Complexity Digest 2006.35

28-Aug-2006

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Content

  1. Prediction Markets for Promoting the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts, George Mason Law Review
    1. Fingers of Instability, Frontlinethoughts.com
  2. Social Evolution: Kin Preference In A Social Microbe, Nature
  3. Parochial Altruism In Humans, Nature
  4. Scientists Find Molecule That Tricks Cancer Cells Into Dying, The Guardian
    1. Do Cancer Cells Cooperate With Each Other?, New Scientist
  5. Saving Lives With Tailor-Made Medication, NY Times
    1. Placebo Predictions, Science News
  6. Viruses Can Jump Between Primates And Humans, Innovations-report
    1. First Study To Show How Immune Cells 'Speak' To Each Other In Vivo, ScienceDaily
  7. Neurodevelopment: How Does The Teenage Brain Work?, Nature
  8. Daytime Light Exposure Dynamically Enhances Brain Responses, ScienceDaily
  9. Scientists Find Memory Molecule, Physorg.com
    1. Learning Induces Long-Term Potentiation in the Hippocampus, Science
    2. NEUROSCIENCE: Enhanced: ZAP and ZIP, a Story to Forget, Science
    3. Storage of Spatial Information by the Maintenance Mechanism of LTP, Science
  10. INQUIRY LEARNING: Teaching and Assessing Knowledge Integration in Science, Science
    1. Use Of Stone Hammers Sheds Light On Geographic Patterns Of Chimpanzee Tool Use, Innovations-report
  11. Digital Cameras Focus On Revised Reality, CNET News.com
  12. Early Embryos Can Yield Stem Cells... And Survive, Nature
  13. Enlightened: Dark Matter Spotted After Cosmic Crash, Science News
  14. METEOROLOGY: Sharpening Up Models for a Better View of the Atmosphere, Science
    1. Oceans Cool Off In Hottest Years, Nature
  15. Running Out of Water--and Time, Science
    1. Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources, Science
    2. Controversial Rivers Project Aims to Turn India's Fierce Monsoon Into a Friend, Science
  16. The Challenge of Micropollutants in Aquatic Systems, Science
  17. CHEMISTRY: New in Nanotech: Self-Folding Delivery Boxes, Science
    1. Solid-State-Chemistry: Framework For A Molecular Prison, Nature
  18. Appropriate Technology: Make Anything, Anywhere, Nature
    1. Smart Fabrics Are Back In Fashion, BBC News
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Network
    1. Rumsfeld Says War Critics Haven't Learned Lessons of History, NY Times
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements

  1. Prediction Markets for Promoting the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts, George Mason Law Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Copyrights and patents promote only superficial progress in the sciences and useful arts. Copyright law primarily encourages entertaining works, whereas patent law mainly inspires marginal improvements in mature technologies. Neither form of intellectual property does much to encourage basic research and development. Essential progress suffers.

    Prediction markets offer another way to promote the sciences and useful arts. In general, prediction markets support transactions in claims about unresolved questions of fact.

    1. Fingers of Instability, Frontlinethoughts.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: "...after the pile evolves into a critical state, many grains rest just on the verge of tumbling, and these grains link up into 'fingers of instability' of all possible lengths. While many are short, others slice through the pile from one end to the other. So the chain reaction triggered by a single grain might lead to an avalanche of any size whatsoever, depending on whether that grain fell on a short, intermediate or long finger of instability."
      Editor's Note: This is a discussion of how to apply Per Bak's sand pile model of self-organized criticality to complex systems like markets.

  2. Social Evolution: Kin Preference In A Social Microbe, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Given the right circumstances, even an amoeba chooses to be altruistic towards its relatives.

    Kin recognition helps cooperation to evolve in many animals1, but it is uncertain whether microorganisms can also use it to focus altruistic behaviour on relatives. Here we show that the social amoeba Dictyostelium purpureum prefers to form groups with its own kin in situations where some individuals die to assist others. By directing altruism towards kin, D. purpureum should generally avoid the costs of chimaerism2,3 experienced by the related D. discoideum.

    • Source: Social Evolution: Kin Preference In A Social Microbe, Natasha J. Mehdiabadi, Chandra N. Jack, Tiffany Talley Farnham, Thomas G. Platt, Sara E. Kalla, Gad Shaulsky, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann, DOI: 10.1038/442881a, Nature 442, 881-882, 06/08/24

  3. Parochial Altruism In Humans, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Social norms and the associated altruistic behaviours are decisive for the evolution of human cooperation and the maintenance of social order, and they affect family life, politics and economic interactions. However, as altruistic norm compliance and norm enforcement often emerge in the context of inter-group conflicts, they are likely to be shaped by parochialism - preference for favouring the members of one's ethnic, racial or language group. We have conducted punishment experiments, which allow 'impartial' observers to punish norm violators, with indigenous groups in Papua New Guinea.

  4. Scientists Find Molecule That Tricks Cancer Cells Into Dying, The Guardian Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientists have found a way to trick cancer cells into committing suicide. The new synthetic compound, which removes a molecular safety catch that activates a natural executioner in the body's cells, could lead to better treatments of cancers including those affecting the lung, skin, breast, kidney and colon. The body has several defences against cells growing out of control and into tumours - one is to cause defective or dangerous cells to commit suicide. This natural process of cell death, called apoptosis, involves a protein called procaspase-3.

    1. Do Cancer Cells Cooperate With Each Other?, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: An analysis of how cells in a tumour cooperate has provided a unique insight into the evolution of cancer, and may lead to new treatments.

      It makes use of "game theory" - the mix of mathematics and economics theory that has been invaluable in understanding how cooperation can evolve in animal societies, even when individuals are selfish.

      Robert Axelrod, a political scientist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, US, a leader in applying game theory to evolutionary biology, has now turned his attention to cancer.

  5. Saving Lives With Tailor-Made Medication, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Till now, there's been a one-size-fits-all approach. In most cases, an average dose of a medication is ordered, and then, if the patient suffers side effects, the dosage is adjusted. With gene testing, we can customize the prescription.

    Here at St. Jude, we've been gene-testing every child who comes to us with leukemia. I study acute lymphoblastic leukemia - A.L.L., the most common childhood cancer. When a youngster comes in with A.L.L., we get a sample of their DNA. We put it on a special computer chip that scans a half-million different places on the genome. Mostly, we're looking for unusual variations of the genes and misspellings of the genetic code.

    1. Placebo Predictions, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Giving patients placebo pills for a week before they begin to participate in trials of antidepressants can help clinicians gauge how well they will respond to the actual medication.

  6. Viruses Can Jump Between Primates And Humans, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Viruses that jump the species barrier between monkeys and humans can harm both people and animals, and we should take steps to reduce the risk of virus transmission. That's the message running through the September issue of the American Journal of Primatology, a special issue on disease risk analysis (...). The special issue covers a range of topics, including an estimate of the viral transmission risk for visitors to a monkey temple in Indonesia, and a study showing how methods to limit contact between monkeys and humans can reduce the risk of transmission between the species. (...)

    1. First Study To Show How Immune Cells 'Speak' To Each Other In Vivo, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) have confirmed the existence of anatomical structures that channel information exchanges between a T cell and its target, an antigen-presenting brain cell, in laboratory rats. This immunologic synapse, or junction where signals are shuttled between two immune cells, has previously only been observed in cell cultures, in part because of the limitations of imaging and the rapid, touch-and-go nature of the communication itself. According to the researchers, this work should settle the controversy over the existence and functional significance of mature immunological synapses in vivo during antiviral immune responses. (...)

  7. Neurodevelopment: How Does The Teenage Brain Work?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Changes in the structure of children's brains may account for some of the risky business of adolescence, Kendall Powell finds.

    The 14-year-old has a very simple decision to make. When he sees a light out of the corner of his eye he is supposed to ignore it and keep looking straight ahead. It seems extraordinarily easy ¡X even eight-year-olds can do it correctly half of the time ¡X but it requires reigning in a natural impulse to look. And every parent of a teenager knows that reigning in imp

  8. Daytime Light Exposure Dynamically Enhances Brain Responses, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Exposure to light is known to enhance both alertness and performance in humans, but little is understood regarding the neurological basis for these effects, especially those associated with daytime light exposure. Now, by exposing subjects to light and imaging their brains while they subsequently perform a cognitive test, researchers have begun to identify brain regions involved in the effects on brain function of daytime light exposure. (...) Our brain does not use light only to form images of the world. Ambient light levels are detected by our nervous system and, without forming any image, profoundly influence our brain function (...).

  9. Scientists Find Memory Molecule, Physorg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: they demonstrate that by inhibiting the molecule they can erase long-term memories, much as you might erase a computer disc.

    Furthermore, erasing the memory from the brain does not prevent the ability to re-learn the memory, much as a cleaned computer disc may be re-used.

    (...) an enzyme molecule called "protein kinase M zeta¡¨ preserves long-term memories through persistent strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons. (...) By inhibiting the enzyme, scientists were able to erase a memory that had been stored for one day, or even one month.

    1. Learning Induces Long-Term Potentiation in the Hippocampus, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Years of intensive investigation have yielded a sophisticated understanding of long-term potentiation (LTP) induced in hippocampal area CA1 by high-frequency stimulation (HFS). These efforts have been motivated by the belief that similar synaptic modifications occur during memory formation, but it has never been shown that learning actually induces LTP in CA1. We found that one-trial inhibitory avoidance learning in rats produced the same changes in hippocampal glutamate receptors as induction of LTP with HFS and caused a spatially restricted increase in the amplitude of evoked synaptic transmission in CA1 in vivo.

    2. NEUROSCIENCE: Enhanced: ZAP and ZIP, a Story to Forget, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: How do brains store memories? The leading candidate for the role is a form of synaptic plasticity known as long-term potentiation (LTP), a persistent increase in the strength of synapses linking interconnected neurons in cortical networks. LTP can be induced experimentally by the application of a brief train of electrical stimuli, known to practitioners of the art as the tetanus or ZAP (1, 2). On pages 1093 and 1141 of this issue, Whitlock et al. and Pastalkova et al. substantially advance the case for LTP as a neural mechanism for memory (3, 4).

    3. Storage of Spatial Information by the Maintenance Mechanism of LTP, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Analogous to learning and memory storage, long-term potentiation (LTP) is divided into induction and maintenance phases. Testing the hypothesis that the mechanism of LTP maintenance stores information requires reversing this mechanism in vivo and finding out whether long-term stored information is lost. This was not previously possible. Recently however, persistent phosphorylation by the atypical protein kinase C isoform, protein kinase Mzeta (PKMz), has been found to maintain late LTP in hippocampal slices.

  10. INQUIRY LEARNING: Teaching and Assessing Knowledge Integration in Science, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Students grapple with multiple, conflicting, and often confusing ideas while they learn scientific concepts. Research has shown that instruction is both effective and durable when teachers use students' ideas as a starting point and guide the learners as they articulate their repertoire of ideas, add new ideas including visualizations, sort out these ideas in a variety of contexts, make connections among ideas at multiple levels of analysis, develop ever more nuanced criteria for evaluating ideas, and regularly reformulate increasingly interconnected views about the phenomena (1, 2).

    1. Use Of Stone Hammers Sheds Light On Geographic Patterns Of Chimpanzee Tool Use, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: In a finding that challenges a long-held belief regarding the cultural spread of tool use among chimpanzees, researchers report that chimpanzees in the Ebo forest, Cameroon, use stone hammers to crack open hard-shelled nuts to access the nutrient-rich seeds. The findings are significant because this nut-cracking behavior was previously known only in a distant chimpanzee population in extreme western Africa and was thought to be restricted by geographical boundaries that prevented cultural spread of the technique from animal to animal. (...)

  11. Digital Cameras Focus On Revised Reality, CNET News.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Hewlett-Packard's Design Gallery software offers a "Slimming Mode" that makes the object in the center of the photo appear longer and leaner. Credit: Hewlett-Packard
    Want to look thinner? Taller? Tanner? Don't worry, there's a camera for all that.

    Today's cameras will let you do more than adjust the flash; they'll let you adjust reality. Photo-adjusting features that once required a PC and special know-how are now allowing consumers to alter a photo as soon as it's snapped.

    Some new Hewlett-Packard cameras include a feature that makes subjects look thinner, while another mode makes facial lines and pores virtually disappear. A "skin tone" feature on some Olympus models can give consumers a leisure-class tan.

  12. Early Embryos Can Yield Stem Cells... And Survive, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Could extraction technique resolve ethical problems?

    A single cell can be teased from a human embryo and used to produce stem cells while leaving the embryo intact. The process, published online in Nature this week, could enable stem-cell lines to be generated without the controversial destruction of human embryos - but some ethical objections remain.

    Embryonic stem cells, prized for their ability to make other tissue types, are typically extracted from an embryo that has developed into a hollow ball called a blastocyst. The process pulls the embryo apart and destroys it.

  13. Enlightened: Dark Matter Spotted After Cosmic Crash, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    CRASH COURSE. This composite image from several observatories and telescopes shows where two clusters of galaxies collided 100 million years ago. The ordinary matter, shown in pink, from the two galaxies collided, whereas the dark matter from each galaxy, shown in purple, passed straight through. Markevitch, et al., Clowe, et al., Magellan, Univ. of Arizona, CXC, CfA, STScI, ESO WFI, NASA
    An intergalactic collision is providing astronomers with a giant payoff: the first direct evidence of the invisible material that theorists say holds galaxies together and accounts for most of the universe's mass. (...) Normally, as galaxies travel through the universe, gravity keeps dark and ordinary matter close together, so the invisible substance can't be distinguished. During a galactic merger, however, hot gases from one galaxy bump into hot gases in the other and both galaxies are slowed by a force similar to wind resistance. But dark matter from one galaxy, in theory, passes right through another galaxy's dark matter.

  14. METEOROLOGY: Sharpening Up Models for a Better View of the Atmosphere, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Machines simulating Earth's atmosphere are producing ever-more-detailed pictures of weather and climate, thanks to ever-increasing computer power. And that new detail is now beginning to let researchers shed some of the approximations and down-right fabrications they once needed to get anything useful out of their models. The new view of the atmosphere "looks very, very different" from that of less detailed model simulations, says modeler Jerry D. Mahlman of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "It's a very important thing to do."

    1. Oceans Cool Off In Hottest Years, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Temperature drop puzzles climate researchers. Ocean measurements suggest the world's seas have cooled substantially during some of the warmest years in recent history. If real, the dip is likely to reflect a short-term fluctuation in an ocean that is warming overall, say climate scientists.

      The years 2003 and 2005 saw the highest global average surface temperatures in more than a century. An upcoming paper in Geophysical Research Letters reports that during this period, the upper 750 metres of the oceans lost around one-fifth of the

  15. Running Out of Water--and Time, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: This estimated 60-MCM annual water deficit is why the water table is dropping rapidly and already reaches 13 meters below sea level in some places. Saltwater from the Mediterranean as well as deeper pockets of brine get sucked in to fill the gap. "The saltwater intrusion is well under way," (...). About 90% of wells already have salinity exceeding the WHO-recommended maximum of 250 parts per million (ppm). The accelerating rate of saltwater intrusion alone could make the Gaza aquifer unusable within 2 or 3 decades, (...).
    • Source: Running Out of Water--and Time, John Bohannon, DOI: DOI: 10.1126/science.313.5790.1085, Science, Vol. 313. no. 5790, pp. 1085 - 1087, 06/08/25

    1. Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Water is a naturally circulating resource that is constantly recharged. Therefore, even though the stocks of water in natural and artificial reservoirs are helpful to increase the available water resources for human society, the flow of water should be the main focus in water resources assessments. The climate system puts an upper limit on the circulation rate of available renewable freshwater resources (RFWR). Although current global withdrawals are well below the upper limit, more than two billion people live in highly water-stressed areas because of the uneven distribution of RFWR in time and space.

    2. Controversial Rivers Project Aims to Turn India's Fierce Monsoon Into a Friend, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: China's gargantuan South-North Water Transfer Scheme (see main text) may not hold the record as the largest civil water project for long. India is planning a similar endeavor that could cost twice as much and eventually shift four times the volume of water.

      The $120 billion Interlinking of Rivers Project would primarily divert monsoon runoff from 12 rivers in eastern India to parched western states via canals, tunnels, and reservoirs.

  16. The Challenge of Micropollutants in Aquatic Systems, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The increasing worldwide contamination of freshwater systems with thousands of industrial and natural chemical compounds is one of the key environmental problems facing humanity. Although most of these compounds are present at low concentrations, many of them raise considerable toxicological concerns, particularly when present as components of complex mixtures. Here we review three scientific challenges in addressing water-quality problems caused by such micropollutants. First, tools to assess the impact of these pollutants on aquatic life and human health must be further developed and refined.

  17. CHEMISTRY: New in Nanotech: Self-Folding Delivery Boxes, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: "Some assembly required." Those words on a box from the store spell agony for a parent. Chemists face similar headaches while designing new drug-delivery agents or trying to control their actions in the body. But researchers in Maryland may have found a pain reliever.

    In a paper published online last week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, reported creating tiny two-dimensional cutouts that fold themselves up into porous cubes and other 3D containers.

    1. Solid-State-Chemistry: Framework For A Molecular Prison, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Karau and Schnick now describe the first synthesis of a true nitride-phosphate clathrate, which traps neutral ammonia molecules in small cages within an unprecedented atomic framework, (...). The framework is constructed from tetrahedra; each of these consists of a phosphorus atom at the centre of four nitrogen atoms, where the nitrogen atoms form the corners of the tetrahedron subunit. The tetrahedra share corners, so that each nitrogen atom acts as the corner for two adjacent subunits.

  18. Appropriate Technology: Make Anything, Anywhere, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Can everyone use technology creatively? Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think so and have launched 'Fab Labs' around the world to prove it. Apoorva Mandavilli reports.

    Neil Gershenfeld has been teaching a class called "How to make (almost) anything" to some of the brightest young adults in the United States for years. But it took an eight-year-old girl in a small village in Ghana to show that anyone, anywhere, really can make just about anything.

    1. Smart Fabrics Are Back In Fashion, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Fibre-optic clothing can be used for fashion or the emergency services
      "It is a fabric containing, amongst other things, fibre-optics, but there is also a technical side to it.

      "The system consists of cabling, and the fibre-optics are lit by high-efficiency LEDs. The system powering it varies according to the function." (...)

      It is easy to see how this technology could conceivably save lives in conditions where visibility is low, such as in fog or smoke

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Network Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Rumsfeld Says War Critics Haven't Learned Lessons of History, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In many previous speeches, including some before groups of veterans for whom World War II is a sacred memory, he has compared the government of Saddam Hussein, and the violent resistance since it fell, to the Nazis, and warned explicitly against appeasement there or in the broader campaign against terrorism, comparing it to the error of appeasing Hitler.

      While he did not directly compare current critics of the war in Iraq to those who sought to appease Hitler, his juxtaposition of the themes led Democrats to say that he was leveling an unfair charge.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Brave New World In Life Sciences, 06/08/23, Eurekalert
      2. Why Are There So Many Species of Herbivorous Insects in Tropical Rainforests?, Vojtech Novotny, Pavel Drozd, Scott E. Miller, Miroslav Kulfan, Milan Janda, Yves Basset, George D. Weiblen, 06/08/25, Science : 1115-1118. The number of insect species in tropical and temperate forests is determined by the diversity of tree species., DOI: 10.1126/science.1129237
      3. Individual Cell Migration Serves as the Driving Force for Optic Vesicle Evagination, Martina Rembold, Felix Loosli, Richard J. Adams, Joachim Wittbrodt, 06/08/25, Science : 1130-1134. High-resolution imaging of cells in living fish shows that migrating cells form the eye by acting individually rather than collectively.
      4. Storage of Spatial Information by the Maintenance Mechanism of LTP, Eva Pastalkova, Peter Serrano, Deana Pinkhasova, Emma Wallace, Andr? Antonio Fenton, Todd Charlton Sacktor, 06/08/25, Science : 1141-1144. Maintenance of spatial memories in the rat brain can be reversed by inhibition of long-term synaptic potentiation in the
      5. Mutant Maps, 06/08/26, Science News, Struck by an analogy between genetic mutations and flaws in antique printed documents, a biologist has devised a method to analyze such flaws to pinpoint publication dates of rare, undated documents.
      6. Sauna Use Among Dads Linked To Tumors In Children, 06/08/26, Science News, Men who expose themselves to excessive heat in the weeks before they conceive children may place their future offspring at unnecessary risk of brain cancer.
      7. Users Get Locked Out From PCs: Half Of Users Must Remember Four Or More Passwords, Says Research, T. Young, 2006/08/17, vnunet.com & Computing
      8. Killer Whales Are Capable Of Vocal Learning, A. D. Foote, R. M. Griffin, D. Howitt, L. Larsson, P. J. O. Miller, A. R. Hoelzel, 2006/08/22, Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0525
      9. Everyday Beliefs About Food Refuse To Give Way To Scientific Evidence, 2006/08/22, ScienceDaily & University of Helsinki
      10. Bumble Bees Can Estimate Time Intervals, 2006/08/23, Innovations-report
      11. Unions Push For Offshore Compensation Scheme: The TUC Wants Offshoring To Trigger Compensation For UK Workers Left Without A Job, J. Murray, 2006/08/24, vnunet.com, IT Week
      12. Defeating The Smartcard Code-Crackers, 2006/08/24, Innovations-report
      13. Researchers Restore Memory Lost In Mice With Alzheimer's, 2006/08/25, ScienceDaily & Columbia University Medical Center
      14. Three Poverties In Urban China, J. Knight - john.knightaeconomics.ox.ac.uk, L. Shi - lishi89a263.net, Aug. 2006, Review of Development Economics, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9361.2006.00348.x
      15. Neurobiological Bases Of Aggression, Violence, And Cruelty, M. I. de Aguirre - mideaguirreaciudad.com.ar, Jun. 2006, online 2006/08/09, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X0626905X
      16. Nice Idea, But Is It Science?, R. Schuster - schusterapsy.haifa.ac.il, Jun. 2006, online 2006/08/09, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X06409055
      17. The Affective Neuroeconomics Of Social Brains: One Man's Cruelty Is Another's Suffering, J. Panksepp - jpankseppavetmed.wsu.edu, Jun. 2006, online 2006/08/09, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X06269059
      18. A Nonlinear Dynamics Perspective Of Wolfram's New Kind Of Science Part vi: From Time-Reversible Attractors To The Arrow Of Time, L. O. Chua, V. I. Sbitnev, S. Yoon, May 2006, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127406015544

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      2. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      3. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      4. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      5. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      6. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      7. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      8. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      9. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      10. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      11. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      12. 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
      13. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 05/01/26-30
      14. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      15. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      16. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      17. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      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 Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Nonlinear Dynamical Methods and Time Series Analysis, Udine, Italy, 06/08/30-09/01
      2. Workshop on New Directions in Complex Systems, Istanbul, Turkey, 06/09/03-09
      3. Mathematica Zurich Conference 2006,, Zurich, Switzerland, 06/09/06
      4. Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN), Reykjavik, Iceland, 06/09/09-13
      5. The World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium 2006, Crans-Montana, Switzerland, 06/09/14-16
      6. 7th Intl Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Sciences (KSS'2006), Beijing, 06/09/22-25.
      7. European Conference on Complex Systems 2006 (ECCS'06), Oxford, England, 06/09/25-29
      8. FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 9, The Ninth Intl Conf on the SIMULATION OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR (SAB'06), Roma, Italy, 06/09/25-30
      9. ECCS 06 - Complexity and Dynamics: Volatility & Stability in City & Regional Systems, Oxford, UK, 06/09/28
      10. 13th Herbstakademie COGNITION AND EMBODIMENT, Monte Verità, Switzerland, 06/10/05-08
      11. Weaving Smart Networks: Building Capacity for Positive Change in Organizations and Communities, Washington, DC USA, 06/10/12-13
      12. 2006 Wolfram Technology Conference,Champaign, Illinois, 06/10/12-14
      13. 6th Intl Conf on Simulated Evolution and Learning , Hefei, China, 06/10/15-18
      14. Regulomics Symposium: Focus on Systems Biology, Boston, MA, 06/10/23-26
      15. >8th Annual International Leadership Association Conference: Leadership at the Crossroads, Chicago, IIinois, USA, 06/11/01-05
      16. Creating Interdisciplinary Cultures: Insights from Complexity Science and Relationship Centered Care, Indiana USA, 06/11/17-19
      17. Self-Organization And Morphogenesis In Biological Systems , Schloss Ringberg, Germany. 06/12/03-06
      18. Japan Mathematica Conference 2006, Tokyo, Japan, 06/12/12
      19. 2006 IEEE/WIC/ACM Intl Workshop on Interaction between Agents and Data Mining (IADM-06), Hongkong, China, 06/12/18
      20. Logic, Computability and Randomness 2007 , Buenos Aires, Argentina, 07/01/10-13
      21. 3rd International Workshop on Complexity and Philisophy, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 07/02/22-23
      22. Complexity and Organizational Resilience The Village, Pohnpei, Micronesia, 07/05
      23. 2nd Intl Conf on Built Environment Complexity - Embracing complexity thinking in built environments, Cape Town South Africa, 07/05/21-25
      24. Summer School In Complexity Science, London, UK, 07/07/08-17

    4. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. Special Issue of the Artificial Life journal on the Evolution of Complexity, Call for Papers
      2. Digital Graphics for Quantitative Finance, Lineplot Productions, 2006

        Why create movies of financial models? Because key stakeholders often don't understand them. The mathematical, data-intensive sphere of quantitative financial analysis can be a black box even for many in the industry. It is vital for users of this analysis to appreciate, understand and buy into, often literally, these difficult and important concepts.

      3. Life: An Introduction to Complex Systems Biology, Kunihiko Kaneko, Springer Series: Understanding Complex Systems, 2006

        What is life? Has molecular biology given us a satisfactory answer to this question? And if not, why, and how to carry on from there? This book examines life not from the reductionist point of view, but rather asks the question: what are the universal properties of living systems and how can one construct from there a phenomenological theory of life that leads naturally to complex processes such as reproductive cellular systems, evolution and differentiation? The presentation has been deliberately kept fairly non-technical so as to address a broad spectrum of students and researchers from the natural sciences and informatics.

      4. Chaos and Complexity Resources for Students and Teachers, 06/03/01

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