Complexity Digest 2005.21

23-May-2005

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Content

  1. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network
  2. Scholarly Journals' Premier Status Is Diluted by Web, The Wall Street Journal
    1. Why are Economists Sceptical About Agent-Based Simulations?, Physica A
    2. A mechanism for pockets of predictability in complex adaptive systems
  3. Making And Keeping Peace, Int. Org.
    1. Why Comply? The Domestic Constituency Mechanism, Int. Org.
    2. Special Report: Taking On The Cheats, Nature
    3. Wanted: Better Benchmarks, Science
  4. Understanding Sarcasm Is A Complex Business, New Scientist
    1. Seriously, the Joke Is Dead, NY Times
    2. Reading Complexity In Chua's Oscillator Through Music: A New Way Of Understanding Chaos, Int. J. Bifur. & Chaos
  5. Large Genomic Differences Explain Our Little Quirks, Nature
    1. Evolutionary Biology: Geography And Skin Colour, Nature
    2. Psychology: Red Enhances Human Performance In Contests, Nature
  6. China, the World's Capital, NY Times
    1. The Chinese Connection, NY Times
  7. Air-Travel Maths Could Limit Spread Of Disease, New Scientist
  8. Korean Team Speeds Up Creation Of Cloned Human Stem Cells, Science
    1. Stem-Cell Niches: It's The Ecology, Stupid!, Nature
  9. Molecular Motors: Kinesin Steps Back, Nature
  10. Control at the Quantum Level, Science
    1. Color-Changing Nanoparticles Offer A Golden Ruler for Molecules, Science
  11. How Much Do You Need To Know To Take Down The Mafia Or Destroy A Computer Network?, ScienceDaily
    1. Exploration of Scale-free Networks, arXiv
    2. Why Does The Internet Experience Delays And Losses At Busy Times?, Proc.: Math., Phys. & Engg. Sc.
  12. Brain Maps, Great And Small: Lessons From Comparative Studies, Phil. Tran.: Biol. Sc.
    1. Too Much Knowledge Can Be Bad For Some Types Of Memory, ScienceDaily
    2. Neuroscience: Plasticity And Its Limits, Nature
    3. A Cost of Long-Term Memory in Drosophila, Science
  13. Female Spiders Try Eating Mate Even Before Sex, New Scientist
    1. Honeybee Workers Use Cues Other Than Egg Viability For Policing, Biol. Lett.
    2. Social Amoeba Sheds Light On Communication In Human Brain, ScienceDaily
  14. Complexity as a Sensemaking Framework, Finland Futures Research Centre publications
    1. Concept: Capturing Chaos, Nature
  15. Is The Sky-Hook Configuration Stable?, Nonlin. Dyn.
    1. Human-Powered Hydrofoil Seeks Jumpy Riders, New Scientist
  16. Distinguishing Random Environmental Fluctuations From Ecological Catastrophes For The North Pacific Ocean, Nature
    1. Simulation of Geographical Trends in Chowdhury Ecosystem Model, arXiv
    2. Diversity as a Product of Interspecial Interactions, arXiv
  17. Earthquakes: Future Shock In California, Nature
    1. Periodically Triggered Seismicity at Mount Wrangell, Alaska, After the Sumatra Earthquake, Science
  18. 'Blink' Meets 'Freakonomics', NY Times
    1. Darth Vader's Family Values, NY Times
    2. A Love Affair With S.U.V.'s Begins to Cool, NY Times
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
    1. Guantanamo Comes to Define U.S. to Muslims, NY Times
    2. U.S. Memo Faults Afghan Leader on Heroin Fight, NY Times
    3. It's All Newsweek's Fault, NY Times
    4. Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War, NY Times
    5. Syria Severs Military Cooperation With U.S. - NYT, Reuters
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements

  1. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Video summaries:
    Lifting the Perplexity off the Complexity

    Eshel Ben-Jacob, Pro-President of the Israel Physical Society, Tel Aviv University, Israel. Talk Summary, 7:30 Video [qt: 14.8 Mb]. .
    Critical Illness and Critical Care: Perturbing a perturbed complex system

    Timothy G. Buchman, Past President of Society of Critical Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Washington University. Talk Summary, 6:06 Video [qt: 12.0 Mb]. .
    Genetic networks: from Computational Complexity to System Biology

    Hava Siegelmann, Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Talk Summary, 3:17 Video [qt: 8.4 Mb]. .
    Self-Organized Vortical Motion A Pattern-Formation Motif for Microorganisms

    Herbert Levine, Physics, University of California San Diego. Talk Summary, 9:17 Video [qt: 21.9 Mb]. .
    Some Thoughts on Modeling Complexity

    Bruce J. West, Chief Scientist, Mathematical & Information Sciences Directorate. Talk Summary, 7:26 Video [qt: 20.3 Mb]. .
    From Complex Conflicts to Stable Cooperation

    Bruce Hannon, Geography, UIUC. Talk Summary, 4:13 Video [qt: 10.7 Mb]. .
    BeeSpace: Functional Analysis for Social Behavior

    Bruce R. Schatz, Director of the Community Architectures for Network Information Systems (CANIS) Laboratory, UIUC . Talk Summary, 7:29 Video [qt: 12.5 Mb].
    See also:

    Schatz, B. (2005). Analysis Environments for Functional Genomics. Bioinformatics Seminar (campus-wide research lecture seminar), Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Feb. 25). [Powerpoint] [Windows streaming video]

    .

  2. Scholarly Journals' Premier Status Is Diluted by Web, The Wall Street Journal Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: From a stool at Yali's caf?, near the University of California campus, Michael Eisen is loudly trashing the big players in academic publishing. Hefty subscription fees for journals are blocking scientific progress, he says, and academics who think they have full access to timely literature are kidding themselves. "They're just wrong," Dr. Eisen says. He suggests scholarly journals be free and accessible to everyone on the Web.

    1. Why are Economists Sceptical About Agent-Based Simulations?, Physica A Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Despite many years of active research in the field and a number of fruitful applications, agent-based modeling has not yet made it through to the top ranking economic journals. In this paper we investigate why. We look at the following problematic areas: (i) interpretation of the simulation dynamics and generalization of the results, and (ii) estimation of the simulation model. We show that there exist solutions for both these issues. Along the way, we clarify some confounding differences in terminology between computer science and economic literature.

    2. A mechanism for pockets of predictability in complex adaptive systems Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract We document a mechanism operating in complex adaptive systems leading to dynamical pockets of predictability ("prediction days"), in which agents collectively take predetermined courses of action, transiently decoupled from past history. We demonstrate and test it out of sample on synthetic minority and majority games as well as on real financial time series. The surprising large frequency of these prediction days implies a collective organization of agents and of their strategies which condense into transitional herding regimes.

  3. Making And Keeping Peace, Int. Org. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Recent efforts to explain why some peace agreements last while others fail have focused on the strength of the agreement itself. Maintaining peace, even if both belligerents want peace, can be difficult if there are temptations to defect or there are reasons to fear that one may be played for the sucker. Strong agreements that can increase the costs of defection, enhance monitoring, (...) we argue in this article that such measures will often be inadequate if the belligerents themselves are no longer committed to keeping the peace. (...)
    • Source: Making And Keeping Peace, S. Werner - swerneraemory.edu, A. Yuen - ayuenaemory.edu, DOI: 10.1017/S0020818305050095, International Organization, Apr. 2005, online 2005/05/04
    • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

    1. Why Comply? The Domestic Constituency Mechanism, Int. Org. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Why do countries comply with international agreements? While scholars have done rigorous work to address compliance and enforcement in an international game, less analytical attention has been paid to domestic mechanisms of compliance. (...) In this article, I develop an analytical framework of domestic accountability, where I identify specific channels of influence through which domestic constituencies can influence national compliance. Using a game theoretic model, I show that a government's compliance decision reflects the electoral leverage and the informational status of domestic constituencies. (...) The European acid rain regime offers an empirical illustration of the domestic constituency argument.

    2. Special Report: Taking On The Cheats, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The true extent of plagiarism is unknown, but rising cases of suspect submissions are forcing editors to take action. Jim Giles reports. The fight against plagiarism is about to take a decisive turn. Academic publishers have told Nature they hope that software designed to catch cheating students could soon be used to unmask academics who plagiarize other researchers' or their own work.

    3. Wanted: Better Benchmarks, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: How much should a nation spend on science? What kind of science? How much from private versus public sectors? Does demand for funding by potential science performers imply a shortage of funding or a surfeit of performers? These and related science policy questions tend to be asked and answered today in a highly visible advocacy context that makes assumptions that are deserving of closer scrutiny. A new "science of science policy" is emerging, and it may offer more compelling guidance for policy decisions and for more credible advocacy.

  4. Understanding Sarcasm Is A Complex Business, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Different parts of the brain must work together to understand sarcasm, new research suggests. The prefrontal cortex - a small area in the front of the brain - seems to play the biggest role and may integrate the literal meaning of a phrase with the speaker's emotional intent. The findings on the anatomy of sarcasm could have implications for understanding personality changes in people with brain injury or disease. ˇ§Decision making, emotional processing, empathy, and theory of mind all appear to be involved in understanding sarcasm,ˇ¨ says lead researcher Simone Shamay-Tsoory, a neuropsychologist at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel.

    1. Seriously, the Joke Is Dead, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Its passing was barely noticed, drowned out, perhaps, by the din of ironic one-liners, snark and detached bons mots that pass for humor these days. The joke died a lonely death. (...) "Two guys walked into a bar"; "So this lady goes to the doctor"; "Did you hear the one about the talking parrot?" The new humor sneaks by on little cat feet, all punch line and no setup, and if it bombs, you barely notice. The joke insisted on everyone's attention, and when it bombed - wow.

    2. Reading Complexity In Chua's Oscillator Through Music: A New Way Of Understanding Chaos, Int. J. Bifur. & Chaos Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Modern Science is finding new methods of looking at biological, physical or social phenomena. (...) A complex system, as Chua's oscillator, is a nonlinear configuration whose dynamical behavior is chaotic. Chua's oscillator equations allow to define the basic behavior of a dynamical system (...) We have found interesting relationships between dynamical systems behavior and their musical translation since, in the process of listening, human subjects perceive many of the structures as possible to perceive in the behavior of Chua's oscillator. (...) Music can be considered the semantics of dynamical systems, which gives us a powerful method for interpreting complexity.

  5. Large Genomic Differences Explain Our Little Quirks, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: It's not just individual genes that vary between us all. When the finished sequence of the human genome was unveiled last year, biologists said that it told a story of harmony for the human family. Every one of us, it turns out, shares 99% of our DNA with all the other people on Earth. (...), scientists revealed a wealth of data indicating a surprising conclusion about human diversity - much of it might be explained by large structural differences between individual genomes, not by tiny differences in individual genes.

    1. Evolutionary Biology: Geography And Skin Colour, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Human skin comes in many different shades. Recent studies of geographical differences in skin colour open up the subject scientifically by offering sophisticated accounts of the basis of this variation.

      The most obvious - and most discussed - aspect of human geographical variability is skin colour. Most people would say that skin colour becomes darker towards the Equator to give more protection against tropical sunlight. But that claimed correlation of skin colour with latitude is riddled with exceptions, and that functional interpretation of the correlation is debated.

    2. Psychology: Red Enhances Human Performance In Contests, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Signals biologically attributed to red coloration in males may operate in the arena of combat sports.

      Red coloration is a sexually selected, testosterone-dependent signal of male quality in a variety of animals, and in some non-human species a male's dominance can be experimentally increased by attaching artificial red stimuli. Here we show that a similar effect can influence the outcome of physical contests in humans - across a range of sports, we find that wearing red is consistently associated with a higher probability of winning.

  6. China, the World's Capital, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: As this millennium dawns, New York City is the most important city in the world, the unofficial capital of planet Earth. But before we New Yorkers become too full of ourselves, it might be worthwhile to glance at dilapidated Kaifeng in central China.
    Kaifeng, an ancient city along the mud-clogged Yellow River, was by far the most important place in the world in 1000. And if you've never heard of it, that's a useful warning for Americans - as the Chinese headline above puts it, in a language of the future that many more Americans should start learning, "glory is as ephemeral as smoke and clouds."

    1. The Chinese Connection, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Stories about the new Treasury report condemning China's currency policy probably had most readers going, "Huh?" Frankly, this is an issue that confuses professional economists, too. But let me try to explain what's going on.
      Over the last few years China, for its own reasons, has acted as an enabler both of U.S. fiscal irresponsibility and of a return to Nasdaq-style speculative mania, this time in the housing market. Now the U.S. government is finally admitting that there's a problem - but it's asserting that the problem is China's, not ours.

  7. Air-Travel Maths Could Limit Spread Of Disease, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The mathematical formulae that describe people's movement through global air travel could be harnessed to control the spread of deadly diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or influenza, researchers say. Lu?s Amaral and colleagues at Northwestern University in Illinois, US, analysed publicly available data on available flights between global airports and used the information to construct a network of 27,051 links. They found that global air travel follows a simple but skewed mathematical rule, with important hubs not necessarily in the most relevant geographical locations. And the researchers say the discovery could help health experts control the spread of deadly diseases, which can be rapidly carried to new locations via air travellers.

  8. Korean Team Speeds Up Creation Of Cloned Human Stem Cells, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: With speed and efficiency (...), scientists have created nearly a dozen new lines of human embryonic stem (ES) cells, ones that for the first time carry the genetic signature of diseased or injured patients. Last year, a group (...) reported the first--and until now the only--derivation of ES cells from human nuclear transfer experiments (...). Those efforts yielded just one cell line from more than 200 tries, but the researchers report (...) that they can consistently derive a cell line in fewer than 20 tries.

    1. Stem-Cell Niches: It's The Ecology, Stupid!, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Stem cells are engaged in constant crosstalk with their environment, biologists are fast realizing. So the emerging field of regenerative medicine is now wrestling with the ecological concept of the niche. (...)

      The 'species' he studies are stem cells and the 'ecosystem' is bone marrow.

      Within the anatomical forest of the marrow, Li's stem cells occupy specific niches - a term borrowed from ecology. An organism's ecological niche is a definition of where it lives, what it does, and how it interacts with its environment.

  9. Molecular Motors: Kinesin Steps Back, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Kinesin is a protein motor that ferries membrane-bound packages around cells - but only in one direction. Forcing it into reverse provides clues to its inner workings and to how molecular machines might be engineered.

    Kinesin can carry a packet of neurotransmitter from your spine to the tip of your finger in about two days - a journey that would take a thousand years if left to simple diffusion. This molecular motor 'steps' along the microtubules that form the cytoskeletal scaffolding of cells, by converting chemical energy into mechanical work.

  10. Control at the Quantum Level, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The ability to control interactions between light and matter has led to many exciting technological developments, most notably the laser. (...)

    Strong interactions between an emitter and a cavity are at the heart of quantum information processing, (...). Groundbreaking experiments with quantum systems have been performed, for example, with atoms suspended in a free-space cavity between two mirrors. However, realizing these experiments in the solid state is crucial for practical applications and is similar to the step change caused by the replacement of vacuum tubes with solid-state transistors.

    1. Color-Changing Nanoparticles Offer A Golden Ruler for Molecules, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: For researchers looking to monitor the nanoscale movement of biomolecules, good techniques are hard to come by. (...) Because of the way the dyes absorb and re-emit each other's light, tags very close together glow a different color from those farther apart. Unfortunately, the technique--known as fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET)--works only if the dye molecules are less than 10 nanometers apart, and the tags typically wink out after less than a minute of light exposure. (...) a novel molecular ruler that solves both problems at once.

  11. How Much Do You Need To Know To Take Down The Mafia Or Destroy A Computer Network?, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Disrupting certain networks, such as the Internet or a Mafia ring, is very difficult without accurate information about the important network members. But, as you might imagine, knowing the identity of a few powerful mob Dons or critical network servers can make taking down a network much easier. Researchers (...) have quantified just how much easier it would be, given different levels of information. In order to destroy a common type of network that scientists call "scale free", it may be necessary to disrupt (or arrest) essentially every member, if we know nothing about the relative importance of each of the members. (...)

    1. Exploration of Scale-free Networks, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The increased availability of data on real networks has favoured an explosion of activity in the elaboration of models able to reproduce both qualitatively and quantitatively the measured properties. What has been less explored is the reliability of the data, and whether the measurement technique biases them. Here we show that tree-like explorations (similar in principle to traceroute) can indeed change the measured exponents of a scale-free network.

    2. Why Does The Internet Experience Delays And Losses At Busy Times?, Proc.: Math., Phys. & Engg. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Simple questions such as why data losses happen in the Internet, or why it sometimes takes forever to download a web page, are hard to answer due to the sheer number of components that make up such a network. Models describing each of the components of the Internet already exist, but putting them together is a near-impossible counting exercise. We describe new approximate models for the components of the Internet, together with an outline methodology on how to put them together, without the need to do detailed "counting". If we can understand the Internet, then we can begin improving it.

  12. Brain Maps, Great And Small: Lessons From Comparative Studies, Phil. Tran.: Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: In this paper, we review evidence from comparative studies of primate cortical organization, highlighting recent findings and hypotheses that may help us to understand the rules governing evolutionary changes of the cortical map and the process of formation of areas during development. We argue that clear unequivocal views of cortical areas and their homologies are more likely to emerge for 'core' fields, including the primary sensory areas, which are specified early in development by precise molecular identification steps. (...)

    1. Too Much Knowledge Can Be Bad For Some Types Of Memory, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Sometimes knowledge can be a bad thing, especially when it comes to exact remembering of certain things. A new study found adults did better remembering pictures of imaginary animals than they did remembering pictures of real cats. "The adults remembered these artificial insect-like creatures they had just seen for the first time much better than they did the cats that were very familiar to them," (...). The results show how some types of memory might be better when people forget what they know and instead approach a subject with a child-like sense of naďveté. (...)

    2. Neuroscience: Plasticity And Its Limits, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: How much can the adult brain compensate for injury to the senses of touch or vision, for example? The answer from the latest results on the visual system, involving damage to the retina, seems to be 'very little'.

      Many sensory systems are characterized by connections from receptor surfaces, such as the retina or skin, in which the relationship between neighbouring inputs is preserved. (...) Early work showed that these map-like projections can adapt to the loss of input from part of the receptor sheet by rearranging input lines (...).

    3. A Cost of Long-Term Memory in Drosophila, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Two distinct forms of consolidated associative memory are known in Drosophila: long-term memory and so-called anesthesia-resistant memory. Long-term memory is more stable, but unlike anesthesia-resistant memory, its formation requires protein synthesis. We show that flies induced to form long-term memory become more susceptible to extreme stress (such as desiccation). In contrast, induction of anesthesia-resistant memory had no detectable effect on desiccation resistance. This finding may help to explain why evolution has maintained anesthesia-resistant memory as another form of consolidated memory, distinct from long-term memory.

  13. Female Spiders Try Eating Mate Even Before Sex, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Voracious female spiders just cannot help trying to eat suitors before sex. Why? It's their aggressive personalities. Females of several spider and mantis species dine on their partners, but only after acquiring the sperm necessary to fertilise their eggs. By providing his mate with a good meal, the male increases his own reproductive success. But that doesn't explain the behaviour of females that opt for dinner instead of sex, as fishing spiders (Dolomedes triton) often do. "Eating your mate during or after copulating, that's no big deal. Eating your mate beforehand, that's weird,"

    1. Honeybee Workers Use Cues Other Than Egg Viability For Policing, Biol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Worker policing, wherein social insect workers prevent their sisters from reproducing by eating worker-laid eggs, is recognized as a textbook example of kin selection in action. However, the evolutionary basis of policing was recently challenged in a study that suggested that police-workers remove worker-laid eggs not because rearing workers' sons reduces worker fitness, but merely because worker-laid eggs have low viability. (...) First, we confirm earlier work that showed equal viability of eggs laid by queens and workers. (...) Third, we present data that unequivocally show that police-workers cannot discriminate between dead and live eggs. (...)

    2. Social Amoeba Sheds Light On Communication In Human Brain, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Biologists at UCSD have discovered that the popular sedative Valium has similar effects on the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum as it does in humans. Their surprising finding that Valium, as well as a "natural Valium" molecule found in human brains, causes the social amoeba to enter a dormant or "sleep" phase, may provide new insights into how cells in higher organisms, including humans, communicate with each other. The study, (...) describes the discovery of a short protein, or peptide, known as SDF-2, that neighboring cells of Dictyostelium use to synchronize the formation of spores-the dormant phase of the organism. (...)

  14. Complexity as a Sensemaking Framework, Finland Futures Research Centre publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The latest book in Finland Futures Research Centre publications is "Complexity as a Sensemaking Framework" written by Mika Aaltonen, Theodor Barth, John L. Casti, Eve Mitleton-Kelly and T. Irene Sanders. The theory of complex adaptive systems is used in this book as a theory-constitutive metaphor to reconceptualise and rethink some of the vital issues in organisations? everyday practices. In Complexity as a Sensemaking Framework the writers set new light on methodology, co-evolutionary integration, disordered systems, and business simulation.
    • Source: Complexity as a Sensemaking Framework, Mika Aaltonen, Theodor Barth, John L. Casti, Eve Mitleton-Kelly and T. Irene Sanders,, Book Announcement, Finland Futures Research Centre publications, 05/05/23

    1. Concept: Capturing Chaos, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: As it turns out, ergodicity seems to come into play when the energy given to the chain is about ten times greater than that applied by Fermi and colleagues in their original study. At this energy, rather than remaining locked into some kind of semi-repetitive state, the vibrating chain begins to explore its possible states ergodically and relaxes slowly into equilibrium.

      Importantly, this relaxation happens more quickly as the number of linked masses increases; longer chains get hung up less easily.

  15. Is The Sky-Hook Configuration Stable?, Nonlin. Dyn. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The sky-hook, that is a string forming a connection from the surface of the Earth to a satellite in geostationary orbit, which may be used as track for an Earth to space elevator, is an old dream of mankind, originating about 100 years ago in Russia. Besides the question of feasibility from a technological point of view also the question concerning the stability of such a configuration has not yet been completely solved. Under the assumption that a proper material (carbon nanotubes) is available making the connection possible technologically, we address the question of stability of the radial relative equilibrium (...).
    • Source: Is The Sky-Hook Configuration Stable?, A. Steindl, H. Troger - hans.trogeratuwien.ac.at, DOI: 10.1007/s11071-005-7798-1, Nonlinear Dynamics, Jun. 2005
    • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

    1. Human-Powered Hydrofoil Seeks Jumpy Riders, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Pumpabike's forward propulsion is generated by the rear hydrofoil (Image: Puzey Design)

      The vehicle is made from plastic and aluminium, and weighs just 14 kilograms. It has two hydrofoils, a large rear one that generates 80% of the lift, and a smaller one at the front for steering and stability. Each craft costs between $800 and $1200, (...).

      Hydrofoils enable a vehicle to move through water using less energy than an ordinary boat. They act like wings, raising the bulk of the hull out of the water, reducing drag and making it easier to propel the craft.

  16. Distinguishing Random Environmental Fluctuations From Ecological Catastrophes For The North Pacific Ocean, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The prospect of rapid dynamic changes in the environment is a pressing concern that has profound management and public policy implications. Worries over sudden climate change and irreversible changes in ecosystems are rooted in the potential that nonlinear systems have for complex and 'pathological' behaviours. (...). Here we show that time series observations (...) are not deterministically nonlinear, and are best described as linear stochastic. In contrast, we find that time series for biological variables having similar properties exhibit a low-dimensional nonlinear signature.

    1. Simulation of Geographical Trends in Chowdhury Ecosystem Model, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: A computer simulation based on individual births and deaths gives a biodiversity increasing from cold to warm climates, in agreement with reality. Complexity of foodwebs increases with time and at a higher rate at low latitudes, and there is a higher rate of species creation at low latitudes. Keeping many niches empty makes the results correspond more closely to natural gradients.

    2. Diversity as a Product of Interspecial Interactions, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We demonstrate diversification rather than optimisation for highly interacting organisms in a well mixed biological system by means of a simple model and reference to experiment, and find the cause to be the complex network of interactions formed, allowing species less well adapted to an environment to flourish by co-interaction over the `best' species. This diversification can be considered as the construction of many co-evolutionary niches by the network of interactions between species. Evidence for this comes from work with the bacteria Escherichia coli, which may coexist with their own mutants under certain conditions. Diversification only occurs above a certain threshold interaction strength, below which competitive exclusion occurs.

  17. Earthquakes: Future Shock In California, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The result is a procedure that can be run in real time to predict the probabilities of different sizes of earthquakes, with long-term expectations being modified by recent events. (...) put this into a form that answers the question about local risk. For any particular location in California, the procedure first computes the probability of earthquakes occurring throughout the region, (...). Combining these produces a map of the probability of shaking at a certain level over some future time interval, in this case the next 24 hours.

    1. Periodically Triggered Seismicity at Mount Wrangell, Alaska, After the Sumatra Earthquake, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: As surface waves from the 26 December 2004 earthquake in Sumatra swept across Alaska, they triggered an 11-minute swarm of 14 local earthquakes near Mount Wrangell, almost 11,000 kilometers away. Earthquakes occurred at intervals of 20 to 30 seconds, in phase with the largest positive vertical ground displacements during the Rayleigh surface waves. We were able to observe this correlation because of the combination of unusually long surface waves and seismic stations near the local earthquakes. This phase of Rayleigh wave motion was dominated by horizontal extensional stresses reaching 25 kilopascals. These observations imply that local events were triggered by simple shear failure on normal faults.

  18. 'Blink' Meets 'Freakonomics', NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The hot new book "Freakonomics" applies economic analysis to a range of human activity - from sumo wrestling to "Seinfeld" - but raises at least as many questions as it answers.

    Naturally, readers are drawn to the blog, which picks up where the book leaves off. And unlike a lot of writers who blog their books with a seeming reluctance, the authors, (...), take to it with the same zeal they applied to their book, and the blog is abuzz with activity.

    1. Darth Vader's Family Values, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Wherever you are, Adam Smith, call your agent. Darth Vader is stealing your best stuff. The new installment of "Star Wars" has set off the usual dreary red-blue squabble, with liberals using the film to attack Republicans, and some conservatives calling for a boycott. But - and I know this is hard to believe for a movie with characters named General Grievous and Count Dooku - there's actually a serious bipartisan lesson about the dark side of politics.

    2. A Love Affair With S.U.V.'s Begins to Cool, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: To believe the commercials, sport utility vehicles can climb the most indomitable mountain, (...) and haul around the kids to boot.

      But gas prices are a more unconquerable force of nature. With higher prices at the pump sinking in as something more than a blip on the radar, and with several new passenger car models winning back customers, America's love affair with S.U.V.'s is taking a breather.

      For the first time in 14 years, the passenger car is actually taking sales back at the expense of S.U.V.'s (...).

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

    1. Guantanamo Comes to Define U.S. to Muslims, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In one of Pakistan's most exclusive private schools for boys, the annual play this year was "Guantanamo," a docudrama based on testimonies of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, (...).

      The cast was made up of students between 16 and 18 years old, each playing the role of a prisoner being held on suspicion of terrorism. To deepen their understanding of their characters, the boys pored through articles in Pakistani newspapers, (...) surfed Web sites, including (...) a nonsectarian Islamic human rights portal and is called cageprisoners.com.

    2. U.S. Memo Faults Afghan Leader on Heroin Fight, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: United States officials warned this month in an internal memo that an American-financed poppy eradication program aimed at curtailing Afghanistan's huge heroin trade had been ineffective, in part because President Hamid Karzai "has been unwilling to assert strong leadership."
      A cable sent on May 13 from the United States Embassy in Kabul, the Afghan capital, said that provincial officials and village elders had impeded destruction of significant poppy acreage and that top Afghan officials, including Mr. Karzai, had done little to overcome that resistance.

    3. It's All Newsweek's Fault, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: As we learned last week, the question of why they hate us can now be answered in just one word: Newsweek. "Our United States military personnel go out of their way to make sure that the Holy Koran is treated with care," said the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, as he eagerly made the magazine the scapegoat for lethal anti-American riots in Afghanistan. Indeed, Mr. McClellan was so fixated on destroying Newsweek - (...) - that by omission he whitewashed the rioters themselves, (...).

    4. Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: American military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in Iraq, adding to the mood of anxiety that prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to come to Baghdad last weekend to consult with the new government.
      In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive trends in Iraq could allow a major drawdown in the 138,000 American troops late this year or early in 2006.

    5. Syria Severs Military Cooperation With U.S. - NYT, Reuters Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Syria has severed military and intelligence cooperation with the United States, its ambassador to Washington told The New York Times in an interview published on its Web site on Monday. The ambassador, Imad Moustapha, told the newspaper in an interview given last Friday at the Syrian Embassy in Washington, that his country had, in the last 10 days, "severed all links" with the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency because of what he called unjust American allegations.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Bashing Newsweek, 05/05/19, NYTimes, And forgetting the real enemy.
      2. U.S. Nuclear Weapons: Bunker Buster Shot Down in Opening Volley, Eli Kintisch, 05/05/20, Science : 1100
      3. The Best P.R.: Straight Talk, Thomas L. Friedman, 05/05/20, NYTimes, The greatest respect we can show to Arabs and Muslims is to take them seriously and stop gazing at our own navels.
      4. Letters - Cognitive Unbinding in Sleep and Anesthesia, 05/12/16, Science, Vol. 310. no. 5755, pp. 1768 - 1769, DOI: 10.1126/science.310.5755.1768b
      5. Cosmic Expansion: Supernovas Shed Light On Dark Energy, 05/12/17, Science news, A new study of light from supernovas provides additional hints that dark energy, the mysterious entity revving up the expansion of the universe, might be distributed uniformly throughout space and time.
      6. 'Sister Mary' The Robo-Doc To Start Making Ward Rounds At St Mary's Hospital, 2005/ 05/18, Innovations Report & Imperial College London
      7. Virtual Reality Therapy May Ease Fear Of Public Speaking, 2005/ 05/19, Innovations Report & Georgia State Univ.
      8. Organization of Complex Networks Without Multiple Connections, S.N. Dorogovtsev, J.F.F. Mendes, A.M. Povolotsky, A.N. Samukhin, 2005/05/08, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0505193
      9. Evolution of Polymorphism and Sympatric Speciation Through Competition in a Unimodal Distribution of Resources, E. Brigatti, J.S. Sa' Martins, I.Roditi, 2005/05/09, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0505017
      10. Characterizing Self-Developing Biological Neural Networks: A First Step Towards their Application To Computing Systems, Hugues Berry, Olivier Temam, 2005/05/10, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.NC/0505021
      11. Ground Control to Niels Bohr: Exploring Outer Space with Atomic Physics, Mason A. Porter, Predrag Cvitanovic, 2005/05/11, arXiv, DOI: physics/0505085
      12. Self-Replicating Robot Created, 2005/05/17, Information Society Technologies News
      13. Electronic Butlers To Facilitate Human-To-Human Interaction, 2005/05/17, Information Society Technologies News
      14. Reds Have a Sporting Advantage, Paul Rincon, 2005/05/18, BBC News
      15. The Cortical Column: A Structure Without A Function, J. C. Horton, D. L. Adams, 2005/05/18, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2005.1623
      16. Mapping Brains Without Coordinates, R. Kötter, E. Wanke, 2005/05/18, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2005.1625
      17. Whooping Cranes Stabilize Vision To Find Food, 2005/05/19, ScienceDaily & Cell Press
      18. The Ape In The Tree :An Intellectual And Natural History Of Proconsul, A. Walker, P. Shipman, Apr. 2005, Harvard Univ. Press Book Announcement
      19. Bifurcations In Glass Networks, D. B. Killough - mailto:bradykauvic.ca, R. Edwards - mailto:edwardsamath.uvic.ca, Feb. 2005, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127405012302
      20. Stability And Bifurcation Of Longitudinal Vehicle Braking, B. J. Olson - olsonbr1aegr.msu.edu, S. W. Shaw, G. Stépán, Jun. 2005, 1Nonlinear Dynamics, DOI: 10.1007/s11071-005-7291-x
      21. Art And Science, Can They Ever Be One And The Same?, H. Kroto - krotoasussex.ac.uk, May 2005, European Review, DOI: 10.1017/S1062798705000323
      22. The Big Bang? Three Questions Without A Reply, J.-C. Pecker - j.c.peckerawanadoo.fr, May 2005, European Review, DOI: 10.1017/S1062798705000311

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Changing Habitats...Vanishing Species , Harvard University Science Center, 04/11/12
      2. Symposium : Energy For The Future, Taipei, Taiwan, 05/04/08
      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
      21. Edge Videos

    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. 2005 World Exposition " Nature's Wisdom, Aichi, Japan, 05/03/25-09/25
      2. 2ndShanghai Intl Symposium on Nonlinear Science and Applications, Shanghai, 05/06/03-07
      3. SwarmFest 2005, Torino, Italy, June 5-7, 2005/06/05-07
      4. IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10
      5. 10th Annual Workshop on Economic Heterogeneous Interacting Agents (WEHIA 2005) , University of Essex, United Kingdom, 05/06/13-15
      6. Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
      7. NKS Summer School, Brown University, Providence, RI, 05/06/20-07/08
      8. 6th Intl Conf Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, Kiev, Ukraine, 05/06/20-26
      9. Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24
      10. 2005 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), Washington, DC, USA, 05/06/25-29
      11. 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
      12. Computational Social and Organizational Science (NAACSOS 2005), University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN USA, 05/06/26-28
      13. The Potential Impacts Of Systemics On Society, 49th Annual Meeting of the Intl Soc for the System Sciences, Cancun, Mexico, 05/07/01-05
      14. WOSC 13th International Congress Of Cybernetics And Systems, Maribor, Slovenia, 05/07/06-10
      15. Summer Graduate Workshop In Computational Social Science Modeling And Complexity, Santa Fe, NM, 05/07/10-23
      16. First Summer School on Aspects of Complexity, Bertinoro (Forlě), Italy, 05/07/18-28
      17. 4th International Workshop on Computational Intelligence in Economics and Finance (CIEF'2005), Salt Lake City, 05/07/21-26
      18. Epigenetic Robotics, Nara, Japan 05/07/22-24
      19. 5th Gathering on Biosemiotics, Urbino, Italy, 05/07/22-24
      20. Soc for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences 15th Annual Intl Conf, Denver, CO, USA, 05/08/04-06
      21. 2005 Intl Conf on Natural Computation (ICNC'05), Intl Conf on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD'05), Changsha, China, 05/08/27-29
      22. Summer School on Econophysics and Complexity, Romania, 05/09/02-09
      23. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK, 05/09/05-09
      24. Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14
      25. Dynamics Of Socio-Economic Systems: A Physics Perspective, Physics Center Bad Honnef, Germany, 05/09/18-24
      26. 18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23
      27. Genomics in Context, University of Exeter, UK, 05/09/28-30
      28. CSDS-2005 Intl Conf on CONTROL AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS , Leon, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 05/10/04-07
      29. Traffic and Granular Flow", Berlin, Germany, 05/10/10-12
      30. Intl Congress of Nanotechnology 2005, San Francisco, USA, 05/10/31-11/04
      31. European Conference on Complex Systems, Paris, France, 05/11/14-18
      32. Econophysics Colloquium, Canberra (ANU), 05/11/14-18
      33. 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
      34. Systems Thinking and Complexity Science: Insights for Action, , 11th Ann ANZSYS Conf/Managing the Complex V Christchurch, New Zealand, 05/12/05-07
      35. 2005 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Security (CIS'2005), Hong Kong, China, 05/12/15-19
      36. The Second International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology , Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, 06/01/26-27
      37. FRACTAL 2006 Complexity and Fractals in Nature, 9th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vienna, Austria, 06/02/12-15

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