A New Company to Focus on Artificial Intelligence, NY Times 
Excerpts: In recent years, vision and listening systems have made steady progress, and Mr. Hawkins said that while he was uncomfortable with the term artificial intelligence, he believed that a renaissance in intelligent systems was possible.
He said that he believed there would soon be a new wave of software based on new theoretical understanding of the brain's operations.(...)
Mr. Hawkins is now demonstrating a pattern-recognition application using a version of his software. It allows a computer to correctly identify a line drawing of a dog from many different patterns.
Jeff Hawkins' Bold Brainstorm, Business Week
Excerpts: The man who launched Palm thinks he can give machines the smarts to work just like the human mind. (...) While neuroscientists over the years have parsed the problem into more digestible chunks - (...) -- he says no one has put all the pieces together. (...)
(...) brain doesn't function as a miraculously fast processing unit, like a microchip. Instead, it represents a rather simple memory system that keeps track of all kinds of patterns over time -- whether they are sights, sounds, textures, or any other kind of input.
The Book Stops Here, Wired
Excerpts: Jimmy Wales wanted to build a free encyclopedia on the Internet. So he raised an army of amateurs and created the self-organizing, self-repairing, hyperaddictive library of the future called Wikipedia.
IBM Computing Algorithm Thinks Like An Animal, CNET News.com
Excerpts: (...) created a mathematical model that mimics the behavior of neocortal minicolumns, thin strands of tissue that aggregate impulses from neurons. Further research could one day lead to robots that can "see" like humans and/or make appropriate decisions when bombarded with sensory information. (...)
The brain consists of roughly 28 billion cells, Peck explained. The 200 million minicolumns essentially gather sensory data and organize it for higher parts of the brain. The minicolumns also communicate with each other through interconnections. Minicolumns (...) extend through the cortex.
Fastest Supercomputer Gets Faster, BBC News
Excerpts: 
Blue Gene snatched the crown from Japan in November
|
Blue Gene/L, the fastest supercomputer in the world, has broken its own speed record, reaching 135.5 teraflops - 135.5 trillion calculations a second. (...)
It did 70.72 teraflops last year to beat Japan's NEC Earth Simulator.(...)
Its peak theoretical performance is expected to be 360 teraflops, with the machine taking up 64 full racks.
Blue Gene's new record was achieved by doubling the number of current racks to 32. Each rack holds 1,024 processors, yet the chips are the same as those found in high-end computers on the High Street.
Newest Chip Is Combination of Fiber Optics and Electronics, NY Times
Excerpts: Luxtera, a small start-up based on technology (...), plans to announce today a new class of silicon chips that blur the line between electronic computing and optical communications.
The chips, which contain both traditional electronic circuits and ultrathin conduits for laser light, herald the potential to blend the low-cost manufacturing prowess of the semiconductor world with the ultrahigh-speed potential of laser optical networking.
(...) chips that would make inexpensive 10-gigabit office networks possible in April 2006. The 10-gigabit network would be a thousand times faster than those today.
The Fax Machine: Technology That Refuses to Die, NY Times
Excerpts: In an office world that has gone largely digital, hand-held and wireless, the fax machine is ancient technology that just won't go away. No one shows off her fax machine the way she might, say, a BlackBerry. Yet the fax persists as a mockery of the much-predicted paperless society.
"Back in the mid-1990's, when e-mail was really coming into its own, we had high-priced consultants telling us that the fax was going the way of the horse and buggy, (...).
Introduction to the Special Issue: Embodied and Situated Cognition, Artificial Life
Excerpt: The artificial life approach to AI entails a situated, embodied, dynamic perspective on cognition. Instead of studying human cognition at the level of abstract concepts, it opted for the study of artificial systems inspired by simpler living organisms, not hitherto considered to be intelligent. Indeed, this approach blurred the conceptual distinction between life and cognition, between living and intelligent behavior. The key idea to produce intelligent behavior is that embodiment does not mean merely the control of material components, but a true dynamic coupling between intelligent agent and environment.
See Also: Artificial Life, Special Issue on Embodied and Situated Cognition
Bacteria Act As Glue In Nanomachines, Nature News
Excerpts:  The Hamers Group |
Electrodes snare microbes in key sites on silicon wafers. Electric currents are being used to move bacteria around silicon chips and trap them at specific locations. The technique could help to assemble nanomachines from miniature parts, and to create a new generation of biological sensors.
The cells have surface proteins that attach to certain biological molecules. Once the cells are placed at specific sites on a silicon wafer, nanoparticles tagged with these molecules can bind to the cells in those locations. (...)
(...) way to fix components such as quantum dots (...).
-
Excerpt: As virtual teams constitute an important and pervasive organizational structure, research with the aim of improving the effectiveness of these teams is vital. Although critical topics such as conflict, coordination and trust are being addressed, research on creativity in virtual teams has been quite limited. Given that creative solutions to complex problems create and sustain a firm's competitive advantage, an investigation of creativity in virtual teams is warranted. The goal of the current study is to explore the influences on creativity in asynchronous virtual teams. (...)
Activating Knowledge Through Electronic Collaboration: Vanquishing The Knowledge Paradox, IEEE Tran. Professional Commun.
Excerpts: Electronic collaboration has become a driver for productivity as organizations develop linkages for the planning, sourcing, and execution of goods and services. These organizations require mechanisms to harness the diverse and personalized intellectual resources that are distributed across the world. (...) knowledge management is locked in a paradox of perception-the more valuable a knowledge resource is seen to be, the less it is shared. This paper develops a framework for the activation of knowledge that relies on a view of knowledge-as-identity. The analysis of a case study reveals "activation conditions" that delineate processes in which electronic collaboration technologies can be most effective. (...)
Self-organizing social hierarchies on scale-free networks, arXiv
Abstract: In this work we extend the model of Bonabeau et al. in the case of scale-free networks. A sharp transition is observed from an egalitarian to an hierarchical society, with a very low population density threshold. The exact threshold value also depends on the network size. We find that in an hierarchical society the number of individuals with strong winning attitude is much lower than the number of the community members that have a low winning probability.
Towards a New Democracy: Consensus Through Quantum Parliament, arXiv
Abstract: We compare different actual forms of democracy and analyse in which way they are variations of a 'natural consensus decision process'. We analyse how 'consensus decision followed by majority voting' is open to 'false play' by the majority, and investigate how other types of false play appear in alternative types of democratic decision procedures. We introduce the combined notion of 'quantum parliament' and 'quantum decision procedure', and prove it to be the only one, when applied after consensus decision, that is immune to false play.
The Environmental Limits To Globalization, Conserv. Biol.
Excerpt: Criticisms of globalization have been largely based on its socioeconomic effects, but the environmental impacts of globalization are equally important. These include acceleration of climate change; drawdown of global stocks of cheap energy; substantial increases in air, water, and soil pollution; decreases in biodiversity, including a massive loss of crop and livestock varieties; depletion of ocean fisheries; and a significant increase in invasions of exotic species, including plant, animal, and human pathogens. Because of negative feedback from these changes, the future of globalization itself is bleak. (...)
- Source: The Environmental Limits To Globalization, D. Ehrenfeld - dehrenfeld
aesop.rutgers.edu, DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00324.x, Conservation Biology, Apr. 2005, Online 2005/03/23 - Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com
U.S. Education Research: Can Randomized Trials Answer the Question of What Works?, Science
Excerpts: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of new approaches to teaching math, (...), will help school officials know what works, (...). Answering such contextual questions, the critics say, is similar to finding out whether a medicine needs to be taken before or after meals.
"You can design an RCT only after you've done all this work up front and learned what variables really count," Schoenfeld says. ED's approach, he argues, is likely to drive researchers to skip those necessary steps and plan randomized studies without knowing why an intervention seems to work.
Imagination Gets Its Due As A Real-World Thinking Tool, Science News
Excerpts: 
ROSE. An invisible squirrel who lives in a tree in the 6-year-old artist's yard.
M. Taylor
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(...) regard imagination as a thinking tool. Kids regularly use their imaginations to figure out how the world works and to address mysterious issues, she notes, such as what God looks like and what happened in their families or in the world before they were born. (...)
"Fantasy is alive and well in children's lives," Taylor says.
According to Taylor, adults as well as children are imaginative thinkers-even while posing as staunch realists. (...)
"Imagination is about considering possibilities," Taylor says. "That's fundamental to how people think."
China's Human Capital Investment, China Eco. Rev.
Abstract: This paper discusses human capital investment in China. China's current policies favor physical capital investment over schooling and urban human capital investment over rural human capital investment. Current migration policies discriminate against children of migrants. A more balanced investment strategy across rural and urban regions and types of capital is appropriate. Private funding for education through tuition and fees should be encouraged and can supplement government funding and make schools more financially self-sufficient. However, if this policy is enacted, capital markets for financing education need to be developed to avoid discouraging students from poor families from attending school.
- Source: China's Human Capital Investment, J. J. Heckman - jjhuchicago.edu, DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2004.06.012, China Economic Review, 16:1, 2005, online 2004/12/16
- Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com
Employers Relying On Personality Tests To Screen Applicants, Washington Post
Excerpts: Over the past few years, personality assessment tests have moved from the realm of experiment to standard practice as means of screening applicants at many of the nation's largest companies.
Buckle Up for the Dollar's Ride, NY Times
Excerpts: Is the writing on the wall for the dollar? Researchers at one big fund manager say it is, but the markets haven't read along just yet.
Though action by the Fed and a clampdown on federal spending could spare the dollar's blushes, they would both be bad news for the economy. (...)
After the committee opted to raise short-term rates another quarter of a percentage point last week, (...) "pressures on inflation have picked up in recent months" (...).
Whichever way you cut it, we're in for a bumpy ride.
What Happens Once the Oil Runs Out?, NY Times
Excerpts: The controversy over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a side issue. The problem we need to face is the impending world oil shortage.
Coal in a Nice Shade of Green, NY Times
Excerpts: The combination of gasified coal plants and geologic storage can be our bridge to the clean energy of the 22nd century and beyond.
Me and My Hybrid, NY Times
Excerpts: Americans could save 50 billion gallons of gas a year by switching to hybrid vehicles.
Ocean Flow Amplified, Not Triggered, Climate Change, Science
Excerpts: In the run-up to the ice age, by contrast, the core told a more complicated tale. Starting about 70,000 years ago, bottom waters cooled as glacial ice grew on the polar continents, as indicated by oxygen isotopes of microscopic skeletons of bottom-living organisms. Then, a couple of thousand years later, carbon isotopes shifted as the growing ice and climatic deterioration shrank the mass of plants on land, sending their isotopically light carbon into the sea. Only after another couple of thousand years did the conveyor belt flow slow down, (...).
Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk, Knowledge Wharton
Excerpts: Before Hurricane Hugo swept through parts of the southern U.S. in 1989, the insurance industry had never suffered a loss of more than $1 billion from a single disaster. Since then, numerous catastrophes have exceeded that figure, even as development in danger zones continues to increase. It's a trend that emphasizes, as never before, the need to manage risk on both a national and a global scale. "People today are asking the question, 'How do we scientifically evaluate catastrophic risk?'" says Wharton's Howard Kunreuther, co-author -- along with Patricia Grossi -- of Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk. The book analyzes the role of catastrophe modeling in developing risk management strategies to help reduce losses from future disasters, ranging from floods and hurricanes to environmental damage and terrorism.
At NASA, Clouds Are What You Zoom Through to Get to Mars, NY Times
Excerpts: Until a few weeks ago, James C. Wilson, a professor of engineering at the University of Denver, thought he would be spending the summer using high-altitude NASA aircraft to carry instruments into tropical clouds to measure the movement of water vapor and particles like soot. Understanding these clouds is critical to understanding and predicting climate change. But the project has been canceled, (...), a casualty of accounting changes at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and of the Bush administration's emphasis on sending people to the Moon and Mars.
How Dirty Air Hurts the Heart, Science
Excerpts: Fine particles seems to affect the heart in two ways: by changing the heart's rhythm and by causing systematic inflammation. Many studies--from animal experiments to tests in which retirement home residents wore heart monitors--have shown that breathing particle pollution can slightly quicken the pulse and make the heartbeat less variable. The mechanism isn't yet known, but one possibility is that airway receptors stimulate nerves in the heart. A less variable heart rate, in turn, makes the heart more prone to arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), which can presage cardiac arrest.
Right-To-Die Case Highlights Brain Mysteries, Nature
Excerpts: Researchers still far from full understanding of vegetative states.
Assessing Awareness, TOTN
Excerpts: As Terri Schiavo remains in hospice care and without a feeding tube, new questions are being raised about her level of awareness. How is a "persistent vegetative state" different from a "minimally conscious state," and how do neurologists diagnose the difference?
Schiavo Case Puts Face on Rising Medical Costs, The Washington Post
Excerpts: GOP Leaders Try to Cut Spending as They Fight to Save One of Program's Patients
The God Racket, From DeMille to DeLay, NY Times
Excerpts: The religio-hucksterism around the Schiavo case makes DeMille's Hollywood crusades look like amateur night.
Family Wonders if Prozac Prompted School Shootings, NY Times
Excerpts:  Polaris Jeff Weise, whose rampage killed 10 people, took antidepressants. |
(...) Mr. Weise began taking the antidepressant Prozac after a suicide attempt that Ms. Lussier described as a "cry for help."
"They kept upping the dose for him," she said, "and by the end, he was taking three of the 20 milligram pills a day. I can't help but think it was too much, (...)."
(...) medication had increased a few weeks before the shootings on Monday. (...)
The effects of antidepressants on young people remain a topic of fierce debate among scientists and doctors.
Weighing the Difference Between Treating Pain and Dealing Drugs, NY Times
Excerpts: Although pain experts estimate that perhaps one in 10 people who suffer from chronic pain could benefit from opioids, the vast majority will never find this out. Many doctors won't prescribe opioids, especially in high doses. Opioids are safe and nonaddictive if used correctly, but addictive and deadly if crushed and injected or snorted, which defeats their time-release mechanism.
Abuse of narcotics like OxyContin is a serious problem and has devastated many communities. But a huge amount of OxyContin on the street is stolen from pharmacies (...).
Scientists Discover What You Are Thinking, Caltech News Release
Excerpts: (...) an area of the brain known as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPF) is involved in the planning stages of movement, that instantaneous flicker of time when we contemplate moving a hand or other limb. The work has implications for the development of a neural prosthesis, a brain-machine interface that will give paralyzed people the ability to move and communicate simply by thinking.
(...) predict where a target the patient was looking at was located, and also where the patient was going to move his hand.
Casual Sex or Wedding Bells?, Science Now
Excerpts:  Like repels like. The computer generated male face on the right is based on the female face on the left. Credit: www.faceresearch.org |
(...), presented 144 college students with 36 pairs of computer-generated faces. The faces in each pair were of the same race and the opposite sex as the viewer, but one was manipulated to have facial features more similar to those of the viewer.
(...) faces more trust-worthy if they were like their own. When it came to the prospect of a one-night stand, students found facial similarity a turn-off, (...). She concludes that people are less sexually attracted to individuals who look like kin in order to avoid inbreeding.
The Dynamic Gut, Science
Excerpts: As snakes, frogs, birds, and other wild creatures attest, digestive systems need flexibility to meet energy demands as well as the challenges of environment, diet, and predators
You haven't had a meal for so long that your stomach and intestines have atrophied. And when you finally do get something to eat, it's almost as big as you are. Yet you cram it into your mouth and hope that your gut can somehow cope with it. That's what life's like for many snakes: feast or famine.
Self-Renewal and Cancer of the Gut: Two Sides of a Coin, Science
Abstract: The intestinal epithelium follows the paradigms of stem cell biology established for other self-renewing tissues. With a unique topology, it constitutes a two-dimensional structure folded into valleys and hills: the proliferative crypts and the differentiated villi. Its unprecedented self-renewal rate appears reflected in a high susceptibility to malignant transformation. The molecular mechanisms that control homeostatic self-renewal and those that underlie colorectal cancer are remarkably symmetrical. Here, we discuss the biology of the intestinal epithelium, emphasizing the roles played by Wnt, bone morphogenic protein, and Notch signaling cascades in epithelial self-renewal and cancer.
Cancers of the Gut and Western Ills, Science
Excerpts: (...) estimated that around one-third of deaths from cancer could be attributed to diet and were therefore, in principle, preventable. (...) reflection of the complexity of human diets and the obvious fact that cancer is not a single disease. Although there has been huge progress in our understanding of the molecular basis of many cancers in recent years, most of the new knowledge has been deployed in the search for new therapies rather than to understand the role of nutrition in their causation.
Host-Bacterial Mutualism in the Human Intestine, Science
Excerpts: The distal human intestine represents an anaerobic bioreactor programmed with an enormous population of bacteria, dominated by relatively few divisions that are highly diverse at the strain/subspecies level. This microbiota and its collective genomes (microbiome) provide us with genetic and metabolic attributes we have not been required to evolve on our own, including the ability to harvest otherwise inaccessible nutrients. New studies are revealing how the gut microbiota has coevolved with us and how it manipulates and complements our biology in ways that are mutually beneficial.
Wrinkles Could Be Less Than Skin Deep, New Scientist
Excerpts: It is not just human bodies that stiffen in old age, skin cells also appear to become more rigid - the discovery might lead to rejuvenating treatments
Plant Inherits Repaired Gene, TOTN
Excerpts: Researchers report finding that some plants may have a hidden mechanism for repairing damaged genetic material -- even when the plant received two copies of the damaged gene. Does that finding shake up the rules of inheritance?
-
Excerpts:
Mutation in reverse. A special RNA appears to undo a mutation that causes A. thaliana flower parts to fuse (top), so that the offspring flowers are just fine (bottom).
Credit: S. J. Lolle et al., NATURE 434, 505 (2005)
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Hidden RNA may fix mutant genes in plants
When it comes to plants and animals, biologists think of DNA as the sole storehouse of genetic information. A surprising new study challenges that notion. The mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana sometimes ends up with its grandparents' good copy of a gene instead of the mutant ones belonging to its parents. So researchers are putting forth the radical proposal that plants contain an inheritable cache of RNA that can reverse evolution, undoing mutations and restoring a gene to its former glory.
Startling Scientists, Plant Fixes Its Flawed Gene, NY Times
Excerpts: The finding implies that some organisms may contain a cryptic backup copy of their genome that bypasses the usual mechanisms of heredity.
Hidden RNA May Fix Mutant Genes, Science
Excerpts: Plants sometimes end up with their grandparents' good copy of a gene instead of the mutant ones belonging to their parents. The researchers put forth the radical proposal that plants contain an inheritable cache of RNA that can briefly reverse evolution, undoing mutations and restoring a gene to its former glory.
"[The paper] suggests the existence of a unique genetic memory system that can be invoked at will," (...). For example, geneticists trying to assess disease risk would have to take into consideration the makeup of this RNA memory (...).
The Synthesis and Evolution of a Supermodel, Science
Excerpts: Synthesis is the merging of disparate sources of knowledge to create a stronger, more compelling whole. In the biological sciences, barriers to synthesis-(...)--have increased over the past few decades. Developmentalists dissect their favorite ecologically irrelevant models with exquisite detail, while evolutionists tap away at hundreds of fascinating species with genetically toothless tools. Organismal biologists can take great solace in a report (...) that shows how genomics can be used to buck this trend and lead us to new insights into fundamental evolutionary problems.
Chicks Used To Create Nerve Cells, BBC News
Excerpts: Scientists have transformed stem cells from adult human bone marrow into nerve cells by transplanting them into damaged chicken embryos. (...)
It appeared that the embryos' internal repair mechanism acted on the cells (...).
Stem cells are master cells with the ability to form different kinds of tissue. But those from adult bone marrow normally produce blood and immune system cells.
(...) experiments have suggested it might be possible to coax them into becoming nerves. (...)
(...) bone marrow stem cells implanted into chicken eggs developed fully functional physical features.
When Cute Deer Go Bad, NY Times
Excerpts: The plague of white-tailed deer is a prime example of how an ecosystem, in this case, our suburban landscapes, can go badly out of balance.
Flies Have Crystal Vision, Science Now
Excerpts:  Crystal-eyes. The complex patterns of a fly's eyes form much like a crystal does. CREDIT: Anthony Bannister; Gallo Images/CORBIS |
But the eye pattern of the fruit fly results from an even simpler, step-by-step process that mimics the growth of a crystal (...). The layered pattern of atoms in a crystal emerges when additional atoms nestle into the dimples between atoms in the previous layer. That simple process yields a repeating structure with no need for a blueprint.
In the same way, the hexagonal pattern of a larval fly's eye emerges as each new photoreceptor bud positions itself near the gap between neighboring buds in the previous row, (...).
Underwater Bipedal Locomotion by Octopuses in Disguise, Science
Abstract: Here we report bipedal movement with a hydrostatic skeleton. Two species of octopus walk on two alternating arms using a rolling gait and appear to use the remaining six arms for camouflage. Octopus marginatus resembles a coconut, and Octopus (Abdopus) aculeatus, a clump of floating algae. Using underwater video, we analyzed the kinematics of their strides. Each arm was on the sand for more than half of the stride, qualifying this behavior as a form of walking.
Elephant Talks Like a Truck, Science Now
Excerpts: 
Pachyderm parlance. Learned vocalizations may help elephants develop social bonds.
CREDIT: P. Granli/Elephant Voices
|
An elephant that makes truck sounds has researchers wondering if communication among these lumbering giants may be more sophisticated than they'd realized. The newly-demonstrated ability to imitate sounds earns elephants a place on the short list of animals capable of learning vocalizations.
Only a handful of animals are able to modify their calls based on their experience. Many male songbirds, for example, woo females using songs they learned as youths by imitating their fathers. Primates and marine mammals such as whales and dolphins are also vocal learners.
Roosts As Information Centres: Social Learning Of Food Preferences In Bats, Biol. Lett.
Excerpt: The short-tailed fruit bat, Carollia perspicillata, lives in groups in tree hollows and caves. To investigate whether these roosts might serve as information centres, we tested whether individuals' preferences for novel foods could be enhanced through social learning at the roost. We also determined whether socially learned preferences for novel foods were reversed through interaction with other roost mates by simulating changes in available food resources (...). Bats exhibited socially induced preferences that were readily reversible. We suggest that for frugivorous bats, roosts can serve as centres for information exchange about novel and familiar, ephemeral foods without requiring conspecific recruitment to these resources.
Surprisingly Complex Behaviors Appear To Be 'Hard-Wired' In The Primate Brain, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: When you grab a piece of food and put it in your mouth; when you smile in response to the smile of a passerby (...), the complex pattern of movements that you make may be hardwired into your brain. Scientists have long known that many of the behaviors of lower organisms are innate. In the insect world, for example, instinctive behaviors predominate. Birds have a larger repertoire of fixed behaviors than dogs. In primates, voluntary or learned behavior predominates. So neuroscientists have assumed that in primate brains the hard-wiring is limited to simple movements and complex behaviors are all learned. (...)
The Fractal Dimension Of Ionization Cascades In The Glow Discharge, Appl. Phys.
Abstract: The glow discharge's main ionization breakdown processes have been understood for about one hundred years. The glow discharge, however, still remains an area of active research in relation to pattern formation and far-from-equilibrium systems. The primary and secondary ionization processes can be mathematically modelled as general branching processes. Not only is the Townsend breakdown criterion obtained but the ionization avalanche can be characterized as a branching set with a unique Hausdorff fractal dimension. These fractal dimensions can be utilized in applications using similarity principles and Paschen's Law.
Author's Note Excerpts:
Glow Discharge demonstrates electrical effects in a low pressure gas.
Credit: Exploratorium |
The glow discharge is obtained by maintaining a high voltage over a low pressure gas
that causes a luminous and colorful discharge. (...) Every fluorescent light bulb as well as neon bulbs on store signs are glow discharges. (...)
It [the "fractal", Ed.] is not a spatial structure like many investigations focus on. In fact the fractal is inherent in the "branching tree" formed by the ionization. (...)
If you look at the branching tree and imagine each step is a collision with an atom and the new branches are newly liberated electrons, you can begin to understand how this branching tree has a self-similar geometry. (...)
So the paper adds a new perspective and explanation (fractal dimension) for an old and well-known fact about discharges.
Sucking Away the Splatter, Science Now
Excerpts: 
Splashdown. A drop of ethanol hits a smooth glass at atmospheric pressure (above) and 1/5 atmospheric pressure (below).
CREDIT: Lei Xu et al./The University of Chicago
|
In a vacuum, a droplet falling on a surface makes no splash
Nature may abhor a vacuum, but a vacuum abhors a mess. In the absence of air, a droplet of liquid can crash into a smooth surface without splattering, physicists report. The odd phenomenon might be useful for controlling droplet formation in technological processes like inkjet printing.
It seems obvious and inevitable that a fast-moving droplet will splatter when it hits a hard surface. (...) By pumping away some of the surrounding air they could eliminate the splatter entirely.
Bose-Einstein Condensates Interfere and Survive, Science
Excerpts: The intriguing question is how the condensates acquire their phases. In other words, how does nature decide where two seemingly unstructured gases combine to make, say, a region of higher density?
(...) For example, a small grain of iron cooled below 770ºC picks up a magnetization pointing in some direction. (...) However, in the case of a magnet, an environmental magnetic field--no matter how small--is always present and may force its direction upon the magnetization. Not so with a Bose-Einstein condensate: No known physical interaction can fix its phase.
What Is Dark Energy And How Do We Know It's There?, PSU News Release
Excerpts: "Dark energy," says Donald Schneider, professor of astronomy at Penn State, "appears to be the major component of the universe." It's not the same thing as dark matter: ordinary planets, rocks, dust and particles that do not emit light and therefore cannot be easily detected. It's something fundamentally different, outside our current understanding of physics -- a substance totally new to science.
Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
Ethics: A Weapon to Counter Bioterrorism, Science
Excerpts: Advances in the life sciences, especially in molecular biology and informatics, and the potential for misuse of scientific research (the "dual-use" dilemma) raise the possibility that an act of terrorism could involve biological agents. International consensus is crucial on the steps needed to reduce this grave threat to humanity. One such step is to ensure that all people and institutions involved in science are aware of their ethical obligations.
An important way to promote the necessary international consensus and to raise the necessary awareness is through adoption of a code of ethics to govern research in the life sciences.
-
Excerpts: A military tribunal last fall found that Murat Kurnaz, a German national detained at Guantanamo Bay since early 2002, was an enemy combatant, despite considerable U.S. and German intelligence that he had no link to terrorist activities, according to recently declassified evidence obtained by The Washington Post.
-
Excerpts: U.S. law enforcement agents (...), concluded that controversial interrogation practices used there by the Defense Department produced intelligence information that was "suspect at best," an FBI agent told a superior in a memo in May last year.
But the Justice Department, which reviewed the memo for national security secrets before releasing it to a civil liberties group in December, redacted the FBI agent's conclusion.
(...) also blacked out a separate assertion in the memo that military interrogation practices could undermine future military trials for terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
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- India In Effort To Save Vultures, BBC News. The veterinary drug blamed for killing South Asia's vultures is banned by the Indian government.
- Tug-Of-War: How Bacteria Prevent Host-Cell Suicide, 05/03/26, Science News, New research suggests that bacteria may keep the cells they infect alive longer by tugging on the cells' membranes.
- Enron: Patron Saint of Bush's Fake News, Frank Rich, 05/03/20, NYTimes
- X-celling Over Men, Maureen Dowd, 05/03/20, NYTimes
- Energy-Time Entanglement Preservation in Plasmon-Assisted Light Transmission, Sylvain Fasel, Franck Robin, Esteban Moreno, Daniel Erni, Nicolas Gisin, Hugo Zbinden, 05/03/21
- Necklacelike Solitons in Optically Induced Photonic Lattices, J. Yang, I. Makasyuk, P. G. Kevrekidis, H. Martin, B. A. Malomed, D. J. Frantzeskakis, Zhigang Chen, 05/03/22
- The Era of Exploitation, Bob Herbert, 05/03/25, NYTimes, President Bush believes in an "ownership" society, which means that except for the wealthy, you're on your own.
- What Happens Once the Oil Runs Out?, Kenneth S. Deffeyes, 05/03/25, NYTimes, The controversy over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a side issue. The problem we need to face is the impending world oil shortage.
- Noise Propagation in Gene Networks, Juan M. Pedraza, Alexander van Oudenaarden, 05/03/25, Science: 1965-1969
- Signal Processing in Single Cells, Farren J. Isaacs, William J. Blake, James J. Collins, 05/03/25, Science : 1886-1888
- Serpentine Robots Inch Ahead, 05/03/25, Sciece Now, Technology may aid waste disposal and recovery efforts
- Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths, Douglas Jehl, 05/03/26, NYTimes, Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Ant Larvae Sway To Say, 'Feed Me!', 05/03/26, Science News, The most detailed study yet of body language of ant larvae translates a swaying motion as begging for food and a chance at a better future.
- Paint Additive Hammers Coral, 05/03/26, Science News, A pesticidal additive in the paint applied to ship hulls may be contributing to the worldwide decline of corals.
- Flame Retardants Spark New Concern, 05/03/26, Science News, Breakdown products in brominated flame retardants, traces of which circulate in the blood of most people, may perturb the normal production of reproductive hormones, a new test-tube study suggests.
- Plants Take Bite Out Of Deadly Snake Venoms, 05/03/26, Science News, A Nigerian pharmacologist has found in local plants a potential antidote to some of the world's most deadly snake venoms.
- Clever Coating: New Polymer May Prolong Life Of Medical Implants, 05/03/26, Science News,
Coating medical implants such as glucose sensors and coronary stents with copper-doped polymers could dramatically extend the devices' functioning.
- U.S. Is Examining Plan to Bolster Detainee Rights, Tim Golden, 05/03/27, NYTimes, The White House is considering changes to the tribunals it created to try foreign terrorist suspects at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba.
- New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis After 9/11, Eric Lichtblau, 05/03/27, NYTimes, Newly released records point to a more active role by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in aiding some Saudis in their departure.
- Geo-Greening by Example, Thomas L. Friedman, 05/03/27, NYTimes, How will future historians explain why President George W. Bush decided to ignore the energy crisis staring us in the face?
- Dying to Be Famous, Lionel Shriver, 05/03/27, NYTimes, The sad lesson of school shootings: there is no lesson.
- Two-Dimensional Fragmentation In East Asia: Conceptual Framework And Empirics, S. Zink - stefan.zinkuni-konstanz.de, F. Kimura - fkimuraecon.keio.ac.jp, M. Ando, 14: 3, 2005, online 2005/01/25, International Review of Economics & Finance, DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2004.12.005
- Thermodynamics and Economics, Alastair D. Jenkins, 2005/03/12, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0503308
- Dynamics of Social Diversity, E. Ben-Naim, S. Redner, 2005/03/17, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0503451
- Relative Contribution Of Abundant And Rare Species To Species-Energy Relationships, K. L. Evans, J. J. D. Greenwood, K. J. Gaston, 2005/03/21, Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1016/rsbl.2004.0251
- Balancing Between Costs And Benefits Of Maternal Hormone Deposition In Avian Eggs, J. M. Ratcliffe, H. M. ter Hofstede, 2005/03/21, Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1016/rsbl.2004.0233
- Does Body Volume Constrain Reproductive Output In Lizards?, W. Du, X. Ji, R. Shine, 2005/03/22, Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1016/rsbl.2004.0268
- The Relative Role Of Winter And Spring Conditions: Linking Climate And Landscape-Scale Plant Phenology To Alpine Reindeer Body Mass, N. Pettorelli, R. B. Weladji, Ø. Holand, A. Mysterud, H. Breie, N. C. Stenseth, 2005/03/22, Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1016/rsbl.2004.0262
- Big Hopes For Tiny, New Hydrogen Storage Material, 2005/03/22, ScienceDaily & Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Emotional Memories Function In Self-Reinforcing Loop, 2005/03/24, ScienceDaily & Duke University
- Something You Don't Hear Much About: Hearing Loss Tied To Heart Disease, 2005/03/24, ScienceDaily & Harvard University
- Data Transfer Through The Human Body, 2005/03/25, Information Society Technologies Press Release
- Percept, Decision, Action - No 270: Bridging The Gaps, Aug. 2005, Novartis Foundation Symposium, John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd., Book Announcement
- Experiences From Global E-Collaboration: Contextual Influences On Technology Adoption And Use, Munkvold, B. E., Mar. 2005, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
- Paradox Of Richness: A Cognitive Model Of Media Choice, Robert, L., Dennis, A. R., Mar. 2005, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
- The Height-For-Age Of Indian Children, V. K. Borooah - vk.borooahulst.ac.uk, Mar. 2005, online 2005/01/19, Economics & Human Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2004.12.001
- The Effects Of IMF And World Bank Lending On Long-Run Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis, J. L. Butkiewicz, H. Yanikkaya, Mar. 2005, online 2005/01/20, World Development, DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.09.006
- Right Target, Wrong Mechanism? Agricultural Modernization And Poverty Reduction In Uganda, G. Bahiigwa, D. Rigby, P. Woodhouse, Mar. 2005, online 2005/01/20, World Development, DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.09.008
- Active And Dynamic Information Fusion For Facial Expression Understanding From Image Sequences, Yongmian Z., Qiang J., May 2005, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
Webcast Announcements
World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 05/01/26-30
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1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
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Neurobiological Foundation For The Meaning Of Information, Kolkata, India, Conference Webcast, 04/11/22-25
- 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
- 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
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Online Course on Genetic Programming, with Lee Altenberg, University of Hawaii Outreach College 2005/01/10 to 2005/05/13.
- 2005 World Exposition "
Nature's Wisdom, Aichi, Japan, 05/03/25-09/25
- FINCO 2005: Foundations Of Interactive Computation, Edinburgh, Scotland, 05/04/09
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5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15
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Connecting Biology, Chemistry & Business
San Francisco, California, 05/04/19-22
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Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents, Hatfield, UK, 05/04/12-15
- MeshForum 2005, Chicago, Il, 05/05/01-04
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2005 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show
Nanotech 2005, Anaheim, California, U.S.A., 05/05/08-12
- Socio-Dynamics, Networks and Markets, London, 05/05/09-11
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Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 05/05/16-19
- 2ndShanghai Intl Symposium on Nonlinear Science and Applications, Shanghai, 05/06/03-07
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IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium
Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10
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10th Annual Workshop on Economic Heterogeneous Interacting Agents (WEHIA 2005) , University of Essex, United Kingdom, 05/06/13-15
- Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
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NKS Summer School,
Brown University, Providence, RI, 05/06/20-07/08
- 6th Intl Conf Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, Kiev, Ukraine, 05/06/20-26
- Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24
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2005 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), Washington, DC, USA, 05/06/25-29
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6th Intl Summer School/Conference "Let's Face Chaos Through Nonlinear Dynamics"Dedicated to the 75th Birthday of Professor Siegfried Grossmann, Maribor, Slovenia, 05/06/26-07/10
- Computational Social and Organizational Science (NAACSOS 2005), University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN USA, 05/06/26-28
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The Potential Impacts Of Systemics On Society, 49th Annual Meeting of the Intl Soc for the System Sciences, Cancun, Mexico, 05/07/01-05
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WOSC 13th International Congress Of Cybernetics And Systems, Maribor, Slovenia, 05/07/06-10
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Summer Graduate Workshop In Computational Social Science Modeling And
Complexity, Santa Fe, NM, 05/07/10-23
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4th International Workshop on Computational Intelligence in Economics and Finance (CIEF'2005), Salt Lake City, 05/07/21-26
- Epigenetic Robotics, Nara, Japan 05/07/22-24
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5th Gathering on Biosemiotics, Urbino, Italy, 05/07/22-24
- Soc for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences
15th Annual Intl Conf, Denver, CO, USA, 05/08/04-06
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2005 Intl Conf on Natural Computation (ICNC'05), Intl Conf on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD'05), Changsha, China, 05/08/27-29
- 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
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Genomics in Context,
University of Exeter, UK, 05/09/28-30
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CSDS-2005 Intl Conf on CONTROL AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS , Leon, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 05/10/04-07
- European Conference on Complex Systems, Paris, France, 05/11/14-18
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3rd International Complexity Science and Educational Research Conference, Robert, Louisiana, 05/11/20-22, see also: Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, Inaugural issue - Free Online Access
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The Second International Workshop on Biologically Inspired
Approaches to Advanced Information Technology , Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, 06/01/26-27
- FRACTAL 2006 Complexity and Fractals in Nature, 9th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vienna, Austria, 06/02/12-15
