Complexity Digest 2005.18

02-May-2005

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Content

  1. Scientists Make Bacteria Behave Like Computers, LiveScience.com
    1. Neuron Savers: Gene Therapy Slows Alzheimer's Disease, Science News
    2. Acupuncture Activates The Brain, Nature
    3. Scientists Create Animals That Are Part-Human, The Associated Press
  2. Read All About It - Kids Take Different Neural Paths To Reach Print Mastery, Science Now
    1. Love of Learning Language Transcends All Ages, Washington Post
  3. Neuroscience: Understanding Intentions: Through the Looking Glass, Science
    1. Parietal Lobe: From Action Organization to Intention Understanding, Science
    2. Macaques Recognize When They Are Being Imitated, Biol. Lett.
    3. The Ecology And Evolution Of Patience In Two New World Monkeys, Biol. Lett.
  4. Seeing It My Way: A Case Of A Selective Deficit In Inhibiting Self-Perspective, Brain
  5. PR Firms Show Growing Interest In Weblogs, IST News
    1. Hierarchical Bayesian Collective Risk Model: An Application To Health Insurance, Insurance: Math. & Econ.
  6. Losing Sleep: Mutant Flies Need Less Shut-Eye, Science News
    1. Reduced Sleep In Drosophila Shaker Mutants, Nature
  7. 'Hitchhiker's Guide' and the Answer to Everything, NPR TOTN
    1. The Meaning Of Life, CNN
    2. Dealing With Design, Nature
    3. Intelligent Design: Who Has Designs On Your Students' Minds?, Nature
  8. Pygmy Found Near Home Of Hobbits, Herald Sun
    1. Evolutionary Biology: Animal Roots And Shoots, Nature
  9. Network Theory--the Emergence of the Creative Enterprise, Science
    1. The Emergence of Symbiotic Groups Resulting From Skill-Differentiation and Tags, Cogprints
    2. Evolutionary Equilibrium with Forward-Looking Players, SFI Working Papers
    3. Fiat Money and the Natural Scale of Government, SFI Working Papers
    4. How Individuals Learn to Take Turns: Emergence of Alternating Cooperation in a Congestion Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma, SFI Working Papers
  10. A Synthetic Multicellular System For Programmed Pattern Formation, Nature
    1. Behavioural Ecology: Cue For Kin, Nature
  11. Climate Change Alters Genes On The Fly, Nature
  12. Relating Land-Use Intensity And Biodiversity At The Regional Scale, Basic & Appl. Ecol.
  13. Quantum Physics: The Philosopher Of Photons, Nature
    1. Video Conferencing Gets Quantum Security, Nature
    2. Predicting With Unpredictability, Nature
  14. Online News Growing At Expense Of TV, Papers, IST News
  15. Ocean Science: Ocean Mixing in 10 Steps, Science
  16. Crystal Creates Table-Top Fusion, Nature
    1. Physicists Look To Crystal Device For Future Of Fusion, Nature
    2. Technology: Warm Fusion, Nature
    3. Nanotechnology: High-Speed Integrated Nanowire Circuits, Nature
    4. Structural Biology: Nature's Rotary Electromotors, Science
  17. New Accountability In China, Nature
    1. Texas Officials Shrug Off Fine Over Bush Law, NY Times
    2. In Problem-Solving Court, Judges Turn Therapist, NY Times
    3. Nation's Inmate Population Increased 2.3 Percent Last Year, NY Times
    4. In Telecast, Frist Defends His Effort to Stop Filibusters, NY Times
  18. A Currency Afloat (for All of 20 Minutes), NY Times
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
    1. Terror in the Past And Future Tense, NY Times
    2. U.S. Recruits a Rough Ally to Be a Jailer, NY Times
    3. U.S. Sees Drop in Terrorist Threats, Washing Post
    4. Pentagon Moves To Bar CIA 'Ghost' Detainees, Daily Times
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements

  1. Scientists Make Bacteria Behave Like Computers, LiveScience.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Bacteria have been programmed to behave like computers, assembling themselves into complex shapes based on instructions stuffed into their genes. The research could lead to smart biological devices that could detect hazardous substances or bioterrorism chemicals, scientists say. Eventually, the process might be used to direct the construction of useful devices or the growth of new tissue, perhaps restoring function to a severed spinal cord.(...)

    What's new about this latest effort is that the bacteria are made to communicate, so that millions or even billions of them gather in a predictable manner.

    1. Neuron Savers: Gene Therapy Slows Alzheimer's Disease, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Delicate Work. Physicians inject skin cells carrying a brain-boosting gene into the brain of an Alzheimer's patient. The procedure could delay some effects of the disease. UCSD
      Putting extra copies of the gene for a cellular growth factor into the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease slows the degenerative condition, a new study suggests.

    2. Acupuncture Activates The Brain, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Acupuncture has a measurable, if mysterious, effect on the brain, UK scientists have found. The study adds to evidence that patients benefit from acupuncture not simply because of their expectations.

      The research team used brain imaging to show that treatment with genuine needles activates brain areas beyond the ones that light up when trick needles are used. "This is the first brain-imaging study that has shown an effect beyond placebo," (...).

      Part of this confusion may be thanks to the use of badly defined controls in acupuncture tests, (...).

    3. Scientists Create Animals That Are Part-Human, The Associated Press Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Sheep that?have partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs are shown here at the University of Nevada, in Sparks, Nev., on April 27. ]

      But the biological co-mingling of animal and human is now evolving into even more exotic and unsettling mixes of species, evoking the Greek myth of the monstrous chimera, which was part lion, part goat and part serpent.

      In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to make paralyzed mice walk.

      Particularly worrisome to some scientists are the nightmare scenarios that could arise from the mixing of brain cells: What if a human mind somehow got trapped inside a sheep's head?

  2. Read All About It - Kids Take Different Neural Paths To Reach Print Mastery, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    TEXT MESSENGERS. Certain brain structures appear to play critical roles in skilled readers. PhotoDisc

    Initially described in 1967, hyperlexia combines autismlike speech and social problems with a jump-start on reading. (...)

    Since then, these and other researchers have accumulated evidence on neural regions that contribute to skilled reading of both Western-style alphabetic text and non-alphabetic systems, such as Chinese writing. These findings are beginning to show how learning to read triggers certain universal brain accommodations, no matter what the language. At the same time, other brain responses critical for effective reading vary with the nature of one's writing system.

    1. Love of Learning Language Transcends All Ages, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In the field of foreign language learning, the mantra has become "the younger the better," with suggestions that anybody older than teen actress Lindsay Lohan should forget about learning another language. Some parents think first grade is too late to start.

      That's plain wrong, said linguist Robert M. DeKeyser, and, in fact, some adults can take up a new language -- even those considered extremely difficult, such as Arabic or Japanese -- and become proficient enough to be an FBI translator, if they work at it hard enough.

  3. Neuroscience: Understanding Intentions: Through the Looking Glass, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: With regard to action understanding, a class of neurons in the brain called "mirror neurons" are thought to be important because of their amazing ability to transmit electrical impulses not only during the execution of a particular action, but also during observation of the equivalent action being carried out by someone else. The name mirror neuron reflects this remarkable degree of visuo-motor congruency. If mirror neurons also are involved in the understanding of intention, then they must be activated according to the context in which the action occurs.

    1. Parietal Lobe: From Action Organization to Intention Understanding, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Inferior parietal lobule (IPL) neurons were studied when monkeys performed motor acts embedded in different actions and when they observed similar acts done by an experimenter. (...). Many motor IPL neurons also discharged during the observation of acts done by others. (...)These neurons fired during the observation of an act, before the beginning of the subsequent acts specifying the action. Thus, these neurons not only code the observed motor act but also allow the observer to understand the agent's intentions.

    2. Macaques Recognize When They Are Being Imitated, Biol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: This study investigated whether monkeys recognize when a human experimenter imitates their actions towards an object. (...) One experimenter imitated the monkeys' object-directed actions, the other performed temporally contingent but structurally different object-directed actions. Results show a significant visual preference for the imitator during manual object manipulations, but not mouthing actions. We argue that the ability to match actions could be based on both visual-visual and kinaesthetic-visual matching skills, and that mirror neurons, which have both visual and motor properties, could serve as a neural basis for recognizing imitation. (...)

    3. The Ecology And Evolution Of Patience In Two New World Monkeys, Biol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Decision making often involves choosing between small, short-term rewards and large, long-term rewards. All animals, humans included, discount future rewards-the present value of delayed rewards is viewed as less than the value of immediate rewards. Despite its ubiquity, there exists considerable but unexplained variation between species in their capacity to wait for rewards-that is, to exert patience or self-control. (...) we uncover a variable that may explain differences in how species discount future rewards. Both species faced a self-control paradigm in which individuals chose between taking an immediate small reward and waiting a variable amount of time for a large reward. (...)

  4. Seeing It My Way: A Case Of A Selective Deficit In Inhibiting Self-Perspective, Brain Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Little is known about the functional and neural architecture of social reasoning, one major obstacle being that we crucially lack the relevant tools to test potentially different social reasoning components. In the case of belief reasoning, previous studies have tried to separate the processes involved in belief reasoning per se from those involved in the processing of the high incidental demands such as the working memory demands of typical belief tasks. In this study, we developed new belief tasks in order to disentangle, for the first time, two perspective taking components involved in belief reasoning: (...).

  5. PR Firms Show Growing Interest In Weblogs, IST News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The first ever extensive study on blogs has been published by leading global PR firm (...). The study, entitled Trust "MeDIA", promotes itself as a guide to the 'blogosphere' for marketers and company stakeholders. (...) blogs can become a company's worst PR nightmare as their freedom of speech allows information to get quickly out of control. For interest groups or political campaigners, one possible pitfall of using blogs is the practice known as 'astroturfing'. The term, described in the guide, amounts to fake grassroots-type people creating weblogs where an organisation pays them to say good things about it (...).

    1. Hierarchical Bayesian Collective Risk Model: An Application To Health Insurance, Insurance: Math. & Econ. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: This paper deals with the main statistical steps involved in building an insurance plan, with special emphasis on an application to health insurance. The pure premium is predicted based on the available past information concerning the number and the amount of losses, and also the population exposed to risk. Both the size and the number of losses are treated in a stochastic manner. The claims are assumed to follow a Poisson process and the claim sizes are independent and identically distributed non-negative random variables. The model proposed is a generalization of the collective risk model, usually applied in practice. (….)

  6. Losing Sleep: Mutant Flies Need Less Shut-Eye, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Although researchers have been studying sleep for decades, they've made little progress in teasing out the genetic components that control this phenomenon. In 2000, a team discovered that the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster sleeps, much as mammals do. A sleeping fly simply sits motionless, (...).

    "We realized that if we really wanted to understand sleep, we'd have to take advantage of the powerful genetics of Drosophila, (...).

    Searching for genes that affect sleep requirements, Cirelli and her colleagues rounded up more than 9,000 mutant lines of fruit flies.

    1. Reduced Sleep In Drosophila Shaker Mutants, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: (...) we performed mutagenesis in Drosophila melanogaster, because flies also sleep for many hours and, when sleep deprived, show sleep rebound and performance impairments. By screening 9,000 mutant lines, we found minisleep (mns), a line that sleeps for one-third of the wild-type amount. We show that mns flies perform normally in a number of tasks, (...), but are not impaired by sleep deprivation. We then show that mns flies carry a point mutation in a conserved domain of the Shaker gene.

      (...) short-sleeping Shaker flies have a reduced lifespan.

  7. 'Hitchhiker's Guide' and the Answer to Everything, NPR TOTN Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A Vogon Constructor fleet demolishes the Earth to make way for an intersteller bypass. The only survivors of this cataclysm are Arthur Dent (...), a nebbish Brit, and his friend Ford Prefect (...), an alien in disguise stranded on the planet for several years. Together they team up with the ultra-flaky President of the Universe, his human girlfriend, and a depressed android, to embark on a series of comic adventures in search of the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
    Editor's Note: Actually the answer to the question of life the universe and everything has been known for a long time, the open problem is to find out what is the question.

    1. The Meaning Of Life, CNN Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: 42.

      That was the answer, according to the Deep Thought computer in Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series.

      When the researchers -- cleverly disguised as mice -- asked how that could be the answer to their Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, the computer responds, "I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

      That's quite a problem, which hasn't stopped millennia of philosophers, theologians, scientists, wits and (...).

    2. Dealing With Design, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The idea of intelligent design is being promoted in schools and universities in the United States and Europe. Rather than ignoring it, scientists need to understand its appeal and help students recognize the alternatives.

    3. Intelligent Design: Who Has Designs On Your Students' Minds?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Mixing as it does the supernatural with scientific doctrine, the concept is a throwback to the days when natural philosophers pursued pseudoscientific disciplines such as alchemy. But the scientific community should not ignore it. (...) the concept is gaining popularity on US college campuses.

      That is because many of the students taught in introductory biology classes hold religious beliefs that conflict, (...). Professors rarely address the conflicts between faith and science in lectures, and students are drawn to intelligent design as a way of reconciling their beliefs with their interest in science.

  8. Pygmy Found Near Home Of Hobbits, Herald Sun Next Article Bookmark and Share

    INDONESIAN scientists have found a community of pygmy people in the eastern island of Flores. The community is near a village where Australian scientists discovered a dwarf-sized skeleton last year and declared it a new human species. The latest discovery will likely raise more controversy over the finding of Homo floresiensis, claimed by Australian scientists Mike Morwood and Peter Brown in September. They nick-named the skeleton a hobbit [...]

    1. Evolutionary Biology: Animal Roots And Shoots, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: DNA sequence data from neglected animal groups support a controversial hypothesis of deep evolutionary history. Inferring that history using only whole-genome sequences can evidently be misleading.

      (...), the true relationships of the major groups (phyla) of animals remain contentious. In the late 1990s, a series of controversial papers used molecular evidence to propose a radical rearrangement of animal phyla.

      (...) evidence from expanded data sets that supports the newer evolutionary tree, and also show why whole-genome data sets can lead phylogeneticists seriously astray.

  9. Network Theory--the Emergence of the Creative Enterprise, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Although a mathematical theory of social complexity remains a pipe dream, it is not as farfetched as it may have appeared in 1942, (...). By taking advantage of publicly available data sets from both artistic and scientific fields, the authors offer powerful insights into the mechanisms governing collective human behavior.

    Traditionally, (...) Darwin and Einstein have dominated the public's image of science, yet today some of the most groundbreaking work is collaborative in nature (...). Are there discernible differences between collaborations that are sparklingly creative and those that are less inventive?

    1. The Emergence of Symbiotic Groups Resulting From Skill-Differentiation and Tags, Cogprints Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The paper presents a evolutionary simulation where the presence of ‘tags' and an inbuilt specialisa-tion in terms of skills result in the development of ‘symbiotic' sharing within groups of individuals with similar tags. It is shown that the greater the number of possible sharing occasions there are the higher the population that is able to be sustained using the same level of resources. The ‘life-cycle' of a particular cluster of tag-groups is illustrated showing: the establishment of sharing; a focusing-in of the cluster; the exploitation of the group by a particular skill-group and the waning of the group. This simulation differs from other tag-based models in that is does not rely on either the forced donation of resources to individuals with the same tag and where the tolerance mechanism plays a significant part. These ‘symbiotic' groups could provide the structure necessary for the true emergence of artificial societies, supporting the division of labour found in human societies.

    2. Evolutionary Equilibrium with Forward-Looking Players, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: In this paper I summarize the case for evolutionary game theory as a framework for the investigation of the origins and persistence of norms and conventions. One problem with evolutionary models is that individuals are not forward-looking, a property which lies at the heart of the arguments over the application of rational choice theory to the problem of social order. I demonstrate here one way to address this problem. I show that patient play strengthens the case for risk-dominant equilibrium selection in coordination games, even when risk- and payoff-dominant equilibria differ.

    3. Fiat Money and the Natural Scale of Government, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The competitive market structure of a decentralized economy is converted into a self-policing system treating the bureaucracy and enforcement of the legal system endogenously. In particular, we consider money systems as constructs to make agents' economic strategies predictable from knowledge of their preferences and endowments, and thus to support coordinated resource production and distribution from independent decisionmaking. Diverse rule systems can accomplish this, and we construct minimal strategic market games representing government-issued fiat money and ideal commodity money as two cases. We endogenize the provision of money and rules for its use as productive activities within the society, and consider the problem of transition from generalist to specialist production of subsistence goods as one requiring economic coordination under the support of a money system to be solved. The scarce resource in a society is labor limited by its ability to coordinate (specifically, calling for the expenditure of time and effort on communication, computation, and control), which must be diverted from primary production either to maintain coordinated group activity, or to provide the institutional services supporting decentralized trade. Social optima are solutions in which the reduced costs of individual decisionmaking against rules (relative to maintenance of coalitions) are larger than the costs of the institutions providing the rules, and in which the costs of the institutions are less than the gains from the trade they enable to take place.

    4. How Individuals Learn to Take Turns: Emergence of Alternating Cooperation in a Congestion Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: In many social dilemmas, individuals tend to generate a situation with low payoffs instead of a system optimum ("tragedy of the commons"). Is the routing of traffic a similar problem? In order to address this question, we present experimental results on humans playing a route choice game in a computer laboratory, which allow one to study decision behavior in repeated games beyond the Prisoner's Dilemma. We will focus on whether individuals manage to find a cooperative and fair solution compatible with the system-optimal road usage. We find that individuals tend towards a user equilibrium with equal travel times in the beginning. However, after many iterations, they often establish a coherent oscillatory behavior, as taking turns performs better than applying pure or mixed strategies. The resulting behavior is fair and compatible with system-optimal road usage. In spite of the complex dynamics leading to coordinated oscillations, we have identified mathematical relationships quantifying the observed transition process. Our main experimental discoveries for 2- and 4-person games can be explained with a novel reinforcement learning model for an arbitrary number of persons, which is based on past experience and trial-and-error behavior. Gains in the average payoff seem to be an important driving force for the innovation of time-dependent response patterns, i.e. the evolution of more complex strategies. Our findings are relevant for decision support systems and routing in traffic or data networks.

  10. A Synthetic Multicellular System For Programmed Pattern Formation, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Pattern formation is a hallmark of coordinated cell behaviour in both single and multicellular organisms1, 2, 3. It typically involves cell?cell communication and intracellular signal processing. Here we show a synthetic multicellular system in which genetically engineered 'receiver' cells are programmed to form ring-like patterns of differentiation based on chemical gradients of an acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) signal that is synthesized by 'sender' cells. In receiver cells, 'band-detect' gene networks respond to user-defined ranges of AHL concentrations. By fusing different fluorescent proteins as outputs of network variants, an initially undifferentiated 'lawn' of receivers is engineered to form a bullseye pattern around a sender colony. Other patterns, such as ellipses and clovers, are achieved by placing senders in different configurations. Experimental and theoretical analyses reveal which kinetic parameters most significantly affect ring development over time. Construction and study of such synthetic multicellular systems can improve our quantitative understanding of naturally occurring developmental processes and may foster applications in tissue engineering, biomaterial fabrication and biosensing.

    1. Behavioural Ecology: Cue For Kin, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

  11. Climate Change Alters Genes On The Fly, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Southern Australian fruitflies are morphing to look more like their northern cousins. © SPL
    Global warming is influencing the genetics of fruitfly populations, (...). Warming over the past two decades has encouraged genes to spread from insects at tropical latitudes into flies in more temperate areas.

    (...) evidence showing that living things, from insects to plants and other animals, are responding to the planet's shifting climate. A second study this week emphasizes that the warming is unlikely to end soon, thanks to a steady heating of the world's oceans that will keep air temperatures on the rise long after the release of greenhouse gases is curbed.

  12. Relating Land-Use Intensity And Biodiversity At The Regional Scale, Basic & Appl. Ecol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Changes in biodiversity are often attributed to economically driven land-use changes, but the relation is not too well documented. Land-use changes involve both changes to a different function and shifts in intensity within a function. The relation between land-use changes and biodiversity changes at the meso-level in the province of Drenthe is the object of study of the present paper. Commonly available indicators about land-use and biodiversity appear to be related to each other in complicated ways. The biodiversity parameters that react most unambiguously to changing land-use are plant functional types. The clearest relation is found when changes to a different function occur.

  13. Quantum Physics: The Philosopher Of Photons, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Zeilinger is also happy discussing the challenges of quantum mechanics - both technical and philosophical. (...) For example, quantum physicists have yet to find a satisfying explanation for the randomness inherent in the quantum world. (...)

    When the Dalai Lama made a return visit to Zeilinger's lab, (...), he confessed to having difficulties with the philosophical implications of quantum physics, especially the role of chance and causality in nature. As the idea of determinism is central to Buddhism, the existence of purely random acts might call into question Buddhist doctrine, he said.

    1. Video Conferencing Gets Quantum Security, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Quantum cryptography has been sped up to the point that it can be used to secure video conferencing.(...)

      Their system is capable of generating 100 quantum 'keys' every second. This is fast enough for every individual frame of video to be protected by its own encryption. "This makes the system highly secure," says Andrew Shields, who leads the Cambridge team. "It would take an enormous computational resource to crack this frame by frame."

      Toshiba representatives say the technology could be commercially available in as little as two years' time.

    2. Predicting With Unpredictability, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Thus, more reliable and efficient generators of random numbers cannot rely solely on either hardware or software, (...).

      Creating perfect disorder, (...), is as difficult a task as maintaining perfect order. Nevertheless, the search for pure noise will go on because the usefulness of random numbers for making predictions resides in their complete unpredictability. As Chaitin puts it: "The world consists of the tension between order and chaos. When simulating physical phenomena, order is supplied by the laws of physics and chaos is supplied by random numbers."
      Editor's Note: It seems that Chaitin is describing stochastic systems but not those that exhibit deterministic chaos. This has been a classical confusion for decades.

  14. Online News Growing At Expense Of TV, Papers, IST News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown over 35 per cent in the last four years, at the expense of television and newspapers, according to a new report from JupiterResearch. Currently, over 26 per cent of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, compared with 19 per cent in 2001, JupiterResearch said. (...) "While traditional media companies like The New York Times and CNN are doing very well online, our analysis shows that brands like AOL and Yahoo are increasingly important for online audiences," (...)

  15. Ocean Science: Ocean Mixing in 10 Steps, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) the temperature and salinity of a water mass govern its buoyancy, and hence determine how it rises or sinks across ocean surfaces of constant density. For example, the Atlantic overturning circulation, which transports heat from tropical to subpolar regions, is supplied with sinking water through buoyancy loss (mainly from surface cooling) in the far North Atlantic. For the water mass to complete the circuit, the lost buoyancy must be regained further south through some combination of air-sea exchange and ocean mixing.

    Knowledge of ocean mixing is thus a prerequisite for understanding ocean circulation.

  16. Crystal Creates Table-Top Fusion, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    A piece of plastic (2.5cm across) loaded with deuterium atoms glows blue where an incoming beam of deuterium triggers fusion. ? Seth Putterman, UCLA

    The inventors are led by Seth Putterman, a physicist from the University of California, Los Angeles. Putterman is known for debunking claims of 'bubble fusion' and 'cold fusion' that promised revolutionary advances in energy production.

    His toaster-sized device, detailed in this week's Nature1, relies on a pyroelectric crystal of lithium tantalate, which produces a strong electric field when heated to room temperature from freezing. This field is focused until it is powerful enough to accelerate a beam of deuterium ions (proton-neutron pairs) to about 1% of the speed of light.

    1. Physicists Look To Crystal Device For Future Of Fusion, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Desktop apparatus yields stream of neutrons. Seth Putterman is usually on the side of the sceptics when it comes to tabletop fusion. But now he has created a device that may convince researchers to change their minds about the 'f-word'. Tabletop fusion has been a touchy subject since Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann said in 1989 that they had achieved 'cold fusion' at room temperature. Putterman helped to discredit this claim, as well as more recent reports of 'bubble fusion'.

    2. Technology: Warm Fusion, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A device that could fit in your lab-coat pocket uses nuclear fusion, and just a little heat, to produce neutrons. The advantages in simplicity and portability over conventional neutron generators could be considerable.

      (...) report the successful demonstration of an intriguingly simple neutron generator that produces neutrons possessing an energy of 2.5 mega-electronvolts (MeV) from reactions involving the fusion of two nuclei of deuterium. This device, it must be stressed, will not generate net energy, and is not related to past controversies about 'cold fusion'.

    3. Nanotechnology: High-Speed Integrated Nanowire Circuits, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Inexpensive sophisticated circuitry can be 'painted' on to plastic or glass substrates. Macroelectronic circuits made on substrates of glass or plastic could one day make computing devices ubiquitous owing to their light weight, flexibility and low cost1. But these substrates deform at high temperatures so, until now, only semiconductors such as organics and amorphous silicon could be used, leading to poor performance. Here we present the use of low-temperature processes to integrate high-performance multi-nanowire transistors into logical inverters and fast ring oscillators on glass substrates.

    4. Structural Biology: Nature's Rotary Electromotors, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Cells are packed full of molecular motors that carry out a plethora of different functions. In their Perspective, Junge and Nelson discuss two recent studies (Meier et al., Murata et al.) that shed light on the workings of rotary electromotors, one designed to drive the synthesis of the energy carrier molecule ATP, the other to pump sodium cations at the expense of ATP hydrolysis

  17. New Accountability In China, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: A Chinese funding agency has a new constitution, supporting better selection. (...)

    A new constitution implemented earlier this month by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) shows a penchant for transparent and accountable governance. (...) establish norms and a code of conduct to regulate the foundation's work in a democratic fashion, to establish management based on the law, and to ensure the effective use of funds. It is aimed, (...), at "utilizing overseas brainpower and encouraging overseas scientists to participate in China's basic research" in a "rigorous way".
    Editor's Note: Only one year ago we had a discussion on this topic in Complexity Digest. Sometimes big changes come fast in China, at least on paper.

    1. Texas Officials Shrug Off Fine Over Bush Law, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The education commissioner of Texas said that classrooms and teachers would not be harmed by the fine over President Bush's No Child Left Behind law.

    2. In Problem-Solving Court, Judges Turn Therapist, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: New York State is pushing toward a more proactive judicial system, where judges are cheerleaders and social workers as much as jurists.

    3. Nation's Inmate Population Increased 2.3 Percent Last Year, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: While the crime rate has fallen over the past decade, the number of people going to prison and jail is outpacing the number of inmates released.

    4. In Telecast, Frist Defends His Effort to Stop Filibusters, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Senator Bill Frist stepped up his threats to change Senate rules to circumvent blockades of judicial nominees while calling for "more civility in political life."

  18. A Currency Afloat (for All of 20 Minutes), NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The U.S. has been pressing China for years to allow its currency to trade more freely. It got its wish on Friday - but only for 20 minutes.

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

    1. Terror in the Past And Future Tense, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: We need to put our safety ahead of American sovereignty, and address the technology of a terrorist threat, or we won't be secure.

    2. U.S. Recruits a Rough Ally to Be a Jailer, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Evidence that the U.S. has sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan, a nation with a poor human rights record, continues to mount.

    3. U.S. Sees Drop in Terrorist Threats, Washing Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: But some intelligence analysts caution that the drop-off in terrorist-related planning, communication and movement could be a tactical pause by al Qaeda and related terrorist groups. No one suggests the threat has gone away.

      Brennan and others fear most what they are not hearing or seeing, especially the possibility that al Qaeda has acquired chemical or biological weapons and adapted in ways that have evaded detection. Analysts also say a flood of new terrorists motivated by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq may try to travel here (...).

    4. Pentagon Moves To Bar CIA 'Ghost' Detainees, Daily Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The CIA will no longer be allowed to hold unregistered "ghost" detainees at US military prisons such as Iraq's Abu Ghraib, the Pentagon's top intelligence official said on Thursday.

      (...) eliminate the CIA's practice at Abu Ghraib of hiding detainees and subjecting them to separate interrogation methods that critics say were harsher than those employed by the military.

      Army investigators who first disclosed that the CIA concealed dozens of unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib blamed the spy agency's practices for a loss of accountability, abuse and a poisoned atmosphere at the infamous facility.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. From Optimal Measurement to Efficient Quantum Algorithms for the Hidden Subgroup Problem over Semidirect Product Groups, Dave Bacon, Andrew H. Childs, Wim van Dam, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-04-014
      2. Optimal Measurements for the Dihedral Hidden Subgroup Problem, Dave Bacon, Andrew H. Childs, Wim van Dam, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-04-013
      3. The Phase Transition in Random Catalytic Sets, Rudolf Hanel, Stuart A. Kauffman, Stefan Thurner, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-04-012
      4. Persistent Chaos in High Dimensions, D. J. Albers, J. C. Sprott, J. P. Crutchfield, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-04-011
      5. Commodity Money and the Valuation of Trade, D. Eric Smith, Martin Shubik, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-04-010
      6. Network Motifs in Computational Graphs: A Case Study in Software Architecture, Sergi Valverde, Ricard V. Solé, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-04-008
      7. From Wiring to Function and Back: A Case Study in Feed-Forward Networks, Pau Fernandez and Ricard V. Solé, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-04-007
      8. The Oblivious Right, Paul Krugman, 05/04/25, NYTimes, President Bush and other Republican leaders honestly think that we're living in the best of times. That's because everyone they talk to says so.
      9. N. Korea, 6, and Bush, 0, Nicholas D. Kristof, 05/04/26, NYTimes, The single greatest failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy is its refusal to negotiate bilaterally with North Korea.
      10. When the Dollar Bill Comes Due, Catherine L. Mann, Katharina Pl?ck, 05/04/27, NYTimes, We aren't paying for the drop in the value of the dollar ¡X yet.
      11. Army, in Manual, Limiting Tactics in Interrogation, Eric Schmitt, 05/04/28, NYTimes, The new manual will specifically prohibit practices like stripping prisoners, imposing dietary restrictions and using dogs.
      12. From Apple, a Tiger to Put in Your Mac, David Pogue, 05/04/28, NYTimes, Apple is about to release Mac OS X 10.4, nicknamed Tiger - the latest version of the software suite that makes up the Macintosh operating system. How is it?
      13. Combating Gadget Theft, Johanna Jainchill, 05/04/28, NYTimes, As gadgets shrink in size and grow in popularity, theft has grown, too. How do you deter theft of laptops, phones and other portable devices?
      14. On Abu Ghraib, the Big Shots Walk, Bob Herbert, 05/04/28, NYTimes, Under Commander in Chief George W. Bush, the notion of command accountability has been discarded.
      15. Sport Genetics Could Make Superman Fantasy A Reality, 05/04/28, Yahoo News
      16. A Simple Way to Fight H.I.V. and AIDS, 05/04/29, NYTimes, Distributing condoms in prisons could curb the spread of disease.
      17. Early Mammal Had Newfangled Fangs, 05/04/30, Science Now, A tiny mammal that lived in Colorado about 150 million years ago had hollow teeth that lacked enamel, a characteristic that didn't reappear in mammals for another 100 million years.
      18. Licorice Ingredient Ferrets Out Herpes, 05/04/30, Science Now, A compound in licorice homes in on lab-grown cells infected with a herpes virus and induces them to self-destruct.
      19. Many Cyanobacteria Make A Neurotoxin, 05/04/30, Science Now, A brain-damaging toxin, once believed to come only from a group of tropical plants and their live-in microbes, turns out to be much more widespread.
      20. When The Stomach Gets Low On Acid, 05/04/30, Science Now, A study in mice shows that a shortage of stomach acid can lead to cancer, apparently as a result of bacterial overgrowth and inflammation.
      21. Goal-Oriented Brain Cells: Neurons May Track Action As A Prelude To Empathy, 05/04/30, Science Now, Nerve cells located toward the back of a monkey's brain appear to assist in discerning the goals of specific actions.
      22. Energy Follies, 05/04/30, NYTimes, In his press conference, President Bush completely ignored the surest way to reduce oil dependency, which is to improve the fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks.
      23. Swindler on a Gusher, Maureen Dowd, 05/04/30, NYTimes, Did Americans fight and die to help the Thief of Baghdad?
      24. When Opposites Don't Attract, 05/04/30, Science News, The quirks of two kinds of European corn borers are giving researchers a way to study how a single species might split in two.
      25. Oysters Under Siege: Heat And Pollution, 05/04/30, Science News, With global warming, some polluted waters could become graveyards for certain shellfish.
      26. Zinc Boosts Kids' Learning, 05/04/30, Science News, Zinc fortification improved mental skills in children with normal healthy diets, suggesting that the recommended intake for this mineral may need to be raised.
      27. U.S. Report Clears G.I.'s in Death of Italian Agent, Richard A. Oppel Jr., Robert F. Worth, 05/05/01, NYTimes, The car carrying the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena that was struck with a deadly hail of gunfire ignored warnings from American soldiers, a report states.
      28. Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guant?namo Bay, NEIL A. LEWIS, ERIC SCHMITT, 05/05/01, NYTimes, An investigation into allegations of detainee abuse at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, has concluded that several prisoners were mistreated or humiliated, perhaps illegally.
      29. Globalization, Globalisation: Trade, Technology, And Wages, W. J. Ethier - ethieraecon.upenn.edu, 14;3 2005, online 2005/01/19, International Review of Economics & Finance, DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2004.12.001
      30. Marginal Lands In Europe-Causes Of Decline, D. Strijker - d.strijkeraeco.rug.nl, 2005/04/01, Online 2005/02/11, Basic and Applied Ecology, DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2005.01.001
      31. Parasites, Ecosystems and Sustainability: An Ecological and Complex Systems Perspective, Pierre Horwitz, Bruce A. Wilcox, 2005/04/08, International Journal for Parasitology, Article in Press, Corrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2005.03.002
      32. Biosonar Behaviour Of Free-Ranging Porpoises, T. Akamatsu, D. Wang, K. Wang, Y. Naito, 2005/04/21, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.3024
      33. An Approach to Chaotic Synchronization, Alexander E. Hramov, Alexey A. Koronovskii, 2005/04/23, arXiv, DOI: nlin.CD/0504045
      34. 'Termite Guts Can Save The Planet,' Says Nobel Laureate, 2005/04/25, ScienceDaily & Institute Of Physics
      35. Success Of Ectoparasites: How Important Is Timing Of Host Contact?, T. Robb, M. R. Forbes, 2005/04/26, Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1016/rsbl.2004.0271
      36. Birds' Brains Reveal Source Of Songs, 2005/04/26, ScienceDaily & Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
      37. Pi Seems A Good Random Number Generator - But Not Always The Best, 2005/04/27, ScienceDaily & Purdue University
      38. Evolutionary Origin of Power-Laws in Biochemical Reaction Network; Embedding Abundance Distribution Into Topology, Chikara Furusawa, Kunihiko Kaneko, 2005/04/28, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0504032
      39. Use Of Insecticides Linked To Lasting Neurological Problems For Farmers, 2005/04/28, ScienceDaily & NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
      40. Distracting Visuals Clutter TV Screen; Viewers Less Likely To Retain Content, 2005/04/29, ScienceDaily & Kansas State University
      41. Faceless Students, Virtual Places: Emergence and Communal Accountability in Online Classrooms, Kristie S. Fleckenstein, 2005/05/18, Computers and Composition, Article in Press, Corrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2005.02.003
      42. Corporate Organization In Japan And The United States: Is There Evidence Of Convergence?, S. M. Jacoby - sjacobyaanderson.ucla.edu, E. M. Nason - emily.nasonaanderson.ucla.edu, S. Kazur - saguchiae.u-tokyo.ac.jp, Apr. 2005, online 2005/02/03, Social Science Japan Journal, DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyi012
      43. Transition From University To Work Under Transformation: The Changing Role Of Institutional And Alumni Networks In Contemporary Japan, D. Chiavacci - dcaoas.unizh.ch, Apr. 2005, online 2005/02/18, Social Science Japan Journal, DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyi017
      44. A Child's Eye View: Dementia In Children's Literature, P. Balenzuela, J. G.-Ojalvo, April 2005, online 2005/02/28, British Journal of Social Work, DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bch183
      45. Exchange Rate And Monetary Regime Options For Regional Cooperation In East Asia, S. Y. Kwack - skwackafac.howard.edu, Feb. 2005, online 2005/03/11, Journal of Asian Economics, DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2004.11.019
      46. East Asian Economic Regionalism: Progress And Challenges, M. Kawai - kawaiaiss.u-tokyo.ac.jp, Feb. 2005, online 2005/03/23, Journal of Asian Economics, DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2005.01.001
      47. Right Hemisphere Language Functions And Schizophrenia: The Forgotten Hemisphere?, R. L. C. Mitchell - r.l.c.mitchellardg.ac.uk, T. J. Crow, May 2005, online 2005/03/02, Brain, DOI: 10.1093/brain/awh466

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      1. Changing Habitats...Vanishing Species , Harvard University Science Center, 04/11/12
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      3. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      4. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 05/01/26-30
      5. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      6. Neurobiological Foundation For The Meaning Of Information, Kolkata, India, Conference Webcast, 04/11/22-25
      7. ALife 9: Ninth International Conference on Artificial Life, Boston, MA, 04/09/12-15
      8. The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China, 04/07/22-23
      9. Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
      10. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      11. ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy, 04/06/14-17
      12. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      13. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      14. Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28
      15. Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27
      16. Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01
      17. Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
      18. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      19. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      20. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
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      1. Online Course on Genetic Programming, with Lee Altenberg, University of Hawaii Outreach College 2005/01/10 to 2005/05/13.
      2. 2005 World Exposition " Nature's Wisdom, Aichi, Japan, 05/03/25-09/25
      3. Art, Complexity and Technology: Their Interaction in Emergence, Torino, Villa Gualino, 05/05/05-06
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      5. Socio-Dynamics, Networks and Markets, London, 05/05/09-11
      6. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 05/05/16-19
      7. 2ndShanghai Intl Symposium on Nonlinear Science and Applications, Shanghai, 05/06/03-07
      8. SwarmFest 2005, Torino, Italy, June 5-7, 2005/06/05-07
      9. IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10
      10. 10th Annual Workshop on Economic Heterogeneous Interacting Agents (WEHIA 2005) , University of Essex, United Kingdom, 05/06/13-15
      11. Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
      12. NKS Summer School, Brown University, Providence, RI, 05/06/20-07/08
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      15. 2005 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), Washington, DC, USA, 05/06/25-29
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      27. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK, 05/09/05-09
      28. Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14
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      30. Genomics in Context, University of Exeter, UK, 05/09/28-30
      31. CSDS-2005 Intl Conf on CONTROL AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS , Leon, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 05/10/04-07
      32. European Conference on Complex Systems, Paris, France, 05/11/14-18
      33. Econophysics Colloquium, Canberra (ANU), 05/11/14-18
      34. 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
      35. The Second International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology , Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, 06/01/26-27
      36. FRACTAL 2006 Complexity and Fractals in Nature, 9th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vienna, Austria, 06/02/12-15

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