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Excerpts: This paper shows that underlying parameters of perceived complexity in the development of a technical platform in the mobile telecommunications industry can be presented in a model consisting of four parameters, divided into three levels. The parameters refer to the number of interrelated parts, type of dependency among these parts, uncertainty in goals, and uncertainty in methods. These complexity parameters can further be found on different levels - external organization, internal organization, and product. The study also shows that these underlying parameters come into play differently in different settings, e.g. how these parameters are perceived is highly dependent on the specific situation. (...)
Corruption, Growth, And The Environment: A Cross-Country Analysis, Env. & Dev. Econ. 
Excerpts: The relationship between per capita income and a number of pollution indicators has been found to display an inverted U-shaped or downward-sloping pattern. (...) the paper estimates the direct and the indirect effect of corruption on pollution. The indirect effect via income is positive or negative depending on the income level. If negative, the indirect effect is dominated by the positive direct effect. Overall, our measures of pollution are monotonically increasing in corruption. Because this relationship is particularly strong at low income levels, developing countries can considerably improve both their economic and environmental performance by reducing corruption.
Modelling Strategies For Controlling SARS Outbreaks, Alphagalileo & Proc. B
Excerpt: A new study by Canadian researchers shows that rapid isolation of people with symptoms of SARS under strict hygiene is sufficient to contain the disease, without requiring the quarantine of those without symptoms. By analyzing 2003 outbreaks in Toronto, Hong-Kong, Singapore and Beijing, the researchers found that once an outbreak is underway, screening for infected people at ports of entry yields little benefit, and now requires quarantine of those without symptoms (but feared exposed to the virus) to control the outbreak. Investment of public health resources to develop rapid and adequate isolation programs is crucial to efficiently control future outbreaks (...).
- Source: Modelling Strategies For Controlling SARS Outbreaks, A. B. Gumel, T. Day, S. Ruan, J. Watmough, F. Brauer, P. Van den Driessche, D. Gabrielson, C. Bowman, M. E. Alexander, S. Ardal, J. Wu, B. M. Sahai, Alphagalileo & Proc. B (Biological Sciences), 2004/10/04
- Contributed by Atin Das - dasatin
yahoo.co.in
Health And Politics: Lessons Learned From The Iraq Conflict, Alphagalileo
Excerpts: A Viewpoint (...) discusses the complex issues concerning the provision of humanitarian relief in the Iraq conflict. The authors of the article comment that 'the US armed forces have increased engagement in humanitarian projects, such as community health and food programmes. Relief organisations believe that this engagement contributes to insecurity by blurring the lines between civilian and military function, and falsely associates them with the military forces'. (...) "Judging from the experience in Iraq, the armed forces should be prevented from dominating humanitarian assistance as much as possible and should leave this task to agencies that have traditionally handled humanitarian crises (...)".
Why Two Sexes Are Better Than One, Science New
Excerpt:
Unisex. Even organisms that seem to have just one gender, like this Chlamydomonas alga, have two cryptic "mating types."
Credit: R. Hoekstra
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(...) populated it with the hypothetical ancestors of all animals, plants, and fungi: single-celled creatures that reproduce by cloning most of the time, but regularly engage in sex, making either sperm, eggs, or wildcard sex cells that can mate with sperm, egg, or other wildcards. (...).
The model showed that sperm and egg sex cells normally outbred wildcard sex cells, (...). The researchers say the reason is that the latter would more often mate with their relatives, (...).
(...) why more than two genders is also an evolutionary no-no.
Pleiotropy As A Mechanism To Stabilize Cooperation, Nature
Excerpt: Most genes affect many traits. This phenomenon, known as pleiotropy, is a major constraint on evolution because adaptive change in one trait may be prevented because it would compromise other traits affected by the same genes. Here we show that pleiotropy can have an unexpected effect and benefit one of the most enigmatic of adaptations-cooperation. A spectacular act of cooperation occurs in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, in which some cells die to form a stalk that holds the other cells aloft as reproductive spores.
Pair Bonds: Arrival Synchrony In Migratory Birds, Nature
Excerpt: Synchronous arrival of pairs of migratory birds at their breeding grounds is important for maintaining pair bonds (...). Here we show that arrival is also synchronized in paired individuals of a migratory shorebird, the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa islandica), even though they winter hundreds of kilometres apart and do not migrate together. The mechanisms required to achieve this synchrony and prevent 'divorce' illustrate the complexity of migratory systems.
Breeding godwits arrived over a one-month period (...). Previously paired males and females arrived within 3.1 (...) days of one another
Genome Sequence of a Polydnavirus: Insights into Symbiotic Virus Evolution, Science
Excerpt: Almost a third of insect pest populations worldwide are naturally controlled by parasitoid wasps. One of the most astonishing strategies used by some of these wasps to modulate the prey caterpillars' physiology is the injection of a "symbiotic" polydnavirus along with the wasp's eggs. (...). The viruses are not transmitted by infection, but are "inherited" as an endogenous provirus integrated in the wasp's genome. The virus genome seems to have evolved in partnership with the wasp's to play the role of a natural biological insecticide, to both partners' ultimate benefit.
- Source: Genome Sequence of a Polydnavirus: Insights into Symbiotic Virus Evolution, Eric Espagne, Catherine Dupuy, Elisabeth Huguet, Laurence Cattolico, Bertille Provost, Nathalie Martins, Marylène Poirié, Georges Periquet, Jean Michel Drezen, Science : 286-289, 04/10/08
Kurzweil's Quest For Eternal Youth Sets Group Abuzz, Washington Post
Excerpt: At MIT last week, Kurzweil described a future in which he's convinced immortality -- or a drastically longer life span -- will be possible thanks to emerging technologies. (...)
He and Grossman recommend simple starches and foods low in sugar and high in anti-inflammatory agents such as fish and nuts. They advise taking all sorts of substances such as phosphatidylcholine, a cell-membrane component that people tend to lose as they age, making their skin sag.
Stem Cells Pump Out Healing Molecules, Nature News
Excerpt:
Proteins from embryonic stem cells saved embryos that would otherwise have died from a heart defect.
© Science
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The cells must have pumped some kind of heart-repairing substance into the mother's bloodstream, which travelled across the placenta into the babies and directed their heart cells to grow normally.
(...)
The team showed that both of these molecules together have the potential to entirely reverse the growing animal's heart problem. They injected just 15 healthy embryonic stem cells, which were making both IGF-1 and WNT5a, into mutant embryos. The babies that developed from the embryos were close to normal.
Synthetic Biology: Starting From Scratch, Nature
Excerpt: (...) insert a base pair not used in nature into their DNA. A better understanding of the different types of molecules that can function as DNA bases will open a window to the possible chemical ancestors of DNA that might have existed on primordial Earth, and to the possible genetic systems that could support life on other worlds. "I suspect that, in five years or so, the artificial genetic systems that we have developed will be supporting an artificial life form that can reproduce, evolve, learn and respond to environmental change,"(...)
Futures Of Artificial Life, Nature
Excerpt: Researchers are learning to understand and manipulate the genetic circuits that control cells.
(...) Bacteria and yeast have been engineered to build proteins impossible in nature, and with novel properties, by the addition of synthetic amino acids. Several groups are even working on assembling simple cells from basic components. This is no longer a matter just of moving genes around. This is shaping life like clay.
Members of the synthetic-biology community have begun to discuss the possible risks, and ethical implications, of their work.
Did Volcanoes Help Create Life?, Nature News
Excerpt:
Volcanic Gas
© Punchstock
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Gas belched out from prehistoric volcanoes could have helped the first life to flourish, say chemists. They have worked out that carbonyl sulphide (COS) may have been instrumental in stringing together the first molecular building blocks of biology.
The discovery potentially answers one of the most vexing questions surrounding the origins of life: just how did the first complex biological molecules appear, given that there were no organisms around to produce them?
Volcanic gas may have been responsible for creating the first rudimentary proteins
Carbonyl Sulfide-Mediated Prebiotic Formation of Peptides, Science
Excerpt: Almost all discussions of prebiotic chemistry assume that amino acids, nucleotides, and possibly other monomers were first formed on the Earth or brought to it in comets and meteorites, and then condensed nonenzymatically to form oligomeric products. However, attempts to demonstrate plausibly prebiotic polymerization reactions have met with limited success. We show that carbonyl sulfide (COS), a simple volcanic gas, brings about the formation of peptides from amino acids under mild conditions in aqueous solution. (...) peptides in yields of up to 80% in minutes to hours at room temperature.
Developmental Biology: Holding It Together In The Eye, Nature
Excerpt: How informative are the relatively simple and general rules of physics in explaining the often bewildering complexity and specificity of biology? The large number of proteins and metabolites that work together to produce the specific shapes and functions of different cell types suggests that any apparent similarities between cells and simpler non-biological objects are unlikely to be more than coincidence. (...) remarkable analogy between the structures formed from a type of cell in the retina of fruitfly eyes and clusters of soap bubbles.
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Excerpt:
Shape of things to come. Changes to two Hox genes may have spurred evolution of the mammalian female reproductive tract.
Credit: Adapted From Lynch Et Al., Proceedings Of The Royal Society B, Online Edition (October 2004)
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(...) examined the genes' [HoxA-11 and HoxA-13, Ed.] sequences in a variety of animals, including frog, chicken, platypus, opossum, mouse, and human. They then reconstructed the sequences that likely existed in these animals' ancestors and used a standard technique to determine whether differences in the sequence likely arose by chance or by natural selection. Natural selection was responsible for changes in both genes in the common ancestor of today's marsupial and placental mammals, and for additional changes to HoxA-11 in the lineage that gave rise to placentals, (...).
Extinct Humans Left Louse Legacy, BBC News
Excerpt:
The evolutionary history of head lice is tied very closely to that of their hosts
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Some head lice infesting people today were probably spread to us thousands of years ago by an extinct species of early human, a genetics study reveals.
It shows that when our ancestors left Africa after 100,000 years ago, they made direct contact with tribes of "archaic" peoples, probably in Asia.
One explanation is that the human population was reduced in size before it expanded again after 100,000 years ago, as small bands of hunters left Africa. As human populations mushroomed, so did those of head lice that lived on them.
Lice Tell Mankind's Story, The Scientist
Excerpt: Modern humans-Homo sapiens-are generally thought to have passed through a tight population genetic "bottleneck" somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. Parasites such as lice tend to be highly species specific, so by unravelling their evolutionary history it's possible to see past the bottleneck, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's David Reed, lead author of the paper.
"The addition of parasite data to studies of primate and human evolutionary history is similar to having multiple camera angles recording an event," (...).
Tale of Human Origins, Told by Lice, Science News
Excerpt:
Evolutionary partner. Lice evolving in parallel to their human hosts provide clues on human origins.
Credit: Vincent S. Smith/University Of Glasgow
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(...) compared mitochondrial DNA from lice, primarily Pediculus humanus, to published data on human evolution. The data reveal that two genetically distinct lineages of P. humanus appeared about 1.18 million years ago, (...).
Clayton argues that the two subgroups must have diverged when two human lines--perhaps Asian H. erectus and the African ancestors of H. sapiens--went their separate ways, which anthropologist believe happened at about the same time. (...) implies that their human hosts were also isolated--contrary to the multiregional hypothesis.
Protein Breakdown Wins Chemistry Nobel, Science Now
Excerpt: The experiments showed that proteins destined for destruction were covalently bonded--a process that requires energy--to a small protein they called APF-1. That protein later turned out to be ubiquitin, (...).
The three went on to show that three additional proteins work with ubiquitin to tag the proper proteins for disassembly. They and others subsequently showed that ubiquitin then delivers the doomed proteins to the proteasome, a large complex that breaks down the chemical bonds holding proteins together and releases the amino acid building blocks for reuse.
Freeing Up the Strong Force, Science Now
Excerpt: The three new laureates, (...), discovered a property of the strong force--the force that glues quarks to each other--known as "asymptotic freedom." Not only did the idea explain some baffling experimental results in particle colliders, it also showed how to keep the equations that describe the strong force from blowing up--producing meaningless infinities in certain situations.
(...) as you approach the electron, the measured charge increases without bound. Researchers have developed mathematical tools to keep their theories from being derailed by this type of infinity.
How To Build The Universe, Nature News
Excerpt:
Tiling together tiny triangles of space-time gave rise to a universe that looks just like our own.
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Is causality an inherent and necessary characteristic of the Universe, or just an illusion produced by the way our brains interpret the world?
It's real, say physicists, who believe they have worked out how the Universe is constructed from the tiniest building-blocks of space-time. The finding could also help the development of a theory of quantum gravity, (...).
(...) assume that each tiny piece of the foam is a kind of four-dimensional triangle, with three dimensions of space and one corresponding to time.
Emergence of a 4D World from Causal Quantum Gravity, Phys. Rev. Lett.
Abstract: Causal Dynamical Triangulations in four dimensions provide a background-independent definition of the sum over geometries in nonperturbative quantum gravity, with a positive cosmological constant. We present evidence that a macroscopic four-dimensional world emerges from this theory dynamically.
How Much Of The Cosmological Timescale Do We Control And Use?, Nature
Excerpt: In logarithmic terms, we, with a lifetime of around 70 years (roughly 2 109 s), exist on a scale that has more in common with the age of the Universe than with Planck time. We have learned how to keep track of time - we could even regard ourselves as 'Homo temporal' - but how much of it is controlled and used by us? Although the 'long' end of this scale is still only of academic interest, the 'short' end is becoming a hot and bustling frontier of science and technology.
Study Shows Superior Sound-location Skills In The Blind, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: A research team (...) has shown that both early- and late-onset blind people have better sound discrimination abilities than people with normal vision. Reported in the latest edition of the journal Current Biology, the study demonstrates for the first time that blind people from both groups perform equally well in tests requiring them to map auditory space beyond their peri-personal environment. (...) "Humans are remarkably adaptable. (...) Of course, hearing is far more important to blind people so it's possible that they spend proportionately more time developing this sense. It's also possible that their superior performance reflects cross-modal cortical reorganization."
Social Sciences Are Branches Of Biology, Socio-Econ. Rev.
Excerpts: Since biology is the study of living organisms, their behaviour and social systems, and since humans are living organisms, it is possible to suggest that social sciences (the study of human behaviour and social systems) are branches of biology (...). Evolutionary psychology's recognition that humans are animals can explain some otherwise perplexing empirical puzzles in social sciences, such as why there is a wage penalty for motherhood but a wage reward for fatherhood (...). The General Social Survey data illustrate the evolutionary psychological argument that reproductive success is important for both men's and women's happiness, but money is only important for men's.
Biodiversity: The Sixth Great Wave, BBC News
Excerpts: All the creatures we share the Earth with are important in some way, however unprepossessing or insignificant they may appear. They and we are all part of the web of life. (...)
Many scientists believe this is the sixth great wave - the sixth mass extinction to affect life on Earth.
Organic Farming Boosts Biodiversity, NewScientist
Excerpt: Organic farming increases biodiversity at every level of the food chain - all the way from lowly bacteria to mammals. This is the conclusion of the largest review ever done of studies from around the world comparing organic and conventional agriculture.
Previous studies have shown that organic farming methods can benefit the wildlife around farms. But "the fact that the message is similar all the way up the food chain is new information", (...).
(...) measured biodiversity in groups of organisms ranging from bacteria and plants to earthworms, beetles, mammals and birds.
Spray Now or Pay Later, NY Times
Excerpt: In scenes reminiscent of a biblical plague, desert locusts are sweeping across West Africa in swarms the size of Chicago. Moving up to 100 miles a day, swarms of several billion locusts are devouring crops and pastures in some of the poorest areas on earth. Unless immediate action is taken to stop what is now the worst locust plague of the last decade, up to 25 percent of crops in West Africa could be lost, and the livelihoods of 150 million people put at risk by year's end.
Tyrannosaurs Evolved Head First, Science Now
Excerpt:
Early model. The most primitive tyrannosauroid ever found was decked out with downy "protofeathers" and a T. rex-like skull.
Credit: X. Xu Et Al., Nature 431, 680 (2004)
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Paleontologists have found about a dozen species of tyrannosaurs. Most lived late in the Cretaceous Period, which ended 65 million years ago. Isolated bones have been found from older and more primitive tyrannosaurs, but not all have been accepted as ancestors. The new specimens come from western Liaoning Province in China (...). The skull has many familiar attributes, including bones shaped like those that apparently helped later tyrannosaurs launch swift, bone-jarring ambushes. The team dubbed the new creature Dilong paradoxus, for "surprising emperor dragon."
'New' Giant Ape Found In DR Congo, Science New
Excerpt: The animals, with characteristics of both gorillas and chimpanzees, have been sighted in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to local villagers, the apes are ferocious, and even capable of killing lions.
There are three controversial possibilities to explain the origin of the mystery apes:
- They are a new species of ape
- They are giant chimpanzees, much larger than any so far recorded, but behave like gorillas
- They could be hybrids, the product of gorillas mating with chimpanzees.
What's in a Chimp's Toolbox?, Science Now
Excerpt:
Right tool for the job. Hidden cameras have revealed that wild chimps select tools that suit the task.
Credit: Goualougo Chimpanzee Project
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(...) "some of the most complex tool kits and techniques that have been observed in wild chimpanzees." The chimpanzees regularly visit two kinds of termite nests and use two different sets of tools to extract their prey. For mounds, the chimps first punch into the nest with a small, short stick. Then they switch to a "fishing probe" that the termites crawl onto. For underground nests, the chimps use a longer "puncturing stick" to get to the nest and follow up with their probes. (...).
The Scaling of Animal Space Use, Science
Excerpt: Space used by animals increases with increasing body size. Energy requirements alone can explain how population density decreases, but not the steep rate at which home range area increases. We present a general mechanistic model that predicts the frequency of interaction, spatial overlap, and loss of resources to neighbors. Extensive empirical evidence supports the model, demonstrating that spatial constraints on defense cause exclusivity of home range use to decrease with increasing body size. In large mammals, over 90% of available resources may be lost to neighbors. Our model offers a general framework to understand animal space use and sociality.
Keeping an Eye on the Neighbors, Science
Excerpt: What determines the size of the home ranges of mammals of different sizes? In his Perspective, Buskirk discusses a recent analysis (Jetz et al.) that reveals how frequency of interactions with same-species neighbors influences the size of home ranges. It turns out that large mammals have larger than predicted home ranges because they are unable to traverse their home ranges often enough to exclude intrusive neighbors that seek a share of their resources.
Human and Computer Learning: An Experimental Study, arXiv
Abstract: Simple memorizing tasks have been chosen such as a binary code on a matrix. After the establishment of an appropriate protocol, the codified matrices were individually presented to 150 university students who had to memorize them. A computer simulation for a similar task is available which uses a perceptron on which an algorithm was implemented allowing for some degree of globality (technically referred to as entropic nonextensivity within a current generalization of the usual, Boltzmann-Gibbs, statistical mechanics). Our main observation is that, for the very specific learning task on which we focus here, humans perform similarly to slightly nonextensive perceptrons.
Researchers Manipulate Recognition Mechanism to Detect Small Molecules, Georgia Tech News Release
Excerpts:
Georgia Tech graduate student Lauren Schwimmer examines yeast colonies growing on a petri plate.
Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek
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Researchers have learned how to commandeer the complex machinery that cells use to recognize and respond to such important molecules as steroid hormones, thyroid hormones and vitamin D.
The development could provide a foundation for a new family of biologically-based mechanisms able to detect common drugs, chemical weapons and other small molecules. By allowing manipulation of this cellular protein machinery - known as nuclear receptors - the technique could also lead to new methods for producing enzymes and important pharmaceutical compounds.
Visionaries Outline Web's Future, BBC News
Excerpt: Universal access to all human knowledge could be had for around $260m, a conference about the web's future has been told.
The idea of access for all was put forward by visionary Brewster Kahle, who suggested starting by digitally scanning all 26 million books in the US Library of Congress. (...)
Experts at the event said the next generation of the web will come out of the creative and programming communities starting to tinker with the vast pool of data the net has become.
Dynamical Networks for Information Processing, Information Sciences
Abstract: Coupled evolution of state and topology of dynamical networks is introduced. Due to a well organized tensor structure, the governing equations are presented in a canonical form, and required attractors as well as their basins can be easily placed and controlled. This new class of dynamical networks can represent phenomenological models for self-organization in physics and biology. Applications of these networks to pattern recognition, associative memory, synthesis of models based upon observation data, detection of abnormalities and data compression are discussed. The difference between the proposed dynamical networks and neural networks is emphasized.
The Active Site in Nanoparticle Gold Catalysis, Science
Excerpt: Most pollution from U.S. automobiles is emitted in the first 5 min after startup. This is because Pt- or Pd-based catalysts currently used in automobile exhaust cleanup are inactive below about 200ºC. (...) Gold nanoparticles (...) have been shown to be amazingly active and selective as catalysts (...). There is intense interest in these catalysts for carbon monoxide oxidation, because they are active at room temperature. Interestingly, the low-temperature gold catalysts are totally inactive unless the gold is in the form of particles smaller than ~8 nm in diameter.
Pit Stop on the Cocaine Highway, Washington Post
Excerpts: Guatemala Becomes Favored Link for U.S.-Bound Drugs
He said that if Guatemalan anti-drug police happen to spot a drug plane now, they have to ask the army for a helicopter to chase it. There is only one army helicopter available to the police, (...).
Florido said it has been nearly impossible to catch the traffickers, who unload their cocaine in minutes and then burn or abandon their planes. He said traffickers with sophisticated boats also usually outrun Guatemalan naval forces, which have limited navigation and communications equipment.
Ignorance Isn't Strength, NY Times
Excerpt: President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have an unparalleled ability to insulate themselves from inconvenient facts. They lead a party that controls all three branches of government, and face news media that in some cases are partisan supporters, and in other cases are reluctant to state plainly that officials aren't telling the truth. They also still enjoy the residue of the faith placed in them after 9/11.
This has allowed them to engage in what Orwell called "reality control."
Campaign Security Screening Crowds for Doubters, NPR ME
Excerpt: Some would-be attendees at President Bush's campaign events say they're being asked to leave for wearing clothes or stickers that support the president's opponent. At Sen. Kerry's rallies, the presidential hopeful ruefully acknowledges the presence of the opposition. NPR's Nina Totenberg examines the rights of campaign event planners and attendees.
Bush's Isolation From Reporters Could Be a Hindrance, Washington Post
Excerpt: "If you don't talk to the press and deal with audiences with some degree of skepticism, you can't build understanding so people have confidence in you in hard times," Fields said. "His handlers think they're doing him a favor, but they're not." (...).
The tradition of the White House news corps shouting questions at the president has largely faded during this term because Bush reacts testily and does not answer, and his staff typically sets up events so he does not have to walk near reporters.
The Battle of the Pump, NY Times
Excerpts: If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia - where it ends up with mullahs who build madrasas that preach intolerance - that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our own deficit and finance our own schools. In fact, the Bush energy policy should be called No Mullah Left Behind.
Editor's Note: Problems related to oil supplies seem to emerge as a global pattern of conflict.
The impact of a focus on hydrogen technology in combination with a lack of support of energy conservation measures also appears to contribute to this pattern.
Nigeria Fuel Price Strike Starts, BBC News
Excerpt: Many Nigerian shops and offices are closed at the start of a four-day general strike over fuel price rises in Africa's largest oil producer.
The strike call has been followed in the main cities of Abuja and Lagos but oil production has not been affected.
The strike is one reason why world oil prices have reached a new record high. (...)
On Monday morning, prices of Brent crude oil passed the $50 a barrel mark for the first time.
Venezuela Raises Oil Drilling Tax, BBC News
Excerpt: Venezuela has announced that it is increasing the royalties paid by foreign oil companies from 1% to 16.6%.
President Hugo Chavez said it marked the second and true phase of the nationalisation of the country's oil. (...)
The surprise measure will affect all foreign companies offering joint ventures in Venezuela's Orinoco heavy crude belt.
During his address on Sunday, Mr Chavez said: "We are no longer going to give our oil away for reasons that no longer exist, if they ever did."
Hydrogen Economy Looks Out Of Reach, Nature News
Excerpt: US vehicles would require a million wind turbines, economists claim.
"Today, hydrogen is not a clean, green fuel," says Oswald's brother Jim, an energy consultant who assisted with the calculation. "You've got to ask: where did the hydrogen come from?"
The only technology that can currently make large amounts of hydrogen without using fossil fuels relies on renewable power sources or nuclear energy, the Oswalds argue. Hydrogen will only mitigate global warming when a clean source of the gas becomes available, they say.
Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
Mathematicians Offer Help in Terror Fight, China Daily/AP
Excerpt: A small group of thinking men and women convened at Rutgers University last month to consider how order theory - a branch of abstract mathematics that deals with hierarchical relationships - could be applied to the war on terror.(...)
Theoretically, Farley said, abstract math could help intelligence officers figure out the most efficient way to disable a terrorist network.
Say it's cheaper or more practical to go after a terrorist cell's "middle management" rather than its leadership. How many of those lieutenants would you have to remove in order to disrupt communication (...).
A Web Wise Terror Network, BBC
Excerpt: Communications have always been an essential part of al-Qaeda's strategy, but the internet and email have become even more important in recent years.
They have provided the terror network with new possibilities - but, as the Khan case illustrates, fresh vulnerabilities too.(...)
"The al-Qaeda ideology can be very well served on the internet. It is able to purport its agenda, goals and ideology probably better on the internet than any other means."
(...) the organisation has been forced to evolve and become more decentralised - (...).
After Convictions, the Undoing of a U.S. Terror Prosecution, NY Times
Excerpt: Publicly, federal prosecutors declared in the summer of 2002 that they had thwarted a "sleeper operational combat cell" based in a dilapidated apartment here.
Privately, senior Justice Department officials had doubts about the strength of the case even as they were moving to indict four Middle Eastern immigrants on terrorism charges. The evidence was "somewhat weak," an internal Justice Department memorandum obtained by The New York Times acknowledged. (...) But charging the men with terrorism, the memorandum said, might pressure them to give up information.
A New C.I.A. Report Casts Doubt on a Key Terrorist's Tie to Iraq, NY Times
Excerpt: The new C.I.A. assessment, based largely on information gathered after the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, is the latest to revise a prewar intelligence report used by the administration as a central rationale for war.
Other reports have cast doubt on the idea that Iraq provided chemical and biological weapons training to Al Qaeda, and the report of the Sept. 11 commission found no "collaborative relationship" between the former Iraqi government and Al Qaeda.
Most at Guantanamo to Be Freed or Sent Home, Officer Says, Washington Post
Excerpt: Most of the alleged al Qaeda and Taliban inmates at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are likely to be freed or sent to their home countries for further investigation because many pose little threat and are not providing much valuable intelligence, the facility's deputy commander has said.
The remarks (...) appeared to conflict with past comments by U.S. military commanders who have stressed the value of the information obtained from the detainees and the danger many would pose if released.
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
- Examining Missile Defense , 04/10/04, NPR TOTN,
Missiles being installed in Alaska will become part of a new defense system. The idea is to knock incoming missiles out of the sky. But will the system work as advertised? We talk with our guests about the past, present, and future of missile defenses.
- T. Rex Descended From Feathered Ancestor, Jeff Hecht, 04/10/04, New Scientist
- Science Of Cell Protein Destruction Wins Nobel, Katharine Davis, 04/10/04, New Scientist, Revealing the workings of the "kiss of death" protein has earned three scientists the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2004
- New Theory from University of Leicester Scientists Underpins Drug Development and Food Processing, 04/10/05, U. Leicester PRess Release,
Textbook explanation of how enzymes work is wrong - at least for some enzymes.
- A Slanted View of the Early Universe, 04/10/07,
Eye on the sky. The Cosmic Background Imager has captured the most detailed images yet (inset) of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background.
Credit: Science; (Inset) Readhead Et Al., Sciencexpress, 7 October 2004
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Science News, Astronomers get their best look yet at the polarization of the cosmic
microwave background
- Materials Physics: Doping Control For Nanotubes, Reshef Tenne, 04/10/07, Nature 431, 640 - 641 , DOI: 10.1038/431640a
- Cell Biology: Light On Pits, Elizabeth Smythe, 04/10/07, Nature 431, 641 - 642 , DOI: 10.1038/431641a
- Surface Mechanics Mediate Pattern Formation In The Developing Retina, Takashi Hayashi, Richard W. Carthew, 04/10/07, Nature 431, 647 - 652
, DOI: 10.1038/nature02952
- Role For A Cortical Input To Hippocampal Area CA1 In The Consolidation Of A Long-Term Memory, Miguel Remondes, Erin M. Schum, 04/10/07, Nature 431, 699 - 703, DOI: 10.1038/nature02965
- Trees for Peace, Gretchen Vogel, David Malakoff, 04/10/08, Science News. Kenya's Maathai wins Nobel Peace Prize for reforestation work
- Accelerated Sea-Level Rise from West Antarctica, R. Thomas, E. Rignot, G. Casassa, P. Kanagaratnam, C. Acuña, T. Akins, H. Brecher, E. Frederick, P. Gogineni, W. Krabill, S. Manizade, H. Ramamoorthy, A. Rivera, R. Russell, J. Sonntag, R. Swift, J. Yungel, J. Zwally, 04/10/08, Science : 255-258. Published online 23 September 2004, DOI: 10.1126/science.1099650
- Morphological Disparity of Ammonoids and the Mark of Permian Mass Extinctions, Loïc Villier, Dieter Korn, 04/10/08, Science : 264-266
- A Glycine-Dependent Riboswitch That Uses Cooperative Binding to Control Gene Expression , Maumita Mandal, Mark Lee, Jeffrey E. Barrick, Zasha Weinberg, Gail Mitchell Emilsson, Walter L. Ruzzo, Ronald R. Breaker, 04/10/08, Science : 275-279
- RNAs Turn On in Tandem , Michael Famulok, 04/10/08, Science : 233-234
- The Maser at 50, Ronald L. Walsworth, 04/10/08, Science : 236-237
- Astronomers Eager for a Swift New Vision of the Universe, Robert Irion, 04/10/08, Science : 214-215
- Estimation of Fault Strength: Reconstruction of Stress Before the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, Futoshi Yamashita, Eiichi Fukuyama, Kentaro Omura, 04/1008, Science : 261-263
- Particle Lab Celebrates 50 Years, 2004/09/29, BBC News
- Comparison Of Systems With Complex Behavior, I. Mezi - mezicengineering.ucsb.edu, A. Banaszuk, 2004/10/01, online 2004/08/17, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2004.06.015
- Plug 'n Play In Home Networks, T. Miyatake, K. Katayama, Y. Takeda, A. Nakashima, A. Sugita, M. Mizumoto, 2004/10/04, Alphagalileo
- An Embryonic Stem Cell Model For Parkinson's Disease, 2004/10/05, Sciencedaily & Public Library Of Science
- Talented Sniffer: A Receptor Known For Guiding Sperm To Egg Plays A Role In The Nose, 2004/10/05, ScienceDaily & Cell Press
- Self-Organized Criticality, Optimization and Biodiversity, Roberto N. Onody, Paulo A. de Castro, 2004/10/06, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0410007
- Warm Weather Boosts Mood, Broadens The Mind, 2004/10/07, ScienceDaily & University Of Michigan
- New Research Sheds Light On Basics Of How Neurons Communicate, 2004/10/07, ScienceDaily & Saint Louis University
- Pattern Formation And Nuclear Divisions Are Uncoupled In Drosophila Segmentation: Comparison Of Spatially Discrete And Continuous Models, V. V. Gurskya - gurskymath.ioffe.ru, J. Jaegerb, J. Reinitzb - reinitzams.sunysb.edu, A. M. Samsonova - samsonovmath.ioffe.ru, 2004/10/15, online 2004/09/08, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2004.07.003
- Bifurcation Analysis Of A Class Of 'Car Following' Traffic Models, I. Gasser - gassermath.uni-hamburg.de, G. Sirito - gabriele.siritomath.uni-hamburg.de, B. Werner - wernermath.uni-hamburg.de, 2004/10/15, online 2004/09/11, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2004.07.008
- Mathematical Analysis Of Some Multi-Dimensional Tissue-Growth Models, J. R. King, S. J. Franks - pmzsjfmaths.nottingham.ac.uk, Jun. 2004, online 2004/09/01, European Journal of Applied Mathematics, DOI: 10.1017/S1464793103006420
- The Growth Of IQ Among Estonian Schoolchildren From Ages 7 To 19, H. Pullmann, J. Allik, R. Lynn, Nov. 2004, Journal of Biosocial Science, DOI: 10.1017/S0021932003006503
- Parental Perceptions Of Costs And Benefits Of Children As Correlates Of Fertility In Kuwait, N. M. Shah, C. A. Nathanson, Nov. 2004, Journal of Biosocial Science, DOI: 10.1017/S0021932004006297
- Beached Whales: Examining Japan's Rejection Of An International Norm, K. Hirata - khiratauci.edu, Oct. 2004, online 2004/08/27, Social Science Japan Journal, DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyh025
- Negative Externalities, Defensive Expenditures And Labour Supply In An Evolutionary Context, A. Antoci - angelo.antocivirgilio.it, S. Bartolini - bartolinistunisi.it, Oct. 2004, online 2004/10/07, Environment and Development Economics, DOI: 10.1017/S1355770X04001524
- Absence Of Chaos And 1/f Spectra, But Evidence Of Tar Nonlinearities, In The Canadian Exchange Rate, A. Serletis - serletisucalgary.ca, A. Shahmoradi, Sep. 2004, Macroeconomic Dynamics, DOI: 10.1017/S1365100504030160
- Social Networks And Country-To-Country Transfer: Dense And Weak Ties In The Diffusion Of Knowledge, M.-L. Djelic - djelicessec.fr, Sep. 2004, Socio-Economic Review, DOI: 10.1093/soceco/2.3.341
- Transforming From A Researcher Into A Leader In High-Tech Industries, C.-Y. Chianglin - clcyiim.nctu.edu.tw, J.-S. Chen - jschensynst.com.tw, P. L. Yu - yuplmail.nctu.edu.tw, Sep. 2004, International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making, DOI: 10.1142/S0219622004001203
Webcast Announcements
ALife 9: Ninth International Conference on Artificial Life, Boston, MA, 04/09/12-15
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The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China, 04/07/22-23
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Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
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From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
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ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
04/06/14-17
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Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
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International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
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Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28
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Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27
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Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01
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Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
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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
- 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
- TEDMED Conference ,
Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15
- Intl Workshop On Bifurcations In Nonsmooth And Hybrid Dynamical Systems ,
Milano (Italy), 04/10/21-22
- Wolfram
Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois,
04/10/21-23
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Social and Organizational Innovation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 04/10/25-27
- 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
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ICDM '04: The Fourth IEEE Intl Conf on Data Mining, Brighton, UK, 04/11/01-04
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International Congress of Nanotechnology and Nano World Expo,San Francisco, CA, 04/11/07-11
- Denaturing Darwin: International Conference on Evolution and Organization
, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 04/11/12-14
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An Introduction to Complexity Science, Rockville, MD USA, 04/12/06
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Improving Health of the Chronically Ill: Insights from Complexity Science, Rockville, MD USA, 04/12/07-08
- The 7th Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
- 17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
- Cellular Computing Symposium, U Warwick
(UK), 04/12/09-10
- International Conference On Computational Intelligence (Icci 2004) , Istanbul, Turkey, 04/12/15-17
- Kondratieff Waves, Warfare And World Security, NATO Advanced Research Workshop
, Covilh? Portugal, 05/02/14-17
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5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15
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Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents, Hatfield, UK, 05/04/12-15
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IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium
Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10
- Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
- Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24
- ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK, 05/09/05-09
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Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14
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18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23
