for political ends. Hear NPR's Jackie Northam.
- Idiot Proof , Francis Wheen, 04/06/23, NPR TOTN, British columnist and satirist Francis Wheen takes on the past 25 years of "Counter-Enlightenment idiocy." Some of his targets include Margaret Thatcher, conspiracy theorists, Deepak Chopra, Enron and suicide bombers.
- Bloated Blackhole Babies, Govert Schillin, 04/06/23, Science Now
- Mice That Don't Miss Mom, 04/06/23, Science Now
- Another Charmingly Strange Particle, 04/06/23, Science Now, A new odd-ball particle defies physicists' predictions
- Senior CIA Officer Says U.S. Losing Terror War , 04/06/24, NPR ME, Imperial Hubris, a new book due out next month, argues that the United States is losing the war on terror. It faults senior U.S. officials who have "delayed action, downplayed intelligence, ignored repeated warnings" and behaved as "moral cowards." NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with the book's author, an active senior CIA officer -- and former head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit -- who asked to remain anonymous.
- Saudi Arabia Offers Amnesty to Militants , 04/06/24, NPR ME, Saudi Arabia offers a limited amnesty to Islamic militants who surrender within the next month. Few are likely to respond. But experts say the move suggests the Saudi family remains confident of its grip on power and of the inroads it's made into the militant extremist structure. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports.
- California Seeks Answers at 'Model' Prison , 04/06/24, NPR ATC, NPR's Richard Gonzales accompanies ex-inmates and the parents of California juvenile offenders on a visit to Missouri's "model" juvenile justice system. The Californians are looking for ways to overhaul their state's deeply troubled youth prison authority.
- Toshiba Develops Matchbox-Sized Fuel Cell For Mobile Phones, Yoshiko Hara, 04/06/24, EE Times
- Hunt Seeks Unique Arctic Sealife, Alex Kirby, 04/06/24, BBC News Online, Researchers preparing to survey the wealth of life in the Arctic Ocean expect to find some species new to science.
- U.S. Immunity in Iraq Will Go Beyond June 30 , Robin Wright, 04/06/24, Washington Post Staff Writer
- Europe Tackles Freak Weather Risk, Alex Kirby, 04/06/25, BBC News Online
- Material Science: Spinning Continuous Fibers for Nanotechnology, Yuris Dzenis, 04/06/25, Science : 1917-1919.
- Ocean Science:Hemispheric Asynchrony of Abrupt Climate Change, Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, 04/06/25, Science : 1919-1920
- Neuroscience:The Mice That Don't Miss Mom: Love and the μ-Opioid Receptor, Mary Beckman, 04/06/25, Science : 1888-1889
- Nuclear Share Of Electricity Predicted To Fall, Rob Edwards, 04/06/26, New Scientist
- Going My Way?, 04/06/26, Science News, The painted lady is one of the butterflies that enthusiasts are tracking in search of migration patterns. Butterflies and moths fit entomologists' modern view that migrants don't have to make the round-trip in one generation.
- U.S. Edicts Curb Power Of Iraq's Leadership , By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Walter Pincus, 04/06/27, Washington Post Foreign Service
- Wi-Fi Finds The Way When GPS Can't, Celeste Biever, 04/06/28, New Scientist
- The Amygdala Modulates The Consolidation Of Memories Of Emotionally , James L. McGaugh, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 1 - 28
- E Pluribus Unum, Ex Uno Plura1: Quantitative And Single-Gene , Ralph J. Greenspan, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 79 - 105
- Plasticity Of The Spinal Neural Circuitry After Injury* , V. Reggie Edgerton, Niranjala J.K. Tillakaratne, Allison J. Bigbee, Ray
D. de Leon, Roland R. Roy, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 145 - 167
- The Mirror-Neuron System , Giacomo Rizzolatti, Laila Craighero, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 169 - 192
- Cellular Mechanisms Of Neuronal Population Oscillations In The Hippocampus In Vitro , Roger D. Traub, Andrea Bibbig, Fiona E.N. LeBeau, Eberhard H. Buhl, Miles A. Whittington, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 247 - 278
- The Neural Basis Of Temporal Processing , Michael D. Mauk, Dean V. Buonomano, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 307 - 340
- Cortical Neural Prosthetics , Andrew B. Schwartz, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 487 - 507
- Cerebellum-Dependent Learning: The Role of Multiple Plasticity Mechanisms , Edward S. Boyden, Akira Katoh, Jennifer L. Raymond, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 581 - 609
- Visual Motor Computations In Insects , Mandyam V. Srinivasan, Shaowu Zhang, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 679 - 696
- How The Brain Processes Social Information: Searching for the Social Brain* , Thomas R. Insel, Russell D. Fernald, 04/07, Annual Review of Neuroscience; Vol. 27, Page 697 - 722
- Asynchronous Game Of Life, J. Lee - lijia
crl.go.jp, S. Adachi - sadachi
crl.go.jp, F. Peper - peper
crl.go.jp, K. Morita - morita
iec.hiroshima-u.ac.jp, 2004/06/15, online 2004/05/15, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2004.03.007 - Control Of Cardiac Alternans In A Mapping Model With Memory, E. G. Tolkachev - lena
phy.duke.edu, M. M. Romeo, D. J. Gauthier, 2004/06/15, online 2004/05/18, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2004.03.008 - Equation-Free Modelling Of Evolving Diseases: Coarse-Grained Computations With Individual-Based Models, J. Cisternas, C. W. Gear, S. A. Levin, I. G. Kevrekidis, 2004/06/21, Alphagalileo & Proceedings A (Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences)
- Modelling Butterfly Wing Eyespot Patterns, R. Dilão, J. Sainhas, 2004/06/21, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological sciences)
- Brain Development And Puberty May Be Key Factors In Learning Disorders, 2004/06/22, ScienceDaily & Northwestern University
- Flies May Taste Bitter Better, First Map Of Insect "Tongue" Reveals, 2004/06/22, ScienceDaily & Duke University Medical Center
- Rush Neurosurgeons Testing Cooling Method To Treat Brain Aneurysms, 2004/06/24, ScienceDaily & Rush University Medical Center
- Cognition And Behavioral Changes As Early As 50 May Link, 2004/06/25, ScienceDaily & Mayo Clinic
- A Method For Identifying Sounds Used In The Classification Of Alarm Calls, J. Placer - john.placer
nau.edu, C. N. Slobodchikoff, 2004/06/30, online 2004/05/28, Behavioural Processes, DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2004.03.001 - A Developmental Change In Selective Attention And Global Form Perception, Porporino M., Shore D., Iarocci G., Burack J., Jul. 2004, International Journal of Behavioral Development, DOI: 10.1080/01650250444000063
- Human Development In Times Of Social Change: Theoretical Considerations And Research Needs, Pinquart M., Silbereisen R., Jul. 2004, International Journal of Behavioral Development, DOI: 10.1080/01650250344000406
- On Composite Web Services Provisioning In An Environment Of Fixed And Mobile Computing Resources, Maamar Z. - zakaria.maamar
zu.ac.ae, Sheng Q. Z. - qsheng
cse.unsw.edu.au, Benatallah B. - boualem
cse.unsw.edu.au, Jul. 2004, Information Technology and Management, DOI: 10.1023/B:ITEM.0000031581.31936.b9 - Iraq March-April 2003: Outcomes, A Division Of Views - And An Abuse Of Intelligence?, Ewing H. C., Jun. 2004, Intelligence and National Security, DOI: 10.1080/0268452042000222957
- Work/Life Balance: You Can't Get There From Here, Caproni P. J., Jun. 2004, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, DOI: 10.1177/0021886304263855
- Non-Dummy Agents In Pure Exchange Economies, Kato M., Ohseto S., Jun. 2004, Japanese Economic Review, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5876.2004.00302.x
- Signalling Of Hunger When Offspring Forage By Both Begging And Self-Feeding, P. T. Smiseth - per.t.smiseth
man.ac.uk, A. J. Moore, Jun. 2004, online 2004/04/09, Animal Behaviour, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.10.012 - Chaos In Natural Populations: Edge Or Wedge?, V. Rai - rvikas41
hotmail.com, Jun. 2004, online 2004/04/10, Ecological Complexity, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2004.02.002
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