Complexity Digest 2006.45

06-Nov-2006

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Content

  1. A Science of the Web Begins, Scientific American
    1. Berners-Lee Launches Web Science Initiative: Wants To Make It An Object Of Scientific Inquiry, vnunet.com
    2. Internet Swells To 100 Million Sites: Dramatic Growth Attributed To New Blogs And Small Business Sites, vnunet.com
  2. Greenhouse Gases Hit Record High, BBC News
    1. How Much Will It Cost To Save The World?, Nature
    2. Africa Needs Help To Avert Climate Change Catastrophe, Warns UN, The Guardian
    3. CLIMATE CHANGE: An Ambitious, Centrist Approach to Global Warming Legislation, Science
  3. Engineers Develop Revolutionary Nanotech Water Desalination Membrane, Physorg.com
    1. Global Loss of Biodiversity Harming Ocean Bounty, Science
  4. Physicists Observe New Property Of Matter, Physorg.com
  5. Plan To Create Human-Cow Embryos, BBC News
  6. How To Mend A Broken Heart: Zebrafish Hold Key To Regeneration, ScienceDaily
    1. Bizarre Bacterial Creations, Technology Review
  7. Cool Down - You May Live Longer, New Scientist
  8. Zapping Sleepers' Brains Boosts Memory, New Scientist
    1. It May Come As A Shock, NY Times
    2. The Brain Near the Edge, arXiv
  9. Rerouting Brain Circuits with Implanted Chips, Technology Review
    1. Two Nerve Cells In Direct Contact, Physorg.com
    2. Long-Term Motor Cortex Plasticity Induced By An Electronic Neural Implant, Nature
  10. New Sequential Decision Making Model Could Be Key To Artificial Intelligence, Physorg.com
  11. Researchers Teach Computers How To Name Images By 'Thinking', Physorg.com
  12. Emergence of Human Cooperation and Altruism by Evolutionary Feedback Selection, arXiv
    1. Spread Of Arbitrary Conventions Among Chimpanzees: A Controlled Experiment, Proc. Biol. Sc.
    2. Diminishing Reciprocal Fairness by Disrupting the Right Prefrontal Cortex, Science
    3. Evolutionary Biology: To Work Or Not To Work, Nature
  13. 'Silent Aircraft': How It Works, BBC News
  14. 'Nanoporous' Material Gobbles Up Hydrogen Fuel, New Scientist
    1. Physical Chemistry: Porous Solids Get Organized, Nature
  15. Building Theories of Economic Process, SFI Working Papers
  16. Intimate Strangers, Time
  17. Complexity, Coarse-Graining and Symbolic Description, SFI Working Papers
  18. Ballot Roulette - Computer Scientists And Mathematicians Look For Better Ways To Vote, Science News
    1. Grey Matter: Ambiguities And Complexities Of Ethics In Research, J. Acad. Ethics
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Iraq Receives Poor Marks In Survey Of Corruption - U.S. Slips In International Group's Ratings, International Herald Tribune
    2. This Curve Spells Trouble for Iraq, Business Week
    3. The Quantitative Analysis Of Terrorism And Immigration: An Initial Exploration, Terrorism & Polit. Violence
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements

  1. A Science of the Web Begins, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Image: ? ROYALTY-FREE CORBIS BIT BY BIT: The science of the World Wide Web will be studied in a new endeavor by Tim Berners-Lee and other Web heavyweights.
    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southampton in England today announced they would jointly start a new branch of science: the science of the Web. In one decade the World Wide Web has exploded into 14 billion pages that touch almost all aspects of modern life. The network has grown in a grassroots way, based on a handful of pervasive protocols and aloof guidance from the World Wide Web Consortium, a forum based at M.I.T. for Web developers. Essentially, millions of devotees have spent countless hours advancing the Web bit by bit. Although forceful, the effort has also been piecemeal and inefficient.

    1. Berners-Lee Launches Web Science Initiative: Wants To Make It An Object Of Scientific Inquiry, vnunet.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Tim Berners-Lee, father of the World Wide Web, has announced the launch of a long-term research collaboration between MIT and the University of Southampton that aims to turn the web itself into a fundamental science. The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) will generate a research agenda to understand the scientific, technical and social challenges underlying the growth of the web. Research will focus on the volume of information on the web which documents more and more aspects of human activity and knowledge. (...)

    2. Internet Swells To 100 Million Sites: Dramatic Growth Attributed To New Blogs And Small Business Sites, vnunet.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Internet research firm Netcraft has reported that the total number of websites on the internet has passed the 100 million mark.The firm's November 2006 Web Server Survey said that 3.5 million new sites emerged in the past month, pushing the total to 101,435,253. However, the number of currently active sites is only around 51 million.Much of the growth is attributed to new blogs and small business sites, according to Netcraft. The company pointed to blog hosting services from Microsoft and Google as fuelling the recent growth. The internet has effectively doubled in size in a little over two years, (...).

  2. Greenhouse Gases Hit Record High, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Rising levels of greenhouse gases are blamed for climate change
    The steady rise in atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change shows no signs of abating, a UN agency has announced. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose by about half a percent in 2005, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.

    It said levels were likely to keep rising unless emissions of CO2, methane and nitrogen oxides were slashed.

    The announcement comes on the eve of UN climate negotiations in Nairobi.

    1. How Much Will It Cost To Save The World?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, (...), has been praised by many economists, who say it sets a new benchmark for quality and thoroughness. But its dramatic conclusions, including the claim that tackling climate change would cost 20 times less than doing nothing, were immediately attacked by right-wing commentators and other economists. Some add that the report covers such complex ground that it should be seen as a political rather than a scientific document (...). (...) how much the world should spend to tackle climate change.

    2. Africa Needs Help To Avert Climate Change Catastrophe, Warns UN, The Guardian Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Africa could suffer greater effects from global warming than previously feared, the United Nations said yesterday, with the risk of widespread coastal flooding, substantial loss of animal habitat and lower cereal yields all likely in coming decades.

      In a report published on the eve of a key climate change conference opening in Nairobi today, environmentalists gave warning that the continent needed help in dealing with a problem created by the industrialised world.

    3. CLIMATE CHANGE: An Ambitious, Centrist Approach to Global Warming Legislation, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: For too long, the United States has excused its own inaction by saying that it cannot solve this problem alone. But other countries cannot be expected to play their full part if the world's largest emitter continues to do nothing. Global progress requires that we begin to act at home and rejoin international negotiations with a new attitude. (...) Several current legislative proposals usefully provide for a regular review every 5 or 10 years based on input from the Administration and the National Academy of Sciences (...).

  3. Engineers Develop Revolutionary Nanotech Water Desalination Membrane, Physorg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    UCLA Engineering's Eric Hoek holds nanoparticles and a piece of his new RO water desalination membrane. Credit: UCLA Engineering/Don Liebig
    The new membrane, developed by civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Eric Hoek and his research team, uses a uniquely cross-linked matrix of polymers and engineered nanoparticles designed to draw in water ions but repel nearly all contaminants. These new membranes are structured at the nanoscale to create molecular tunnels through which water flows more easily than contaminants.

    1. Global Loss of Biodiversity Harming Ocean Bounty, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Environmental groups often argue that biodiversity offers tangible benefits to people. (...) loss of ocean populations and species has been accompanied by plummeting catches of wild fish, declines in water quality, and other costly losses. They even project that all commercial fish and seafood species will collapse by 2048. "It's a gloomy picture," says lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Yet the team provides a glimmer of hope, concluding that people still have time to recoup these ecosystem benefits if they restore biodiversity.

  4. Physicists Observe New Property Of Matter, Physorg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Excitons tend to self-organize into an ordered array of microscopic droplets, like a miniature pearl necklace. The wave-like interference pattern (right) reveals the spontaneous coherence of excitons. Credit: UCSD
    Physicists at the University of California, San Diego have for the first time observed the spontaneous production of coherence within "excitons," the bound pairs of electrons and holes that enable semiconductors to function as novel electronic devices.

    Scientists working in the emerging field of nanotechnology, which is finding commercial applications for ultra-small material objects, believe that this newly discovered property could eventually help the development of novel computing devices and provide them with new insights into the quirky quantum properties of matter.

  5. Plan To Create Human-Cow Embryos, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: UK scientists have applied for permission to create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs. The hybrid human-bovine embryos would be used for stem cell research and would not be allowed to develop for more than a few days. But critics say it is unethical and potentially dangerous. (...)

    The problem is that human eggs for research are in short supply and to obtain them women have to undergo surgery.

    That is why scientists want to use cows' eggs as a substitute.

  6. How To Mend A Broken Heart: Zebrafish Hold Key To Regeneration, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When a portion of a zebrafish's heart is removed, the dynamic interplay between a mass of stem cells that forms in the wound and the protective cell layer that covers the wound spurs the regeneration of functional new heart tissue (...). The scientists further discovered that key growth factors facilitate the interaction between the cell mass and the protective covering, encouraging the formation of new heart muscle. Many cell biologists believe the ability to regenerate damaged heart tissue may be present in all vertebrate species, but that for unknown reasons, mammals have "turned off" this ability over the course of evolution. (...)

    1. Bizarre Bacterial Creations, Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Banana-scented bacteria, engineered to order, are just one offering at this weekend's International Genetically Engineered Machine competition.

      (...) the designs represent some of the most complex biologically engineered machines to date--and they promise to further the field of synthetic biology, a newly emerging discipline that views living systems from an engineering point of view.

      The MIT team, for example, tosses out wacky applications for its technology: minty-fresh foot fungus or baker's yeast that smells of bananas.

  7. Cool Down - You May Live Longer, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Researchers have found that lowering the body temperature of mice by just 0.5¢XC extends their lifespan by around 15%. In the future, people might be able to take a drug to achieve a similar effect on body temperature and enjoy a longer life, they say.

    The only previously proven method of significantly increasing the lifespan of an animal has been through a restricted calorie diet.

  8. Zapping Sleepers' Brains Boosts Memory, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Applying a gentle electric current to the brain during sleep can significantly boost memory, researchers report.

    A small new study showed that half an hour of this brain stimulation improved students' performance at a verbal memory task by about 8%. The approach enhances memory by creating a form of electrical current in the brain seen in deep sleep, the researchers suggest.

    Jan Born at the University of Luebeck in Germany, and colleagues, recruited 13 healthy medical students for the study and gave them a list of word associations, such as ¡§bird¡¨ and ¡§air¡¨, to learn late in the evening.

    1. It May Come As A Shock, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Top, Corbis; Bottom, Tony Cenicola/The New York Times A.D. 41 In ancient Rome doctors treated the throbbing pain of migraine headaches by applying an electric fish like the black torpedo, top, directly to the head. 2006 It doesn't smell and its shocks are more predictable, but the occipital nerve stimulator, implanted in the head and buttocks, operates on the same principle, bottom.
      The two kinds of stimulatory approaches now in large-scale clinical trials are occipital nerve stimulation, or O.N.S., and transcranial magnetic stimulation, or T.M.S. (...)

      Dr. Joel R. Saper, director of the neurological institute, said that in the treatment, electrodes are positioned to stimulate the greater occipital nerve, which runs along the back of the head on either side. The occipital nerve converges in the upper or cervical spinal cord with the trigeminal system, which includes neurons and neural pathways responsible for conveying much of the throbbing pain associated with migraine, he said.

    2. The Brain Near the Edge, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: When viewed at a certain coarse grain, the brain seems a relatively small dynamical system composed by a few dozen interacting areas, performing a number of stereotypical behaviors. It is known that, even relatively small dynamical systems can reliably generate robust and flexible behavior if they are possed near a second order phase transition, because of the abundance of metastable states at the critical point. The approach pursued here assumes that some of the most fundamental properties of the functioning brain are possible because it is spontaneously possed at the border of such instability. In this notes we review the motivation, the arguments and recent results as well as the implications of this view of the functioning brain.

  9. Rerouting Brain Circuits with Implanted Chips, Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A new, implantable and wireless brain chip can create artificial connections between different parts of the brain, paving the way for devices that could reconnect damaged neural circuits. Scientists say the chip sheds light on the brain's innate ability to rewire itself, and it could help explain our capacity to learn and remember new information.

    "We have a chance of manipulating and repairing [specific] regions of the brain that might be damaged, (...). (...)


    1. Two Nerve Cells In Direct Contact, Physorg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      A fly, flying along a corridor, produces through its movement a constant shift of the pictures of the environment on its eyes (illustrated with arrows). This "vector field" must be analysed on a higher level of the visual centReR, called the Lobula plate, so as to control and correct the flight course. Turns are controlled by the direct connection of two nerve, the HSE cell (right) and the H2-Zelle (left). Credit: MPI for Neurobiology - Robert Schorner
      For the first time, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Martinsried near Munich (Germany) have been able to show how two nerve cells communicate with each other from different hemispheres in the visual centre. This astoundingly simple circuit diagram could at a later date provide a model for algorithms to be deployed in technical systems. (...)

      "The genius of this circuitry is in its simplicity: with a single electrical link between two cells from the halves of the brain, one cell is selective for rotation flow fields.

    2. Long-Term Motor Cortex Plasticity Induced By An Electronic Neural Implant, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: It has been proposed that the efficacy of neuronal connections is strengthened when there is a persistent causal relationship between presynaptic and postsynaptic activity. Such activity-dependent plasticity may underlie the reorganization of cortical representations during learning, although direct in vivo evidence is lacking. Here we show that stable reorganization of motor output can be induced by an artificial connection between two sites in the motor cortex of freely behaving primates. An autonomously operating electronic implant used action potentials recorded on one electrode to trigger electrical stimuli delivered at another location.

  10. New Sequential Decision Making Model Could Be Key To Artificial Intelligence, Physorg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: ¡§If you are talking about an animal trying to flee from a predator, you have to look at the complex landscape. The prey has more than one decision to make. It has to decide which way to go not only at this moment, but at each moment for the length of its life. And there are other factors that influence the decision as well.¡¨ Rabinovich continues his illustration: ¡§The same is with a robot that we put on another planet.

  11. Researchers Teach Computers How To Name Images By 'Thinking', Physorg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Penn State researchers have "taught" computers how to interpret images using a vocabulary of up to 330 English words, so that a computer can describe a photograph of two polo players, for instance, as "sport," "people," "horse," "polo."

    The new system, which can automatically annotate entire online collections of photographs as they are uploaded, means significant time-savings for the millions of Internet users who now manually tag or identify their images. It also facilitates retrieval of images through the use of search terms, (...). (...)


  12. Emergence of Human Cooperation and Altruism by Evolutionary Feedback Selection, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Strong reciprocity is a fundamental human characteristic associated with our extraordinary sociality and cooperation. Laboratory experiments on social dilemma games and many field studies have quantified well-defined levels of cooperation and propensity to punish/reward. The level of cooperation is observed to be strongly dependent on the availability of punishments and/or rewards. Here, we suggest that the propensity for altruistic punishment and reward is an emergent property that has co-evolved with cooperation by providing an efficient feedback mechanism through both biological and cultural interactions. (...)

    1. Spread Of Arbitrary Conventions Among Chimpanzees: A Controlled Experiment, Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have a rich cultural repertoire-traditions common in some communities are not present in others. The majority of reports describe functional, material traditions, such as tool use. Arbitrary conventions have received far less attention. (...) We seeded one of two rewarded alternative endpoints to a complex sequence of behaviour in each of two chimpanzee groups. Each sequence spread in the group in which it was seeded, with many individuals unambiguously adopting the sequence demonstrated by a group member. In one group, the alternative sequence was discovered by a low ranking female, but was not learned by others. (...)

    2. Diminishing Reciprocal Fairness by Disrupting the Right Prefrontal Cortex, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Humans restrain self-interest with moral and social values. They are the only species known to exhibit reciprocal fairness, which implies the punishment of other individuals' unfair behaviors, even if it hurts the punisher's economic self-interest. (...) Here we show that disruption of the right, but not the left, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) by low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation substantially reduces subjects' willingness to reject their partners' intentionally unfair offers, which suggests that subjects are less able to resist the economic temptation to accept these offers.

    3. Evolutionary Biology: To Work Or Not To Work, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Coercion, not kinship, often determines who acts altruistically in an insect colony. But underlying affinities for kin emerge when coercion is removed: kin selection is what turns suppressed individuals into altruists. (...) A comparative study of ten policing species by Wenseleers and Ratnieks again shows that altruism is modulated more by constraints on worker reproduction than by relatedness. The species with the highest fraction of fully committed altruistic workers - those that do not lay eggs - tend to be those with lower relatedness, contrary to simple expectation.

  13. 'Silent Aircraft': How It Works, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    The trailing edge of the wings minimises turbulent mixing of air
    When turbulent air moving over the top surface of the wing shoots off the trailing edge it abruptly meets non-turbulent air. The result generates a huge amount of noise.

    To minimise this, the SAX-40 would have "trailing edge brushes", a series of long, thin protrusions off the back of the wing.

    These allow a smoother transition between turbulent and non-turbulent air and could reduce trailing-edge wing noise by up to 4dB.

  14. 'Nanoporous' Material Gobbles Up Hydrogen Fuel, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Hydrogen-powered cars could one day store fuel safely and efficiently using polymers filed with nanoscopic holes.

    Researchers have achieved a new record for absorbing hydrogen using such "nanoporous" polymers. (...)

    Svec and Frechet created nanoporous polymers by heating and chemically treating styrene - an abundant hydrocarbon used to manufacture some plastics. The resulting material has an abundance of pores, each less than 2 nanometres in diameter.

    1. Physical Chemistry: Porous Solids Get Organized, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A powerful combination of analytical techniques is used to shed light on the complex crystallizations of porous solids. Molecular recognition creates the seeds of order from which complex lattices grow. (...)

      The insights obtained from this work will certainly benefit the search for the next generation of microporous materials. More generally, the authors' powerful combination of analytical techniques will enable the physical chemistry of many other synthetic processes to be monitored in situ, so that the structural changes involved can be observed as they happen.

  15. Building Theories of Economic Process, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: (...) Adequate attention has not been given, up to now, to frameworks for integrative modeling of economic process, comparable in generality to the mathematics of equilibrium theory but capable of reproducing the dynamics and contingency structure of physical and strategic transformations, and the institutions that serve them. We sketch a possible form for such a general modeling framework, with particular attention to the control relation of the financial sector to the underlying productive economy. (...)

  16. Intimate Strangers, Time Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: One must never underestimate the prescience of Ashton Kutcher. Critics panned his 2004 thriller The Butterfly Effect, but its title popularized an obscure concept of chaos theory--that small acts can beget far-flung consequences, as a butterfly's flapping its wings can trigger a storm thousands of miles away. Deep stuff for the guy who punk'd Justin Timberlake.

    Two years later, we have a butterfly infestation: movies and TV are obsessed with stories about the random connections among vast, multinational and multilingual casts of strangers.

  17. Complexity, Coarse-Graining and Symbolic Description, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: All the symbols and symbolic sequences we use in science appear as result of coarse-grained description of Nature. According to a theorem in C. Shannon's seminal 1948 paper the set of all symbolic sequences of length N over a finite alphabet may be roughly divided into two subsets: a huge typical set and a tiny set of atypical sequences. Biological sequences as result of billion years of evolution must belong to this tiny set. (...)

  18. Ballot Roulette - Computer Scientists And Mathematicians Look For Better Ways To Vote, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Flecks Of Flux. Change in voting technology has swept the United States since 2000, albeit unevenly. Counties shown in yellow switched to new voting equipment in 2002, blue in 2004, and red in 2006. Counties in white have not changed. Election Data Services
    "Five to 10 years ago, computer scientists weren't paying attention" to the technology used in voting, notes computer scientist David A. Wagner of the University of California, Berkeley.

    However, newly aware of the stakes, risks, and intellectual challenges associated with voting equipment, computer scientists and mathematicians specializing in encryption are now avidly taking part in the search for dependable and inviolable voting technology. These researchers are investigating existing systems, devising ways to improve them, and inventing entirely new approaches.

    1. Grey Matter: Ambiguities And Complexities Of Ethics In Research, J. Acad. Ethics Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Ethical dilemmas are often not discussed in the dissemination of educational research. While the ethical guidelines for research seem clear at first glance, a closer look at the intimate nature of qualitative research reveals that there are many ambiguities or 'grey' areas where researchers must rely on their personal value systems. This article discusses the challenges faced by an experienced educator, although novice researcher, in considering the ethical parameters of her own research with adolescents with hearing loss. (...)

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

    1. Iraq Receives Poor Marks In Survey Of Corruption - U.S. Slips In International Group's Ratings, International Herald Tribune Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Iraq has emerged at the bottom of a survey that measures corruption around the globe, giving the lowest scores to the most corrupt countries. The Corruption Perceptions Index , conducted by Transparency International in Berlin and issued Monday, also showed that the United States, the occupying power in Iraq, had slipped three notches to 20th place in the survey of 163 countries. Iraq dropped 23 places to 160th and now ranks alongside Guinea and Myanmar. Haiti earned the lowest score, 1.8 on a scale of 1 to 10, making it the nation where bribery, kickbacks and embezzlement are regarded as most widespread.

    2. This Curve Spells Trouble for Iraq, Business Week Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In a graph tracking a society's stability and openness, the combined data form a "J"-curve. No one wants to be in the dip, where Iraq is now. (...)

      You can learn a lot about a country by looking at the relationship between its stability and its "openness." Stability is a measure of the extent to which a country's government can weather a political, economic, or social crisis. Openness is a measure of the degree to which people, ideas, information, goods, and services flow freely in both directions across a state's borders and within the country itself.

    3. The Quantitative Analysis Of Terrorism And Immigration: An Initial Exploration, Terrorism & Polit. Violence Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: This article uses immigration and other biographical data to refute much of the conventional wisdom about the relationship between terrorism and immigration. Using a database created from the biographical data of 373 terrorists, we have established a number of significant findings. Over forty percent of our database is made up of Western Nationals. Second, despite widespread alarms raised over terrorist infiltration from Mexico, we found no terrorist presence in Mexico and no terrorists who entered the U.S. from Mexico. Third, we found a sizeable terrorist presence in Canada and a number of Canadian-based terrorists who have entered the U.S. (...)

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. A Swarm of Umbrellas vs. Global Warming: Astronomer thinks small to save Earth, 06/11/04, Science News, A trillion miniature spacecraft could provide a giant sunshade for Earth, significantly reducing global warming.
      2. The Cancer of Dorian Gray, 06/11/04, Science News, By studying mice that have been engineered to carry mutations in certain tumor-suppressing genes, researchers have identified a link between cancer and aging.
      3. Information Filtering Via Iterative Refinement, P. Laureti, L. Moret, Y.-C. Zhang, Y.-K. Yu, 2006/08/16, arXiv [Europhys. Lett., 75 (6), 1006 (2006)], DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2006-10204-8
      4. Fitness Uniform Optimization, Marcus Hutter, Shane Legg, 2006/10/20, arXiv [IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 10:5 (2006) 568-589], DOI: 10.1109/TEVC.2005.863127
      5. Rain Makes the Ground Shake, Philip Ball, 2006/10/20, News@Nature, DOI: 10.1038/news061016-15
      6. Ecological Consequences Of Interactions Between Ants And Honeydew-Producing Insects, J. D. Styrsky, M. D. Eubanks, 2006/10/31, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3701
      7. Male Swordtails Court With An Audience In Mind, H. S. Fisher, G. G. Rosenthal, 2006/10/31, Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0556
      8. The Unfair Consequences of Equal Opportunities: Comparing Exchange Models of Wealth Distribution, G. M. Caon, S. Goncalves, J. R. Iglesias, 2006/11/01, arXiv, DOI: nlin.AO/0611001
      9. High-Tech Research Shows Cocaine Changes Proteins And Brain Function, 2006/11/01, Innovations-report
      10. Mechanical 'Artificial Hearts' Can Remove Need For Heart Transplant By Returning Heart To Normal, 2006/11/02, Innovations-report
      11. New Cancer-fighting Virus Kills Invasive Brain Cells, 2006/11/02, ScienceDaily & Alberta Cancer Board
      12. Beetle Feet Stick To Their Promises, 2006/11/03, ScienceDaily & Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
      13. Which Is More Annoying, Spam Or Direct Mail? Study Reveals Answer, 2006/11/03, ScienceDaily & University of Georgia
      14. Group Decisions: From Compromise To Leadership In Pigeon Homing, 2006/11/07, Innovations-report
      15. English In India: Reflections Based On Fieldwork Among Anglo-Indians In Kolkata, R. Andrews, Jul. 2006, India Review, DOI: 10.1017/S0266267106000861
      16. Victimization From Terrorist Attacks: Randomness Or Routine Activities?, D. C.-Nisim, G. Mesch, A. Pedahzur, Winter 2006, Terrorism and Political Violence, DOI: 10.1080/09546550600880237

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03
      2. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05
      3. 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30
      4. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      5. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      6. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      7. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      8. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      9. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      10. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      11. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      12. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      13. 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
      14. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      15. 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
      16. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 05/01/26-30
      17. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      18. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      19. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      20. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      21. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      22. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      23. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      24. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Creating Interdisciplinary Cultures: Insights from Complexity Science and Relationship Centered Care, Indiana USA, 06/11/17-19
      2. Self-Organization And Morphogenesis In Biological Systems , Schloss Ringberg, Germany. 06/12/03-06
      3. Japan Mathematica Conference 2006, Tokyo, Japan, 06/12/12
      4. 2006 IEEE/WIC/ACM Intl Workshop on Interaction between Agents and Data Mining (IADM-06), Hongkong, China, 06/12/18
      5. NECSI Winter School 2007, Cambridge, MA, 07/01/08-19
      6. Logic, Computability and Randomness 2007 , Buenos Aires, Argentina, 07/01/10-13
      7. The Atlas of Ideas, London, United Kingdom, 07/01/17-18
      8. Managing Complex Organizations in a Complex World, Cambridge, MA, 07/01/25-26
      9. 2007 Complexity and Educational Research Conference, Vancouver, BC, 07/02/18-20
      10. 3rd International Workshop on Complexity and Philisophy, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 07/02/22-23
      11. Unconventional Computation: Quo Vadis?, Santa Fe, NM, 07/03/20-23
      12. Complex Social Systems Course at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom, 07/03/20-28
      13. 4th Lake Arrowhead Conference on Human Complex Systems, Lake Arrowhead, CA, 07/04/25-29
      14. Complexity and Organizational Resilience The Village, Pohnpei, Micronesia, 07/05
      15. 2nd Intl Conf on Built Environment Complexity - Embracing complexity thinking in built environments, Cape Town South Africa, 07/05/21-25
      16. ECO 2007 Summit: Ecological Complexity and Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for 21st-Century Ecology, Beijing, China, 07/05/22-27
      17. 2007 IEEE/ICME Intl Conf on Complex Medical Engineering-CME2007, Beijing, China, 07/05/23-27
      18. 7th conf SYMMETRY IN NONLINEAR MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS, Kiev, Ukraine, 07/06/24-30
      19. Summer School In Complexity Science, London, UK, 07/07/08-17
      20. ECAL 2oo7 - 9th European Conference on Artificial Life , Lisbon, Portugal, 07/09/10-14
      21. European Conference on Complex Systems 2007 (ECCS'07) , Dresden, Germany, 07/10/01-05

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

      1. The publishing consortium of The European Physical Journal (EPJ), and the Editors-in-Chief are pleased to announce that The European Physical Journal B - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems - has substantially extended its existing publishing activities in the fields of Statistical Physics and Nonlinear Dynamics to encompass all aspects of the emerging field of Complex Systems.
      2. Call for Submissions: The Journal of Developmental Processes will publish its first issue in fall 2006. , The JDP recognizes that complex developmental processes characterize the growth of living organisms. In humans, this complexity is highly elaborated, so that developmental change is affected by many interrelated factors of the body, the mind, family, society and the environment. New discoveries continually add to our understanding of these processes and demonstrate the inadequacy of reductionist approaches.
      3. Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Artificial Life journal on the Evolution of Complexity,
      4. 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.

      5. 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.

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

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