Complexity Digest 2007.05

29-Jan-2007

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Content

  1. Neuro Economics: Science or Science Fiction?, HBS Working Knowledge
    1. The Neural Basis of Loss Aversion in Decision-Making Under Risk, Science
    2. The Neurology Of Self-Awareness, Edge
    3. Physicists Make Religion Crystal Clear, PhysicsWeb.org
  2. U.S. Cities Don't Make The Intelligence Cut, Network World
    1. The Social Brain?, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
  3. "Crowd Turbulence" Has Deadly Consequences, PhysicsWeb.org
    1. Can Humanity Survive? Want to Bet on It?, NY Times
  4. Academic Research: Harvard Proposes One For The Team, Science
    1. Mapping The Bid Behavior Of Conference Referees, J. Informetrics
    2. Author Sequence and Credit for Contributions in Multiauthored Publications, PLoS Biol
  5. The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky, Discover
  6. Google's Moon Shot - The Quest For The Universal Library, The New Yorker
  7. Artificiality in Social Sciences, arXiv
  8. Unhappy Meals, NY Times
    1. In Clue to Addiction, Brain Injury Halts Smoking, NY Times
  9. The Evolution Of Animal 'Cultures' And Social Intelligence, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
  10. Strong Relationship Between DMS and the Solar Radiation Dose over the Global Surface Ocean, Science
    1. Atmospheres: The Jet-Stream Conundrum, Science
  11. PM Announces $10bn Water Plan, The Australian
  12. A Virus in a Fungus in a Plant: Three-Way Symbiosis Required for Thermal Tolerance, Science
  13. Loopy Lens Proteins Provide Squid With Excellent Eyesight, Science
    1. Recombination and the Nature of Bacterial Speciation, Science
    2. Ancient Glider: Dinosaur took to the air in biplane style, Science News
  14. Stonehenge Builders' Houses Found, BBC News
  15. Silicon Valley Rebounds, Led by Green Technology, NY Times
    1. Battery Breakthrough?, Technology Review
  16. Precursors Of Extreme Increments, Phys.
  17. Theory Of Collective Firing Induced By Noise Or Diversity In Excitable Media, Phys.Rev E
  18. Complex Channels: Scientists Discover How Ion Channels Are Organized To Control Nerve Cell Communication, ScienceDaily
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Complex International Relations, Orgnet.com
    2. Smuggler's Plot Highlights Fear Over Uranium, NY Times
    3. New U.S. Rules Won't Make Nuclear Plants Jet Proof, Reuters
    4. Good Literature And Bad History: The 9/11 Commission's Tale Of Strategic Intelligence, Intelligence & National Security
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements

  1. Neuro Economics: Science or Science Fiction?, HBS Working Knowledge Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The growing use of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) devices for studying decision making means that in 2007 we may hear a number of striking conclusions based on studies involving a small number of brain scans, says Jim Heskett. What are the more general implications of this trend? Will it have strong explanatory as well as manipulative potential for us as consumers, managers, and citizens?

    1. The Neural Basis of Loss Aversion in Decision-Making Under Risk, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: People typically exhibit greater sensitivity to losses than to equivalent gains when making decisions. We investigated neural correlates of loss aversion while individuals decided whether to accept or reject gambles that offered a 50/50 chance of gaining or losing money. A broad set of areas (including midbrain dopaminergic regions and their targets) showed increasing activity as potential gains increased. Potential losses were represented by decreasing activity in several of these same gain-sensitive areas.

    2. The Neurology Of Self-Awareness, Edge Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: What is the self? How does the activity of neurons give rise to the sense of being a conscious human being? Even this most ancient of philosophical problems, I believe, will yield to the methods of empirical science. It now seems increasingly likely that the self is not a holistic property of the entire brain; it arises from the activity of specific sets of interlinked brain circuits.

    3. Physicists Make Religion Crystal Clear, PhysicsWeb.org Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The rise and fall in the popularity of major religions can be described using the same mathematics that is used to model crystallization processes, claim physicists in Belgium. The researchers have modelled the time evolution of the numbers of adherents to religions and claim that their work sheds light on an important social phenomenon -- how a religion such as Christianity can grow rapidly from very small beginnings

  2. U.S. Cities Don't Make The Intelligence Cut, Network World Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The ICF selects the Intelligent Community list based on how advanced the communities are in deploying broadband, building a knowledge-based workforce, combining government and private-sector ¡§digital inclusion,¡¨ fostering innovation and marketing economic development.

    As announced by ICF chairman John Jung, the intelligent city finalists are:

    * Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom

    * Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea

    * Issy-les-Moulineaux, France

    * Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario-Quebec, Canada

    * Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom

    * Tallinn, Estonia

    * Waterloo, Ontario, Canada


    1. The Social Brain?, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The notion that there is a 'social brain' in humans specialized for social interactions has received considerable support from brain imaging and, to a lesser extent, from lesion studies. Specific roles for the various components of the social brain are beginning to emerge. (...) It has proved more difficult to assign a role to medial prefrontal cortex, which is consistently activated when people think about mental states. I suggest that this region may have a special role in the second-order representations needed for communicative acts (...). However, these cognitive processes have been driven to ever higher levels of sophistication by the complexities of social interaction.
      • Source: The Social Brain?, C. D. Frith, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.2003, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 2007/01/24
      • Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinayahoo.co.in

  3. "Crowd Turbulence" Has Deadly Consequences, PhysicsWeb.org Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Crowded areas can be dangerous and potentially fatal places when panic ensues. But disasters can be avoided by monitoring pedestrian motion for distinct "phase transitions", say physicists in Germany. The researchers analysed video images of a fatal incident that occurred during the January 2006 Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and have made a number of recommendations that have been implemented by the Saudi authorities to help prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. This includes the installation of an automated video surveillance system that could alert authorities when the phase transitions occur.

    1. Can Humanity Survive? Want to Bet on It?, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Sixty ago years, a group of physicists concerned about nuclear weapons created the Doomsday Clock and set its hands at seven minutes to midnight. Now, the clock's keepers, alarmed by new dangers like climate change, have moved the hands up to 11:55 p.m.

      My first reaction was a sigh of relief. After all, the 1947 doomsday prediction marked the start of a golden age. Never have so many humans lived so long - and maybe never so peacefully - as during the past 60 years.

  4. Academic Research: Harvard Proposes One For The Team, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The new department will eventually have 25 to 30 faculty members, says Hyman--about half migrating from existing programs and the rest new appointments--and report to both FAS and medical school deans. It will serve as a focal point for the work of nearly 700 people, a cluster that Melton calls "one of the highest concentrations in the world of stem cell scientists.

    1. Mapping The Bid Behavior Of Conference Referees, J. Informetrics Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The peer-review process, in its present form, has been repeatedly criticized. Of the many critiques ranging from publication delays to referee bias, this paper will focus specifically on the issue of how submitted manuscripts are distributed to qualified referees. Unqualified referees, without the proper knowledge of a manuscript's domain, may reject a perfectly valid study or potentially more damaging, unknowingly accept a faulty or fraudulent result. In this paper, referee competence is analyzed with respect to referee bid data (...) suggests that there may potentially exists other factors beyond subject domain that may be influencing referees to bid for particular submissions.
      • Source: Mapping The Bid Behavior Of Conference Referees, M. A. Rodriguez - markoalanl.gov, J. Bollen, H. Van de Sompel - jbollenalanl.gov, DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2006.09.006, Journal of Informetrics, Jan. 2007, online 2006/11/07
      • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

    2. Author Sequence and Credit for Contributions in Multiauthored Publications, PLoS Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: The increasing tendency across scientific disciplines to write multiauthored papers [1,2] makes the issue of the sequence of contributors' names a major topic both in terms of reflecting actual contributions and in a posteriori assessments by evaluation committees. Traditionally, the first author contributes most and also receives most of the credit, whereas the position of subsequent authors is usually decided by contribution, alphabetical order, or reverse seniority. Ranking the first or second author in a two-author paper is straightforward, but the meaning of position becomes increasingly arbitrary as the number of authors increases beyond two(...)

  5. The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky, Discover Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The theme of the book is that humans are uniquely resourceful because they have several ways to do everything. If you think about something, you might think about it in terms of language, or in logical terms, or in terms of diagrams, pictures, or structures. If one method doesn't work, you can quickly switch to another. That's why we're so good at dealing with so many situations. (...)


  6. Google's Moon Shot - The Quest For The Universal Library, The New Yorker Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Copying all those pages presents many difficulties, but writing software to make the books useful to searchers is even harder. "The scanning technology is boring," Clancy said. "The real challenge is to get somebody something that they are actually interested in, inside a book. Web sites are part of a network, and that's a significant part of how we rank sites in our search - how much other sites refer to the others."

  7. Artificiality in Social Sciences, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: This text provides with an introduction to the modern approach of artificiality and simulation in social sciences. It presents the relationship between complexity and artificiality, before introducing the field of artificial societies which greatly benefited from the computer power fast increase, gifting social sciences with formalization and experimentation tools previously owned by "hard" sciences alone. It shows that as "a new way of doing social sciences", artificial societies should undoubtedly contribute to a renewed approach in the study of sociality and should play a significant part in the elaboration of original theories of social phenomena.

  8. Unhappy Meals, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

    That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. I hate to give away the game right here at the beginning of a long essay, and I confess that I'm tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a few thousand more words.

    1. In Clue to Addiction, Brain Injury Halts Smoking, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
      (...) therapies might focus on the insula, a prune-size region under the frontal lobes that is thought to register gut feelings and is apparently a critical part of the network that sustains addictive behavior. Previous research on addicts focused on regions of the cortex involved in thinking and decision making. (...)

      The study did not examine dependence on alcohol, cocaine or other substances. Yet smoking is at least as hard to quit as any other habit, and it probably involves the same brain circuits, experts said.

  9. The Evolution Of Animal 'Cultures' And Social Intelligence, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Decades-long field research has flowered into integrative studies that, together with experimental evidence for the requisite social learning capacities, have indicated a reliance on multiple traditions ('cultures') in a small number of species. It is increasingly evident that there is great variation in manifestations of social learning, tradition and culture among species, (...). Social learning has been identified in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate species, yet sustained traditions appear rarer, and the multiple traditions we call cultures are rarer still. Here, we examine relationships between this variation and both social intelligence-sophisticated information processing adapted to the social domain-and encephalization. (...)

  10. Strong Relationship Between DMS and the Solar Radiation Dose over the Global Surface Ocean, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The amount of dimethylsulfide produced by marine organisms helps to form clouds but depends on the amount of local sunlight, forming a negative feedback system. (...)

    Oceanic biota influence climate in the long term by shaping the biogeochemical cycles of elements essential for Earth-system functioning (suchasC, O, N, P, Si, and S) and in the short term by exchanging climate-active gases with the atmosphere (greenhouse gases, oxidant and light scavengers, and free-radical and aerosol precursors).

    1. Atmospheres: The Jet-Stream Conundrum, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Jets are observed to occur spontaneously on rotating planets whenever stratified atmospheres or oceans are forced into turbulent motion. Yet there is a mystery as to why jets exist at all--why is there this propensity to concentrate energy and momentum? A second mysterious property of jets is that they can act as flexible material barriers, inhibiting mixing across their axes. The strongest eastward jets provide expressways for the transport of chemicals and biota along their axes but severely inhibit mixing across their axes.

  11. PM Announces $10bn Water Plan, The Australian Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: PRIME Minister John Howard has announced a $10 billion national water management plan that includes a commonwealth takeover of Australia's biggest river system. The 10-point plan includes the biggest modernisation of irrigation infrastructure in Australia's history, pumping almost $6 billion into improving structures like pipes and channels in a project aimed at saving 3,000 gigalitres of water a year.

    Other investments include $1.5 billion to boost water efficiency on farms, and $3 billion to address over-allocation of water in the drought-ravaged Murray-Darling Basin.

  12. A Virus in a Fungus in a Plant: Three-Way Symbiosis Required for Thermal Tolerance, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A mutualistic association between a fungal endophyte and a tropical panic grass allows both organisms to grow at high soil temperatures. We characterized a virus from this fungus that is involved in the mutualistic interaction. Fungal isolates cured of the virus are unable to confer heat tolerance, but heat tolerance is restored after the virus is reintroduced. The virus-infected fungus confers heat tolerance not only to its native monocot host but also to a eudicot host, which suggests that the underlying mechanism involves pathways conserved between these two groups of plants.

  13. Loopy Lens Proteins Provide Squid With Excellent Eyesight, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When Alison Sweeney wanted to learn about eye evolution, she went to sea. While the ship rolled beneath her, she dissected the eyes of squid freshly retrieved from 1000 meters below and tested how well each lens resolved the details of a panel of ever-narrower black and white stripes. Back at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, as a graduate student in the lab of S?nke Johnsen, she combined those results with biochemical and modeling data on the optical and chemical properties of lens proteins to reconstruct the history of vision in cephalopods--squid, octopi, and their relatives.

    1. Recombination and the Nature of Bacterial Speciation, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Genetic surveys reveal the diversity of bacteria and lead to the questioning of species concepts used to categorize bacteria. One difficulty in defining bacterial species arises from the high rates of recombination that results in the transfer of DNA between relatively distantly related bacteria. Barriers to this process, which could be used to define species naturally, are not apparent. Here, we review conceptual models of bacterial speciation and describe our computer simulations of speciation.

    2. Ancient Glider: Dinosaur took to the air in biplane style, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      FLIGHT PLAN. The secondary wings (arrows in main image) created when Microraptor gui held its feathered legs and feet below its body would have provided flight surfaces similar to those of a modern biplane. Inset: Schematic of left-side view shows dinosaur's wings. PNAS
      Now, a pair of scientists has come up with a four-winged flight posture that doesn't require M. gui to be a contortionist. In the new scenario, the animal held its feathered legs and feet beneath the body, says Sankar Chatterjee, a paleontologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. This pose would place the secondary wings below and slightly behind the main wings, just like those in aerobatic biplanes.

  14. Stonehenge Builders' Houses Found, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    "It is the richest - by that I mean the filthiest - site of this period known in Britain," Professor Parker Pearson told BBC News. "We've never seen such quantities of pottery and animal bone and flint." The Sheffield University researcher thinks the settlement was probably not lived in all year round. Instead, he believes, Stonehenge and Durrington formed a religious complex used for funerary rituals. (...)


  15. Silicon Valley Rebounds, Led by Green Technology, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In Silicon Valley, investment in clean technology - from alternative energy products, like solar panels and hybrid cars, to the use of nanotechnology to solve environmental problems - went from $34 million in the first quarter of 2006 to $290 million in the third quarter, according to an annual report released Sunday by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a research organization in San Jose, Calif.

    "It's the hottest area of investment right now," said Tom Werner, chief executive of SunPower, a solar technology company.

    1. Battery Breakthrough?, Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: EEStor's ambitious goal, according to patent documents, is to "replace the electrochemical battery" in almost every application, from hybrid-electric and pure-electric vehicles to laptop computers to utility-scale electricity storage.

      The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety. Pound for pound, it will also pack 10 times the punch of lead-acid batteries at half the cost and without the need for toxic materials or chemicals, according to the company. (...)


  16. Precursors Of Extreme Increments, Phys. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: We investigate precursors and the predictability of extreme increments in a time series. The events we are focusing on consist in large increments within successive time steps. We are especially interested in understanding how the quality of the predictions depends on the strategy to choose precursors, on the size of the event, and on the correlation strength. We study the prediction of extreme increments analytically in an autoregressive process of order 1, and numerically in wind speed recordings and long-range correlated autoregressive moving average processes data.

  17. Theory Of Collective Firing Induced By Noise Or Diversity In Excitable Media, Phys.Rev E Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Large variety of physical, chemical, and biological systems show excitable behavior, characterized by a nonlinear response under external perturbations: only perturbations exceeding a threshold induce a full system response (firing). It has been reported that in coupled excitable identical systems noise may induce the simultaneous firing of a macroscopic fraction of units. However, a comprehensive understanding of the role of noise and that of natural diversity present in realistic systems is still lacking. Here we develop a theory for the emergence of collective firings in nonidentical excitable systems subject to noise.

  18. Complex Channels: Scientists Discover How Ion Channels Are Organized To Control Nerve Cell Communication, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The messages passed in a neuronal network can target something like 100 billion nerve cells in the brain alone. These, in turn communicate with millions of other cells and organs in the body. How, then, do whole cascades of events trigger responses that are highly specific, quick and precisely timed? A team at the Weizmann Institute of Science has now shed light on this mysterious mechanism. Their discovery could have important implications for the future development of drugs for epilepsy and other nervous system diseases. (...) The secret is in the control over electrical signals generated by cells. (...)

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

    1. Complex International Relations, Orgnet.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Above we see a self-organizing network map of internatonal players who have interests in the Mideast. Nodes connected with grey links show positive political/economic relationships (friends). Negative political/economic relationships (foes) have no links connecting them, but do have a repelling force that pushes the nodes apart.
      Editor's Note: This is one of the latest network models by Valdis Krebs applied to the situation in the Middle East. It is an interactive tool using attraction and repulsion between nodes representing countries and organizations. It would be interesting to see international politics experts create some scenarios using this network visualization tool.

    2. Smuggler's Plot Highlights Fear Over Uranium, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: What is most worrisome about the two most recent case, nuclear experts say, is the material itself: in large enough quantities, it could provide a terrorist with an instant solution to the biggest challenge in making a nuclear weapon, obtaining the fuel.

      The uranium seized in both 2003 and 2006 had been enriched to nearly 90 percent U-235, according to Russian and American government analyses obtained by The New York Times. Though the quantities were too small to make a bomb, that level of purity is ideal for doing so.

    3. New U.S. Rules Won't Make Nuclear Plants Jet Proof, Reuters Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: New U.S. nuclear power plants will not be required to withstand terror attacks involving direct hits with commercial-size passenger jets, according to new federal security rules issued on Monday.

      The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the regulations will improve security at nuclear power plants, including protecting the facilities from "multiple, coordinated groups of attackers, suicide attacks and cyber threats."

    4. Good Literature And Bad History: The 9/11 Commission's Tale Of Strategic Intelligence, Intelligence & National Security Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Uncritical acceptance of the findings of the 9/11 Commission has obscured how the commission intentionally misrepresented pre-attack strategic intelligence on the threat from Al Qaeda. The commission staff used such techniques as highly selective use of material, partial truths, irrelevant references, plays on words, quotations out of context, and suggestive language leading to false inferences to portray as weak what had been a strong strategic analytical performance. The commission's misrepresentation corrupted history, damaged public understanding of the role of intelligence in counterterrorism, and helped to build support for a reorganization scheme that has made US counterterrorist intelligence worse rather than better.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Statistical Mechanics Of Learning Multiple Orthogonal Signals: Asymptotic Theory And Fluctuation Effects, D. C. Hoyle, 07/01/09, M. Rattray, Phys. Rev. E 75, 016101
      2. Feedback Suppression Of Neural Synchrony By Vanishing Stimulation, Natalia Tukhlina, Michael Rosenblum, Arkady Pikovsky, J?rgen Kurths, 07/01/17
      3. Complex Phase Synchronization In Epileptic Seizures: Evidence For A Devil's Staircase, J. L. Perez Velazquez, L. Garcia Dominguez, R. Wennberg, 07/01/22
      4. Chemistry: Single-Molecule Catalysis, Ian Smith, 07/01/26, Science : 470-471.
      5. Reversible Switching of Hydrogel-Actuated Nanostructures into Complex Micropatterns, Alexander Sidorenko, Tom Krupenkin, Ashley Taylor, Peter Fratzl, Joanna Aizenberg, 07/01/26, Science : 487-490. Silicon nanocolumns embedded in a polymer hydrogel rapidly change their tilt in response to changes in humidity; complex patterns can be made by adjusting the stress field of the gel.
      6. Damage to the Insula Disrupts Addiction to Cigarette Smoking, Nasir H. Naqvi, David Rudrauf, Hanna Damasio, Antoine Bechara, 07/01/26, Science : 531-534. Smokers who sustain damage to the insula, a little-studied part of the brain, find that the urge to smoke is reduced.
      7. Co-evolution of Strategy and Structure in Complex Networks With Dynamical Linking, Jorge M. Pacheco, Arne Traulsen, Martin A. Nowak, 2007/01/03, arXiv [Physical Review Letters 97, 025103 (2006)], DOI: q-bio.PE/0701008
      8. Evolution of Canalizing Boolean Networks, Agnes Szejka, Barbara Drossel, 2007/01/17, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0701025
      9. Cells That Did Not Find Place In Life, 2007/01/22, Innovations-report
      10. New Dopamine Brain Target Discovered: Potential Breakthrough For Schizophrenia Treatment, 2007/01/24, Innovations-report
      11. Social Brains, Simple Minds: Does Social Complexity Really Require Cognitive Complexity?, L. Barrett, P. Henzi, D. Rendall, 2007/01/24, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1995
      12. The Society Of Selves, N. Humphrey, 2007/01/24, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.2007
      13. Damage Spreading and Criticality in Finite Random Dynamical Networks, Thimo Rohlf, Natali Gulbahce, Christof Teuscher, 2007/01/24, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0701601
      14. US Army Shows Off New Ray Gun: Active Denial System Microwaves Journalists In Demonstration, I. Thomson, 2007/01/25, vnunet.com
      15. Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, If You Learned To: Study On Fear Responses Suggests New Understanding Of Anxiety Disorders, 2007/01/25, Innovations-report
      16. Getting SAD Is More Than Having The Blues, 2007/01/25, ScienceDaily & University of Rochester Medical Center
      17. Beyond Nature Vs. Nurture: Williams Syndrome Across Cultures, 2007/01/25, ScienceDaily & Salk Institute
      18. No Clear Connection Between Mobile Phone Use And Brain Cancer, International Study Concludes, 2007/01/26, ScienceDaily & STUK / Radiation And Nuclear Safety Authority Of Finland
      19. Evolution, Interactions, and Biological Networks, Joshua S. Weitz, Philip N. Benfey, Ned S. Wingreen, 2007/1/16, PLoS Biol 5(1): e11, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050011
      20. Does Mathematical Learning Occur In Going From Concrete To Abstract Or In Going From Abstract To Concrete?, W.-M. Roth - mrothauvic.ca, S.W. Hwang, 25; 4, 2006, online 2007/01/02, The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.jmathb.2006.11.006
      21. What's Wrong With The Intelligence Cycle, A. S. Hulnick, Dec. 2006, Intelligence & National Security, DOI: 10.1080/02684520601046291

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

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

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Intl Wkshp Complex Dynamics Of Physiological Systems: From Heart To Brain, Kolkata, India, 07/02/12-14
      2. 2007 Complexity and Educational Research Conference, Vancouver, BC, 07/02/18-20
      3. Coordination Dynamics 2007: Coordination: Neural, Behavioral and Social Dynamics, Boca Raton, Florida, 07/02/22-25
      4. 2nd Transdisciplinary Workshop on the Complexity Approach Complejidad Camagüey-2007, Camagüey, Cuba, 07/02/20-22
      5. 3rd International Workshop on Complexity and Philisophy, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 07/02/22-23
      6. Unconventional Computation: Quo Vadis?, Santa Fe, NM, 07/03/20-23
      7. Complex Social Systems Course at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom, 07/03/20-28
      8. NEXUS for Change, Bowling Green, Ohio, 07/03/22-23
      9. Intl Conf on Morphological Computation, Venice, Italy, 07/03/26-28
      10. American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2007 Conference, Urbana IL, 07/03/29-04/01
      11. 4th Lake Arrowhead Conference on Human Complex Systems, Lake Arrowhead, CA, 07/04/25-29
      12. Intl Conf on Morphological Computation, Venice Italy, 07/03/26-28
      13. Capturing Business Complexity with Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation Useful, Usable, and Used Techniques - A Course on Business Applications, Argonne Natl Lab, Woodridge, IL, 07/04/16-20
      14. Complexity and Organizational Resilience , The Village, Pohnpei, Micronesia, 07/05
      15. 9th GEF -The World Festival of Creativity in Schools, Sanremo ITALY, 07/05/02-06
      16. 2nd Intl Conf on Built Environment Complexity - Embracing complexity thinking in built environments, Cape Town South Africa, 07/05/21-25
      17. ECO 2007 Summit: Ecological Complexity and Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for 21st-Century Ecology, Beijing, China, 07/05/22-27
      18. 2007 IEEE/ICME Intl Conf on Complex Medical Engineering-CME2007, Beijing, China, 07/05/23-27
      19. Analysis and Control of Complex Networks, Milan, Italy, 07/05/24-26
      20. The 7th Intl Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex Systems, Beijing, 07/05/27-30
      21. 2nd Intl Wkshp on Engineering Emergence in Decentralised Autonomic Systems EEDAS 2007, Jacksonville, Fl, 07/06/11-15
      22. 7th conf SYMMETRY IN NONLINEAR MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS, Kiev, Ukraine, 07/06/24-30
      23. Summer School In Complexity Science, London, UK, 07/07/08-17
      24. 2007 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2007), London, UK, 07/07/07-11
      25. SASO 2007 - First IEEE Intl Conf Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems , Boston, Mass., USA, 07/07/09-11
      26. ICCM 2007 - 8th Intl Conf on Cognitive Modeling, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 07/07/27-29
      27. Natural Complexity: Data and Theory in Dialogue, Cambridge, UK, 07/08/13-17
      28. ECAL 2oo7 - 9th European Conference on Artificial Life , Lisbon, Portugal, 07/09/10-14
      29. 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 international journal Emergence: Complexity & Organization (E:CO) is now available. The issue contains:

        Volume 8 Number 4, 2006 Special Issue: Complexity & Leadership Editors: Jeffrey A. Goldstein & James K. Hazy

      2. EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION IN PRACTICE Series in Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer Verlag, Chapter proposal due 07/02/04
      3. 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.
      4. Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Artificial Life journal on the Evolution of Complexity,
      5. 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.

      6. 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.

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

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