Complexity Digest 2004.34

23-Aug-2004

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Content

  1. Repercussions of Complex Adaptive Systems on Product Design Management, Technovation
  2. Making the Right Mistakes, Darwin Magazine
    1. There Is A Free Lunch After All, Math. Social Sc.
    2. Nation's Charter Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores Reveal, NY Times
    3. Raising Europe's Game, Nature
  3. News Analysis: Google Keeps Wall Street At Bay, International Herald Tribune
    1. Internet Heading to Light Speed, Wired
    2. DNA Technique Protects Against 'Evil' Emails, New Scientist
  4. Do Women Really Have More Bilateral Language Representation Than Men?, Brain
    1. First Solid Evidence That The Study Of Music Promotes Intellectual Development, ScienceDaily
    2. Partner's Stress Status Influences Social Buffering Effects In Rats, Behav. Neurosc.
  5. Secessionism In Multicultural States: Does Sharing Power Prevent Or Encourage It?, Ameri. Polit. Sc. Rev.
  6. Listening In On The Whispering Heart, ScienceDaily
    1. Heart 'Repair Kit' - Stem Cells Regenerate Injured Muscle, ScienceDaily
  7. A First-Draft Human Protein-Interaction Map
    1. Structural Biology: Anthrax Hijacks Host Receptor, Nature
    2. Cell Division: Timing The Machine, Nature
  8. Firm Sets Sights On Gene Silencing To Protect Vision, Nature
    1. Demo: Artificial Retina, Technology Review
    2. The Blind Leading The Sighted, Nature
  9. Putting Muscles to the Acid Test, Science Now
    1. Lactic Acid May Not Cause Muscle Fatigue, NPR ME
    2. Marathon Mouse' Doubles Stamina, BBC
    3. GM 'Marathon' Mice Break Distance Records, New Scientist
  10. Medicinal Chemistry: A Worthy Adversary For Malaria, Nature
    1. Less Sleep, Less Stress With Peptide S, Science Now
  11. How Language Shapes Math, Science Now
    1. Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia, Science Express Reports
    2. Life Without Googol, NPR TOTN
    3. Math and the Mona Lisa, NPR TOTN
  12. Self-assembling Peptides and Proteins for Nanotechnological Applications, Current Opinion in Structural Biology
    1. How to Assemble Building Blocks for Nanotechnology, U. Michiga News Release
  13. Biomechanics: Hydrodynamic Function Of The Shark's Tail, Nature
  14. Hurricane Intensified Unexpectedly Near Florida, NY Times
    1. Predicting Hurricanes, NPR TOTN
    2. The Dirt on Rain Forecasting, Science
    3. Sewage Waters A Tenth Of World's Irrigated Crops, New Scientist
    4. Palaeoclimatology: Fresh Angle On The Polar Seesaw, Nature
  15. Stars Reveal The Milky Way's Age, BBC News
  16. Condensed-Matter Physics: Vortices Weave A Tangled Web, Nature
  17. Bridging The Gap Between Dynamical Systems Theory And Communication Theory, The British J. for the Phil. of Sc.
  18. The Army and the Halliburton Contract, NPR WE
    1. Voting While Black, NY Times
    2. Retracing the 'Bladensburg Races', NPR WE
    3. $1bn To Build Unmanned Fighter, BBC
    4. Rumsfeld Waits for 'Go' on Missile Defense, Washington Post
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
    1. Sen. Kennedy Flagged by No-Fly List, Washington Post
    2. Al-Qaeda Still Finds Funding, New24.com
    3. 9/11 Commission Co-Chair Defends Finding On Saudis, Staten Island Advance
    4. Treasury Moving To Disrupt Terrorist Financing, GCN
    5. West Africa Investigation of 9/11 Attacks Challenged, Voice of America
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements

  1. Repercussions of Complex Adaptive Systems on Product Design Management, Technovation Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Product design management is becoming an increasingly important concept. However, there is no generally accepted agreement as to exactly what activities this management involves. We therefore put forward the need to link design management with other convergent theoretical approaches that clarify and improve an understanding of the concept. In this study, we look at the implications of the ideas involved in complex adaptive systems, steeped in the new science of complexity, for product design management. Following on from this, we highlight four product design management activities: strengthening the relationships between firm members and the outside, fostering relationships between areas or people within the process of product design, increasing information flow to a maximum, and promoting a balanced heterogeneous participation in design decision making.

  2. Making the Right Mistakes, Darwin Magazine Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: We think of the cost of small mistakes as ¡§tuition¡¨ on the way to learning more about how to make the business better. We even have an annual SureChoice Award that we give to the employee who made the best NEW mistake. This fosters a culture of learning from our mistakes since mistakes are inevitable in a growing business. We have a culture where it is okay to make a new mistake but not okay to make the same mistake twice.

    1. There Is A Free Lunch After All, Math. Social Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: This paper shows that there is a simple way for a financial institution to make a positive profit, free of risk, under imperfect competition. The institution plays a very limited role. It offers firms in the industry a per-unit subsidy in return for a predetermined upfront fee. It neither produces its own output nor sells the products of the subsidized firms. In equilibrium, firms accept the offer although they end up with lower net profits. The institution makes a positive profit as it collects upfront fees which exceed its subsidy payments. The resulting outcome in a Cournot industry is welfare improvement.
      • Source: There Is A Free Lunch After All, C.-H. Liao - chliaoamail.ncku.edu.tw, Y. Tauman - taumanapost.tau.ac.il, DOI: 10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2004.02.002, Mathematical Social Sciences, Sep. 2004
      • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

    2. Nation's Charter Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores Reveal, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: The first national comparison of test scores among children in charter schools and regular public schools shows charter school students often doing worse than comparable students in regular public ... The findings, buried in mountains of data the Education Department released without public announcement, dealt a blow to supporters of...

    3. Raising Europe's Game, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Many advocates of an ERC [European Research Council, Ed.] lament the gap in research and development spending, as a percentage of national wealth, between the United States and the established EU members (EU15). But look more closely at the data (...) it is clear that almost all (96%) of the EU15 funding shortfall is due to lack of spending by business and industry, which focus more on development than research. (...) but whether or not this improbable ambition is fulfilled lies entirely in the hands of industry, not government.

  3. News Analysis: Google Keeps Wall Street At Bay, International Herald Tribune Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: But the fact is that Google managed to go public at a very attractive valuation - many times what Microsoft received when it went public a generation ago - and to give Wall Street a surprisingly small piece of the action in doing so.

    It was not just that the fees paid to the investment bankers were lower than normal, (...). It was that being a friend of the underwriter was not any help in getting in on the initial profit from the new offering.

    1. Internet Heading to Light Speed, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: A new nanotechnology that eliminates network bottlenecks could help create a web surfers' paradise that is 100 times faster than today's Internet.

      Fiber-optic networks capable of sending information at 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps are being rolled out around the world and under the oceans to connect everyone to everything. But getting information to pass from one high-speed network to another can be slowed by electronic switching technology.

      The new technology, (...), uses buckyballs glued together by a custom polymer, providing a way to create an optical switch.

    2. DNA Technique Protects Against 'Evil' Emails, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: A technique originally designed to analyse DNA sequences is the latest weapon in the war against spam. An algorithm named Chung-Kwei (after a feng-shui talisman that protects the home against evil spirits) can catch nearly 97 per cent of spam.

      Chung-Kwei is based on the Teiresias algorithm, developed by the bioinformatics research group at IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Center in New York, US. Teiresias was designed to search different DNA and amino acid sequences for recurring patterns, which often indicate genetic structures that have an important role.

  4. Do Women Really Have More Bilateral Language Representation Than Men?, Brain Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Sex differences in cognition are consistently reported, men excelling in most visuospatial tasks and women in certain verbal tasks. It has been hypothesized that these sex differences in cognition results from a more bilateral pattern of language representation in women than in men. This bilateral pattern of language representation in women is thought to interfere with visuospatial functions in the right hemisphere. To test whether language representation is indeed more bilateral in the female than in the male brain, a meta-analysis was performed (...). It is therefore not likely that differences in language lateralization underlie the general sex differences in cognitive performance (...).

    1. First Solid Evidence That The Study Of Music Promotes Intellectual Development, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The idea that studying music improves the intellect is not a new one, but at last there is incontrovertible evidence from a study (...) examined the effect of extra-curricular activities on the intellectual and social development of six-year-old children. A group of 144 children were (...) assigned randomly to one of four activities: keyboard lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons. (...) The activities were provided for one year. The participating children were given IQ tests before and after the lessons. The results of this study revealed that increases in IQ from pre- to post-test were larger in the music groups (...).

    2. Partner's Stress Status Influences Social Buffering Effects In Rats, Behav. Neurosc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The relationship between a social partner's stress status and the social buffering effect was examined in adult male Wistar rats. Fear-conditioned rats were exposed to the same context along with either a shocked or nonshocked conspecific partner. Changes in body temperature and behavioral responses were monitored in order to compare the effects of social buffering (...). The presence of the partner rat attenuated stress-induced hyperthermia, as well as behavioral responses (...) were more effective than shocked partners. These findings suggest that the social buffering effect depends on the stress status of the accompanying conspecific animal.

  5. Secessionism In Multicultural States: Does Sharing Power Prevent Or Encourage It?, Ameri. Polit. Sc. Rev. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Institutional frameworks powerfully determine the goals, violence, and trajectories of identitarian movements-including secessionist movements. (...) researchers disagree on the question of whether "power-sharing" arrangements, instead of repression, are more or less likely to mitigate threats of secessionist mobilizations by disaffected, regionally concentrated minority groups. (...) used to create a virtual country "Beita," containing within it a disaffected, partially controlled, regionally concentrated minority. Drawing on constructivist identity theory to determine behaviors by individual agents in Beita, the most popular theoretical positions on this issue were tested. (...) Power-sharing can be more effective, but it also tends to encourage larger minority identitarian movements.

  6. Listening In On The Whispering Heart, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A new implantable device that could send an early-warning signal to your doctor before heart rhythm problems arise, may now be possible (...). More than five million people worldwide have been diagnosed with the heart disorder atrial fibrillation (AF). In AF, the upper chambers of the heart, the atria, quiver and beat rapidly: a condition that can often lead to heart failure and stroke, making AF a major cause of hospital admission. (...) have now developed an implantable electronic device that could help doctors listen in to the whispering heart, and prevent serious attacks of AF before it happens.

    1. Heart 'Repair Kit' - Stem Cells Regenerate Injured Muscle, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) demonstrated that stem cell therapy repairs damaged heart tissue and aids recovery after heart attack. (...) Most conventional therapies for myocardial infarction -- heart attack caused by suspension of blood flow -- help ensure damage to the heart doesn't progress or recur, but don't repair damage already done. Because embryonic stem cells can generate diverse cell types in the body, including heart cells, the Mayo Clinic researchers investigated whether transplantation of such stem cells could repopulate heart muscle (...). "The heart has a limited capacity for self-repair, (...) embryonic stem cells present an opportunity for reparative therapy with stable benefit in myocardial infarction."

  7. A First-Draft Human Protein-Interaction Map Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Background : Protein-interaction maps are powerful tools for suggesting the cellular functions of genes. Although large-scale protein-interaction maps have been generated for several invertebrate species, projects of a similar scale have not yet been described for any mammal. Because many physical interactions are conserved between species, it should be possible to infer information about human protein interactions (and hence protein function) using model organism protein-interaction datasets.

    Results: Here we describe a network of over 70,000 predicted physical interactions between around 6,200 human proteins generated using the data from lower eukaryotic protein-interaction maps. The physiological relevance of this network is supported by its ability to preferentially connect human proteins that share the same functional annotations, and we show how the network can be used to successfully predict the functions of human proteins. We find that combining interaction datasets from a single organism (but generated using independent assays) and combining interaction datasets from two organisms (but generated using the same assay) are both very effective ways of further improving the accuracy of protein-interaction maps.

    Conclusions: The complete network predicts interactions for a third of human genes, including 448 human disease genes and 1,482 genes of unknown function, and so provides a rich framework for biomedical research.

    1. Structural Biology: Anthrax Hijacks Host Receptor, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: An atomic picture of how anthrax toxin binds to its host's cells reveals that the toxin commandeers a host receptor protein and tricks it into helping the toxin enter the cell. (...)

      Once exposed to B. anthracis, the only treatment available involves a 60-day course of antibiotics that have unpleasant side-effects. The race to develop more palatable alternatives that will work at any stage of infection is now focusing on anthrax toxin, the protein complex responsible for the bacterium's lethal effects.

    2. Cell Division: Timing The Machine, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: During cell division everything must happen at the right time, or errors occur. A common cellular control device, protein phosphorylation, is now shown to time the assembly of a key part of the division machinery.

      This attention has led to the discovery and analysis of a cycle of events that influences key regulatory proteins, but the mechanisms by which these proteins in turn influence the machinery of mitosis are less well understood. (...) describing direct links between cell-cycle regulators and the cell-division machinery.

  8. Firm Sets Sights On Gene Silencing To Protect Vision, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Acuity hopes to use a small interfering RNA to treat patients with wet age-related macular degeneration. The condition is caused by extended growth of blood vessels in the retina - a problem that Acuity thinks can be tackled by silencing the gene that triggers the growth. The company says that the condition affects more than 1.65 million people in the United States.

    Dale Pfost, Acuity's chief executive, says his firm has applied for a patent on the RNA molecule involved, but the intellectual-properties issues are not straightforward.

    1. Demo: Artificial Retina, Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt:
      (,,,) A flexible, whitish polymer that molds to the eye forms its base. The electronics sit on the pentagon at the top.(...)
      One day, removing a lab animal's retina, a tissue-thin membrane that lines the back of the eyeball's interior, he had an epiphany. (E).The retina's light-sensing cells die off in retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, (E); but the nearby neurons that ferry the signals from those cells to the brain remain intact. So Rizzo conceived of a retinal prosthesis-an implant that would take a wireless signal from a video camera, bypass the light receptors, and stimulate the healthy nerve cells directly to feed the image to the brain.

    2. The Blind Leading The Sighted, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: "Suppose a man born blind, and now adult, and taught by his touch to distinguish between a cube and a sphere... [Then suppose] the blind man be made to see: query, whether by his sight, before he touched them, could he distinguish and tell which was the globe and which the sphere? To which the acute and judicious proposer answers, 'Not. (...)¡¨

      (...) visual learning is important and slow - it was only knowledge acquired from touch that enabled Bradford to interpret an artificial stimulus, such as a clock face, correctly.

  9. Putting Muscles to the Acid Test, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt:
    Acid aid. Lactic acid may help rather than hamper muscle performance, a study suggests. CREDIT: TIM DE WAELE/CORBIS
    Olympic athletes competing in Athens this week will be painfully aware of the "burn" caused by lactic acid buildup in their muscles. But how many of them realize that lactic acid is helping, not hindering, their performance? This shocking discovery was made 3 years ago; now, researchers have figured out what's going on.

    The electrical signals that make our muscles contract are controlled by the balance of sodium, potassium, and chloride ions inside and outside muscle cells.

    1. Lactic Acid May Not Cause Muscle Fatigue, NPR ME Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Lactic acid traditionally has had the ill reputation of being a substance that slows down athletes. The acid is thought to weaken muscles when athletes need them the most. But a new study suggests lactic acid isn't the problem.

    2. Marathon Mouse' Doubles Stamina, BBC Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Scientists find genetically-modified mice can run twice as far, in a development that could help human stamina. Scientists in the United States have genetically engineered mice which can run twice as far as normal before becoming exhausted.

      The researchers say their finding could lead to drugs or gene treatments to improve the stamina of human athletes.

      Scientists add an additional active copy of a normal mouse gene.

      Humans have the same gene, called PPAR-delta, and two major pharmaceutical companies are already developing drugs which boost its activity.

      Somewhat inevitably in Olympic season, it been dubbed "the marathon mouse".

    3. GM 'Marathon' Mice Break Distance Records, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: "This is the first animal engineered for increased endurance," (...).

      Pills that mimic the benefit of exercise could also help patients whose conditions prevent them from exercising and building muscle, such as people suffering from obesity. In fact, it was while studying genes involved in obesity and fat metabolism that Evans's team stumbled across how to make mice long distance runners.

      The focus of their work was a protein called PPARdelta, known to play a role in promoting the burning of fat and fighting obesity.

  10. Medicinal Chemistry: A Worthy Adversary For Malaria, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: A remarkable set of antimalarial drug candidates has been developed by an international collaboration of scientists, using the age-old Chinese herbal medicine artemisinin as a template.

    Nearly two billion people live in areas where malaria is endemic, and the incidence of this disease is increasing dramatically, mainly because many malaria-parasite strains have become resistant to the available drugs. (...) development of a new class of synthetic drug related to the natural antimalarial product artemisinin.

    Artemisinin has been used in traditional Chinese herbal fever remedies for more than 1,500 years (...).

    1. Less Sleep, Less Stress With Peptide S, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: The new work is an important contribution to understanding an old area of the brain,(...). And the protein is a good candidate for treating a number of ills, from depression to narcolepsy.(...)

      They found that rats injected with the neuropeptide were less anxious about exploring brightly lit areas of their cages than were normal rats, which preferred the safer, enclosed areas.(...)

      In addition to calming nerves, a jab of neuropeptide S kicked the rats in high gear. Those injected with the protein stayed awake for almost twice as long as normal rats.

  11. How Language Shapes Math, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: (...) the men saw a piece of candy being put into a box with a picture of several fish on the lid. They were then shown the box with the candy and another box that had either one more or one fewer fish on its lid and asked to choose a box. Even though a correct guess meant a candy reward, subjects did no better than chance, (...). Although some linguists have hypothesized that humans have an innate number sense, Gordon contends that his results cast doubt on this theory.

    1. Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia, Science Express Reports Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Members of the Piraha tribe use a "one-two-many" system of counting. I ask whether speakers of this innumerate language can appreciate larger numerosities without the benefit of words to encode them. This addresses the classic Whorfian question about whether language can determine thought. Results of numerical tasks with varying cognitive demands show that numerical cognition is clearly affected by the lack of a counting system in the language. Performance with quantities greater than 3 was remarkably poor, but showed a constant coefficient of variation, which is suggestive of an analog estimation process.

    2. Life Without Googol, NPR TOTN Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: In a report published this week in the journal Science, researchers describe a group of indigenous peoples in Brazil called the Pirahc tribe. The scientists found that the Pirahc seem to have fewer concepts for numbers than most other cultures. Members of the Pirahc culture have words for one and two -- but one, according to the study, can sometimes mean "around one." Larger numbers are "many."

    3. Math and the Mona Lisa, NPR TOTN Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: How did Leonardo da Vinci use math to influence the way we see the Mona Lisa? And how does our visual system affect our perception of that, and other, works of art? A look at math, biology and the science of viewing art.

  12. Self-assembling Peptides and Proteins for Nanotechnological Applications, Current Opinion in Structural Biology Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Photolithography enables the precise construction of nanodevices in two-dimensional formats. However, self-assembly of designed molecules serves as an alternative for the construction of three-dimensional nanoscale systems and is particularly appealing in that material properties can potentially be engineered at the molecular level. Peptides and proteins hold promise as building blocks for self-assembled systems because of their exquisite three-dimensional structures and evolutionarily fine-tuned functions.

    1. How to Assemble Building Blocks for Nanotechnology, U. Michiga News Release Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Using computer simulation of model particles, (E), studied the self-assembly of particles with sticky molecular "patches" on their surfaces---discrete interaction sites that cause particles to stick together at just the right places to make the grouping organized. (E)

      The results of the simulations showed that if surfaces of particles could be patterned with patches of molecules, they could make the particles assemble into different shapes. The trick, according to the researchers, is using patches that are strongly directional and attract and repel specific parts of other particles, much like proteins do.

  13. Biomechanics: Hydrodynamic Function Of The Shark's Tail, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The tail of most sharks has an elongated upper lobe that differs from the externally symmetrical tail structure common among bony fishes, but the hydrodynamic purpose of this asymmetric tail shape is unclear. Here we quantify water flow patterns in the wakes of freely swimming dogfish sharks and find that they have a ring-within-a-ring vortex structure, in contrast to the single rings shed by symmetrical fish tails. The branched-ring vortex is generated by the inclined angle of the tail's trailing (...), which may increase the shark's vertical manoeuvrability.

  14. Hurricane Intensified Unexpectedly Near Florida, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: In spinning up from a relatively unremarkable Category 2 storm to the extreme Category 4 level in just five hours yesterday, Hurricane Charley illustrated the limits that still dog hurricane (... ). John L. Beven, a hurricane specialist at the national Hurricane Center in Miami, said the storm's explosive development was (...).

    1. Predicting Hurricanes, NPR TOTN Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: As residents of Florida continue to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Charley, NPR's Ira Flatow and guests talk about how to predict the path of hurricanes. Why do severe storms sometimes take sudden, unpredictable turns?

    2. The Dirt on Rain Forecasting, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: One of the most important controls on precipitation is soil moisture, because the water in soils is eventually returned to the atmosphere by evaporation, thereby providing water that once more will fall as rain. Koster et al. (p. 1138) describe the results of a multimodel intercomparison project designed to identify regions in which precipitation is most affected by soil moisture during summer in the Northern Hemisphere. They construct a global map of the strength of the distribution of land-atmosphere coupling, an essential step for producing better seasonal rainfall forecasts.

    3. Sewage Waters A Tenth Of World's Irrigated Crops, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: A tenth of the world's irrigated crops (E) are watered by sewage. And much of that sewage is raw and untreated, gushing direct from sewer pipes into fields at the fringes of the developing world's great megacities, reveals the first global survey of the hidden practice of waste-water irrigation. (E)

      OWastewater irrigation is in an institutional no-man's land,O said Chris Scott of the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, (E). OWater, health and agriculture ministries in many countries outlaw the practice, but refuse to recognise that it is widespread.O

    4. Palaeoclimatology: Fresh Angle On The Polar Seesaw, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: During the last glacial period, climatic variation in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres was evidently linked. Modelling work points to freshwater discharge into the North Atlantic as a driving factor.

  15. Stars Reveal The Milky Way's Age, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt:
    The Milky Way is one of many spiral galaxies in the Universe
    A team working with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile report that our galaxy is 13.6 billion years old, give or take 800 million years.

    This was determined by measuring the amount of the element beryllium in two stars in a so-called globular cluster.

    The beryllium content of stars rises with time, so it can be used as a "cosmic clock" to calculate their ages.

    (...) time interval between the formation of the Milky Way's first generation of stars and those in the cluster.

    They arrived at a val

  16. Condensed-Matter Physics: Vortices Weave A Tangled Web, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: In high-temperature superconductors, quantized vortex filaments can be twisted up into a DNA-like double helix. An experiment is proposed to test how easily these vortex lines cut through each other.

    (...) quantized, thread-like vortices of charge that swirl like miniature tornadoes around lines of magnetic field. Last year, Alexei Abrikosov shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his brilliant 1957 prediction (...) that, in a class of materials called 'type II' superconductors, a regular lattice of parallel vortex filaments, aligned with an external magnetic field, would form.

  17. Bridging The Gap Between Dynamical Systems Theory And Communication Theory, The British J. for the Phil. of Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: On an influential account, chaos is explained in terms of random behaviour; and random behaviour in turn is explained in terms of having positive Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy (KSE). Though intuitively plausible, the association of the KSE with random behaviour needs justification since the definition of the KSE does not make reference to any notion that is connected to randomness. I provide this justification for the case of Hamiltonian systems by proving that the KSE is equivalent to a generalized version of Shannon's communication-theoretic entropy under certain plausible assumptions. I then discuss consequences of this equivalence for randomness in chaotic dynamical systems.

  18. The Army and the Halliburton Contract, NPR WE Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The U.S. Army has decided to pay Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root for all of its future work in Iraq -- rather than the customary 85 percent. Hear NPR's Scott Simon, Steven Schooner of the Government Procurement Law Program at George Washington University and Dan Guttman of the Center for the Study of American Government at Johns Hopkins University.
    Editor's Note: Halliburton "only" has a 2% profit margin "above cost". Halliburton declares what are the costs and therefore has an incentive to maximize costs, e.g. destroying or abandoning a truck instead of fixing a its flat tire.

    1. Voting While Black, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: And department officials said yesterday that the letter sent out in May was never meant to indicate that the "entire" investigation was closed. Since the letter went out, state troopers have gone into the homes of 40 or 50 black voters, most of them elderly, in what the department describes as a criminal investigation. Many longtime Florida observers have said the use of state troopers for this type of investigation is extremely unusual, and it has caused a storm of controversy.

    2. Retracing the 'Bladensburg Races', NPR WE Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: On August 24, 1814, the U.S. defeat at the Battle of Bladensburg allowed the British to enter Washington and burn the White House. NPR's Liane Hansen talks with historian Anthony Pitch about the infamous clash.
      Anthony Pitch (11:53): "I think that the lesson to be learned from 1812 or 1814 when the invasion actually took place: Do not invest enormous power in a few people! The secretary of war had this enormous power in 1814. And with all that intelligence that was not available to other people he refused to believe that the British army was going to take Washington, until the last minute he thought it was going to be Baltimore. Had there been a diffusion of power there would have been questions asked and different analyses made. This is exactly history repeating itself today in my opinion. This whole debate now about whether to have somebody at the top of all the intelligence organizations really harks back to 1814 because in both cases you had the threat of something terrible happening to the people in the capital of this great nation and you are relying on a few people at the top to get you out of the mess."

    3. $1bn To Build Unmanned Fighter, BBC Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt:
      The X-47B will be designed with "network-centric" warfare in mind
      A US company has received more than $1bn in funding to build prototype unmanned fighter aircraft for the American military. It is hoped that many unmanned fighters would be networked and controlled from land or from an aircraft carrier.

      Key missions envisaged for the vehicle include suppression of enemy air defences, precision strike, electronic attack and surveillance deep into enemy airspace.

      Boeing is already developing another drone called the X-45C under the same operational assessment phase of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) demonstration programme, led by Darpa.

      J-UCAS aims to find a stealthy, unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) with integrated sensors, navigation and communications that can operate in the network-centric battlefield of tomorrow.

    4. Rumsfeld Waits for 'Go' on Missile Defense, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Administration officials have said the initial system will serve a dual purpose: It will provide a rudimentary defense against a potential North Korean missile attack, and it will enable the Pentagon to conduct more rigorous and diverse testing.

      How defense officials plan to balance the demands of keeping the system on alert while also conducting tests has remained in question. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that if he had to choose between maintaining the alert status or running tests, he would opt for testing -- provided there was no missile crisis at the time.

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

    1. Sen. Kennedy Flagged by No-Fly List, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Federal air security officials said the initial error that led to scrutiny of the Massachusetts Democrat should not have happened even though they recognize that the no-fly list is imperfect. But privately they acknowledged being embarrassed that it took the senator and his staff more than three weeks to get his name removed.

      A senior administration official, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said Kennedy was stopped because the name "T. Kennedy" has been used as an alias by someone on the list of terrorist suspects.

    2. Al-Qaeda Still Finds Funding, New24.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Prosecuting al-Qaeda fundraisers remains difficult, as US authorities have been unable to acquire financial records from other countries and have struggled to link funding sources to the extremist group, he added.

      Although al-Qaeda's budget has "decreased significantly" since the fall of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, US authorities still do not know "with any precision" how much money the group raises, where it comes from or how it is spent, Hamilton said.

    3. 9/11 Commission Co-Chair Defends Finding On Saudis, Staten Island Advance Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: They did not provide financial backing for Osama bin Laden, Lee Hamilton tells House committee (...)

      Relatives of Sept. 11 victims and the lawyers (...) accusing rich Saudis of bankrolling bin Laden also rejected the commission finding.

      Attorney John D'Amato, who represents over 700 Staten Island plaintiffs in the $1 trillion lawsuit, said he found it incredible the commission could not establish a connection.

      In reports issued last month and over the weekend, the commission said al-Qaida depended financially on Islamic charities throughout the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia.

    4. Treasury Moving To Disrupt Terrorist Financing, GCN Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Hamilton urged the United States to increase its technical assistance to other countries, which it does now through the Financial Action Task Force. For some countries, such as Pakistan, a major U.S. ally in the war on terror, their financial systems are not as sophisticated and have few money-laundering or terrorist-financing tracking laws, he said. Another, the government of Saudi Arabia, did little to stem the flow of terrorist funds from its country until last year when it came under terrorist attack twice and started cooperating.

    5. West Africa Investigation of 9/11 Attacks Challenged, Voice of America Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: "The sentence is: We have seen no persuasive evidence that al-Qaida funded itself by trading in African conflict diamonds."(...)

      Ms. Kelly listed a number of sources that have documented a link between al Qaida and diamonds from Sierra Leone. They include the U.S. and United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone and former Washington Post journalist Doug Farah, who wrote ¡§Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror.¡¨ (...)

      Ms. Kelly asked why two witnesses offered by the Sierra Leone special court in June were not interviewed.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Combat Robots Wow Crowds, Will Knight, 04/08/16, New Scientist
      2. New Bird Spotted In Philippines, Alex Kirby, 04/08/16,
        Unlike most rails, this is a forest bird
        BBC, A bird species new to science is found by researchers on a remote island in the Philippines
      3. Generalized Synchronization of Spatiotemporal Chaos in a Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulator, Elizabeth A. Rogers, Rita Kalra, Robert D. Schroll, Atsushi Uchida, Daniel P. Lathrop, Rajarshi Roy, 04/08/17, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 084101. We demonstrate generalized synchronization in a spatiotemporal chaotic system, a liquid crystal spatial light modulator with optoelectronic feedback.
      4. Sexy Males Make Bird Mothers Better, Gaia Vince, 04/08/18, New Scientist
      5. Newton's Religious Screeds Get Online Airing, Geoff Brumfiel, 04/08/19, Nature 430, 819 Biblical musings reveal another side of the father of modern science, DOI: 10.1038/430819a
      6. Dust 'Is Hidden Climate Problem', 04/08/19, BBC, He said advances in satellite imagery had made it easier to monitor dust storms and locate the world's primary dust source, the Bodele depression in Chad, in central west Africa.

        In parts of North Africa, annual dust production had increased tenfold in the last 50 years, Professor Goudie said. (...)

        The deposition of dust can affect the environment in several ways, including climate change, soil salinisation, disease transmission, ocean fertilisation, changes in ice cap albedo (reflectivity), air pollution and the neutralization of acid rain.

      7. Connectivities and Synchronous Firing in Cortical Neuronal Networks, L. C. Jia, M. Sano, Pik-Yin Lai, C. K. Chan, 04/08/20, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 088101
      8. The Economy and the Election, 04/08/21, NPR WE, NPR's Scott Simon talks with Joe Nocera, executive editor of Fortune magazine, about the point at which the health of the nation's economy affects the presidential election.
      9. New York Set For Citywide Wireless, 04/08/21, BBC, New York is on the verge of becoming a wireless city, but not everyone is happy about the prospect.
      10. On Iraq's Border, Sailors of the Desert Smuggle Subsidized Gasoline, Erik Eckholm, 04/08/21, NYTimes
      11. New Fla. Ballot Called Confusing, 04/08/22, The Washington Post
      12. Going Negative: When It Works, Jim Rutenberg, Kate Zerni, 04/08/22, NYTimes
      13. Video Game Makers Go Hollywood. Uh-Oh., Evelyn Nussenbaum, 04/08/22, NYTimes
      14. Introduction to Random Boolean Networks, Carlos Gershenson, 2004/08/12, arXiv [Tutorial @ ALife IX], DOI: nlin.AO/0408006
      15. Becoming-forest, Becoming-local: Transformations of a Protected Area in Honduras, Mark Bonta, 2004/08/12, Geoforum, Article in Press, Corrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.03.011
      16. Inferring Network Mechanisms: The Drosophila melanogaster Protein Interaction Network, Manuel Middendorf, Etay Ziv, Chris Wiggins, 2004/08/15, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.QM/0408010
      17. Age And Growth Dynamics Of Tyrannosaurus Rex, K. Padian, J. R. Horner, 2004/08/16, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
      18. Differences In The Timing Of Reproduction Between Urban And Forest European Blackbirds (Turdus Merula): Result Of Phenotypic Flexibility Or Genetic Differences?, J. Partecke, T. J. Van't Hof, E. Gwinner, 2004/08/16, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
      19. Evolutionary Trade-Off Between Defence Against Grazing And Competitive Ability In A Simple Unicellular Alga, Chlorella Vulgaris, T. Yoshida, N. G. Hairston, S. P. Ellner, 2004/08/16, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
      20. Modelling Non-Additive And Non-Linear Signals From Climatic Noise In Ecological Time Series: Soay Sheep As An Example, N. C. Stenseth, K.-S. Chan, G. Tavecchia, T. N. Coulson, A. Mysterud, T. H. C.-Brock FRS, B. T. Grenfell, 2004/08/16, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
      21. The Insect Police: Why Social Insects Punish Cheating Comrades, M. Patterson - mpattersonaplos.org, 2004/08/17, Alphagalileo
      22. Dynamic Localization Protocols for Mobile Sensor Networks, Sameer Tilak, Vinay Kolar, Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh, Kyoung-Don Kang, 2004/08/18, arXiv, DOI: cs.NI/0408042
      23. Epson Announces Advanced Model of the World's Lightest Micro-Flying Robot, 2004/08/18, Epson news
      24. Tribe Without Names for Numbers Cannot Count, Helen Pearson, 2004/08/19, Nature Publishing Groups
      25. Inferring Dynamic Architecture Of Cellular Networks Using Time Series Of Gene Expression, Protein And Metabolite Data, E. Sontag, A. Kiyatkin, B. N. Kholodenko - boris.kholodenkoajefferson.edu, Aug. 2004, Bioinformatics
      26. On-Line Motor Control In Patients With Parkinson's Disease, M. Desmurget - desmurgetalyon.inserm.fr, V. Gaveau, P. Vindras, R. S. Turner, E. Broussolle, S. Thobois, Aug. 2004, online 2004/06/23, Brain, DOI: 10.1093/brain/awh206
      27. One Size Fits All? Accession To The Internal Market; An Industry-Level Assessment Of EU Enlargement, R. Nahuis - nahuisacpb.nl, Jul. 2004, online 2004/04/25, Journal of Policy Modeling, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2004.04.013
      28. Defence Expenditure And Economic Growth In The European Union- A Causality Analysis, C. Kollias - kolliasauth.gr, G. Manolas, S.-M. Paleologou, Jul. 2004, online 2004/05/25, Journal of Policy Modeling, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2004.04.013
      29. An Evaluation Of An Adaptive Automation System Using A Cognitive Vigilance Task, F. G. Freeman - ffreemanaodu.edu, P. J. Mikulka, M. W. Scerbo, L. Scott, Nov. 2004, online 2004/04/24, Biological Psychology, DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2004.01.002
      30. Feelings And Emotions: Roles For Electrophysiological Markers, J. T. Cacioppo - cacioppoauchicago.edu, Oct. 2004, Biological Psychology, DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2004.03.009
      31. Kinship And Sociality In Coastal River Otters: Are They Related?, G. M. Blundell, M. B.-David - bendavidauwyo.edu, P. Groves, R. T. Bowyer, E. Geffend, online 2004/06/11, Behavioral Ecology
      32. Egg Marking Pheromones Of Anarchistic Worker Honeybees (Apis Mellifera), S. J. Martina - s.j.martinasheffield.ac.uk, N. Châlinea, B. P. Oldroydb, G. R. Jonesc, F. L. W. Ratnieksa, online 2004/06/16, Behavioral Ecology, DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arh089
      33. Asymptotics, Reduction And Emergence, R. J. Davidson, Sep. 2004, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China, 04/07/22-23
      2. Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
      3. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      4. ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy, 04/06/14-17
      5. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      6. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      7. Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28
      8. Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27
      9. Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01
      10. Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
      11. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      12. World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland
      13. CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And Intelligent Systems, 2004 Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
      14. EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
      15. The Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Po tential and Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
      16. ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      17. New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
      18. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      19. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      20. 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      21. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      22. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      23. Edge Videos

    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements Bookmark and Share


      1. Gabriele Leidloff, Ugly Casting 1.4 , Berlin, Germany, 04/08/19-10/08
      2. Fractals and Natural Hazards at 32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28
      3. Intl Conf on Science of Complex Networks: from Biology to the Internet and WWW (CNET2004), Aveiro (Portugal), 04/08/29-09/02
      4. ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, s Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01
      5. ANTS 2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium, 04/09/05-08
      6. Dynamic Ontology, An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of Reality, and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy, 04/09/08-11
      7. 9th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15
      8. Dynamics Days 2004, XXIV Annual Conf , Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 04/09/13-17
      9. II. Socrates Workshop on Chaotic Systems, Maribor, Slovenia, 04/09/13-17
      10. Inquiries, Indices and Incommensurabilities: Managing Emergence, Complexity and Organization, Washington, DC, 04/09/18-19
      11. Neuroeconomics 2004, Charleston, SC, 04/09/16-19
      12. New Economic Windows 2004: Complexity Hints for Economic Policy, Salerno, Italy, 04/09/16-18
      13. The Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18
      14. The 8th Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22
      15. The Nonlinear Waves in Fluids: Recent Advances and Modern Applications, Udine, Italy, 04/09/18-22
      16. XVII Brazilian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao - Brazil, 04/09/22-24
      17. 3rd Natll Conf on Systems Science , Trento (Italy), 04/10/07-09
      18. TEDMED Conference , Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15
      19. Intl Workshop On Bifurcations In Nonsmooth And Hybrid Dynamical Systems , Milano (Italy), 04/10/21-22
      20. Wolfram Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois, 04/10/21-23
      21. 6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape, Delft, The Netherlands, 04/10/25-27
      22. Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference , Rio de Janeiro, 04/11
      23. ICDM '04: The Fourth IEEE Intl Conf on Data Mining, Brighton, UK, 04/11/01-04
      24. Denaturing Darwin: International Conference on Evolution and Organization , Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 04/11/12-14
      25. The 7th Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
      26. 17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
      27. Cellular Computing Symposium, U Warwick (UK), 04/12/09-10
      28. International Conference On Computational Intelligence (Icci 2004) , Istanbul, Turkey, 04/12/15-17
      29. Kondratieff Waves, Warfare And World Security, NATO Advanced Research Workshop , Covilhã, Portugal, 05/02/14-17
      30. 5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15
      31. Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
      32. Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24
      33. 18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23


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