Complexity Digest 2007.45

22-Nov-2007

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Content

  1. Introduction To Special Issue: A Robotic Future, Science
    1. The New Robotics - Towards Human-centered Machines, HFSP Journal
    2. Robots Infiltrate, Influence Cockroach Groups, NPR-ATC
    3. Robot Cockroach Tests Insect Decision-Making Behavior, Science
    4. Researchers Create Robot Driven by Moth's Brain, PhysOrg.com
    5. Robotics: Robotic Cars Tackle Crosstown Traffic--and Not One Another, Science
    6. Learning In And From Brain-Based Devices, Science
    7. Making Machines That Make Others of Their Kind, Science
    8. Self-Organization, Embodiment, and Biologically Inspired Robotics, Science
  2. Enhancing, Not Cheating, Nature
  3. A Wiring Diagram of the Brain, MIT Technology Review
  4. Melatonin Suppresses Nighttime Memory Formation in Zebrafish, Science
    1. Fast-Forward Playback of Recent Memory Sequences in Prefrontal Cortex During Sleep, Science
    2. 'Speed Of Thought' Guides Brain's Memory Consolidation, ScienceDaily
  5. Data-Intensive Computing Laying Foundation For Biological Breakthroughs, Science
    1. The Future of Internet Immune Systems, Internet Evolution
    2. N3Logic: A Logical Framework For the World Wide Web, arXiv
  6. Network Pharmacology, Nature
    1. Drug - Target Network, Nature
  7. Cancer's Mutational Landscape, Science
    1. The Gene Topography of Cancer, Science
    2. The Genomic Landscapes Of Human Breast And Colorectal Cancers., Science
  8. Shifting Patterns: Malaria Dynamics And Rainfall Variability In An African Highland, Proc. Biol. Sc.
    1. Ancient Retroviruses Spurred Evolution Of Gene Regulatory Networks In Humans And Other Primates, ScienceDaily
  9. Paralysed Man's Mind Is 'Read', BBC News
  10. Antidepressant Extends Life of Worms, NPR-ATC
    1. Cooperation And Conflict In Quorum-Sensing Bacterial Populations, Nature
  11. Scientists Produce Embryonic Stem Cells from Skin, NPR-TOTN
  12. Epigenetics: Reversing The 'Irreversible', Nature
  13. Scientists Get First Look At How Water 'Lubricates' Proteins, Innovations-report
  14. Use The Calm Between The Storms, Nature
    1. Knowledge Gaps Pour Cold Water On Sea Fertilization, Nature
    2. What Every President Should Know, Nature
  15. Shadow World - How Many Dimensions Space Has Could All Be A Matter Of Perspective, Science News
  16. Light Wormholes Could Wire Space Invisibly, Nature
  17. Sand Could Shed Light On Quark-Gluon Plasma, PhysicsWorld.com
  18. 'Trapped Rainbow' Storage Of Light In Metamaterials, Nature
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. The Price Of Power - How Much Does US Dependence On Oil Influence International Diplomacy?, Nature
    2. Fixing The Meaning Of 9/11: Hegemony, Coercion, And The Road To War In Iraq, Security Studies
    3. A Crime-Terror Nexus? Thinking On Some Of The Links Between Terrorism And Criminality, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Introduction To Special Issue: A Robotic Future, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: This special section looks at robots and robotics from a wide range of perspectives. Bellingham and Rajan (p. 1098) tell how robots with an increasing sense of autonomy are being used to explore the hostile environments under the oceans and in outer space. Pfeifer, Lungarella, and Iida (p. 1088) examine recent efforts to design robots based on lessons learned from biological organisms. They show that robots can improve their performance by borrowing living body plans and substructures.

    1. The New Robotics - Towards Human-centered Machines, HFSP Journal Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Research in robotics has moved away from its primary focus on industrial applications. The New Robotics is a vision that has been developed in past years by our own university and many other national and international research institutions and addresses how increasingly more human-like robots can live among us and take over tasks where our current society has shortcomings. Elder care, physical therapy, child education, search and rescue, and general assistance in daily life situations are some of the examples that will benefit from the New Robotics in the near future. With these goals in mind, research for the New Robotics has to embrace a broad interdisciplinary approach, ranging from traditional mathematical issues of robotics to novel issues in psychology, neuroscience, and ethics. This paper outlines some of the important research problems that will need to be resolved to make the New Robotics a reality.

    2. Robots Infiltrate, Influence Cockroach Groups, NPR-ATC Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Cockroaches generally prefer resting under dark shelters, but robots that liked brighter shelters could change the group choice. ULB-EPFL
      To explore how groups of cockroaches make collective decisions, scientists have created a robotic cockroach that the real insects accept as one of their own. (...)

      For example, they like to rest together. When scientists put cockroaches in a habitat that has two identical little shelters - shadowed places where they can hang out - the roaches will "all gather together in the same shadow, below the same shelter," Halloy said. "So there is a mechanism that makes the system choose one of the shelters."

    3. Robot Cockroach Tests Insect Decision-Making Behavior, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Based on observations of insects in this arena, Halloy and his colleagues developed a mathematical model that predicts which shelter a cockroach should pick depending on the level of darkness of the shelter and the number and activity of its fellow roaches. Halloy's group then used this model to program robots designed by him and Francesco Mondada and other engineers at the ?cole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, Switzerland.

    4. Researchers Create Robot Driven by Moth's Brain, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      In a notion taken from science fiction afficionados, University of Arizona researchers presented a robot that moves by using the brain impulses of a moth at the 37th annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego.
      The robot's motion is guided by a tiny electrode implanted in the moth's brain, Higgins said, specifically to a single neuron that is responsible for keeping the moth's vision steady during flight. The neuron transmits electrical signals which are then amplified in the robot's base and through a mathematical formula, a computer translates the signals into action, making the robot move.

    5. Robotics: Robotic Cars Tackle Crosstown Traffic--and Not One Another, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Land Rover bristles with sensors like a mechanical porcupine. John Leonard, an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, ticks off the robot's features. On the roof spins a conical laser range finder called a lidar that sees in three dimensions. A dozen lidars that see in one direction, 15 radars, and six digital cameras look out every which way. Computers fill the back of the truck, and a generator supplies the 3.5 kilowatts of power they need. It's impressive. But all this so the truck can turn left across traffic by itself?

    6. Learning In And From Brain-Based Devices, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Biologically based mobile devices have been constructed that differ from robots based on artificial intelligence. These brain-based devices (BBDs) contain simulated brains that autonomously categorize signals from the environment without a priori instruction. Two such BBDs, Darwin VII and Darwin X, are described here. Darwin VII recognizes objects and links categories to behavior through instrumental conditioning. Darwin X puts together the "what,""when," and "where" from cues in the environment into an episodic memory that allows it to find a desired target.

    7. Making Machines That Make Others of Their Kind, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: But as a plan for making self-replicating machines, von Neumann's work left much to be desired. Like a true mathematician, he skipped over the practical difficulties a real machine would have in gathering parts. "He doesn't address the physics at all," Lipson says. "Bringing in the materials, dealing with the errors--the physics is the difficult part."

      Give a child a Lego set, and she will immediately dump the pieces on the floor and comb through them to find the ones she wants.

    8. Self-Organization, Embodiment, and Biologically Inspired Robotics, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Robotics researchers increasingly agree that ideas from biology and self-organization can strongly benefit the design of autonomous robots. Biological organisms have evolved to perform and survive in a world characterized by rapid changes, high uncertainty, indefinite richness, and limited availability of information. Industrial robots, in contrast, operate in highly controlled environments with no or very little uncertainty. Although many challenges remain, concepts from biologically inspired (bio-inspired) robotics will eventually enable researchers to engineer machines for the real world that possess at least some of the desirable properties of biological organisms, such as adaptivity, robustness, versatility, and agility.

  2. Enhancing, Not Cheating, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A broad debate about the use of drugs that improve cognition for both the healthy and the ill is needed.

    Of all the arguments levelled against taking drugs for human enhancement, the idea that it is cheating has least power. Yes, when organized competition or formal testing of abilities is the name of the game, drug-based strengthening is questionable and regulations against it need to be adhered to.

  3. A Wiring Diagram of the Brain, MIT Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Analyzing axons: Scientists are developing new ways to study the tangled web of neurons in the brain. This image shows a partial reconstruction of the rabbit retina. Neural projections, which connect neuron to neuron, are labeled in different colors. Credit: Kevin Briggman, Moritz Helmstaedter, Winfried Denk Viren Jain, Joseph Murray, Srini Turaga, and Sebastian Seung.
    The emerging field of connectomics could help researchers decode the brain's approach to information processing.

    New technologies that allow scientists to trace the fine wiring of the brain more accurately than ever before could soon generate a complete wiring diagram--including every tiny fiber and miniscule connection--of a piece of brain. Dubbed connectomics, these maps could uncover how neural networks perform their precise functions in the brain, and they could shed light on disorders thought to originate from faulty wiring, such as autism and schizophrenia.

  4. Melatonin Suppresses Nighttime Memory Formation in Zebrafish, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Memory processes are modulated by the biological clock, although the mechanisms are unknown. Here, we report that in the diurnal zebrafish both learning and memory formation of an operant conditioning paradigm occur better during the day than during the night. Melatonin treatment during the day mimics the nighttime suppression of memory formation. Training in constant light improves nighttime memory formation while reducing endogenous melatonin concentrations. Treatment with melatonin receptor antagonists at night dramatically improves memory. Pinealectomy also significantly improves nighttime memory formation. We adduce that melatonin is both sufficient and necessary for poor memory formation during the night.

    1. Fast-Forward Playback of Recent Memory Sequences in Prefrontal Cortex During Sleep, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: As previously shown in the hippocampus and other brain areas, patterns of firing-rate correlations between neurons in the rat medial prefrontal cortex during a repetitive sequence task were preserved during subsequent sleep, suggesting that waking patterns are reactivated. We found that, during sleep, reactivation of spatiotemporal patterns was coherent across the network and compressed in time by a factor of 6 to 7. Thus, when behavioral constraints are removed, the brain's intrinsic processing speed may be much faster than it is in real time.

    2. 'Speed Of Thought' Guides Brain's Memory Consolidation, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) have added another piece of the puzzle of how the brain processes memory. (...) have shown that, during sleep, the reactivated memories of real-time experiences are processed within the brain at a higher rate of speed. That rate can be as much as six or seven times faster, and what McNaughton calls "thought speed." Memory stores patterns of activity in modular form in the brain's cortex. Different modules in the cortex process different kinds of information - sounds, sights, tastes, smells, etc. The cortex sends these networks of activity to a region called the hippocampus. The hippocampus then creates and assigns a tag, (...).

  5. Data-Intensive Computing Laying Foundation For Biological Breakthroughs, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Biological breakthroughs critical to solving society's most challenging problems require new and innovative tools and a different way to analyze the enormous amounts of data being generated. This article for the Breakthroughs Magazine focuses on the Data-Intensive Computing for Complex Biological Systems (Biopilot) project -- a joint research effort between the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. The two national laboratories, both of whom are world leaders in computing and computational sciences, are teaming to support areas of biological research in urgent need of data-intensive computing capabilities.

    Submitted by Jaxon Teck jteck@prontomail.com

    1. The Future of Internet Immune Systems, Internet Evolution Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: And right there is an example of the autoimmune disorder. Our network defenses are automated, instantaneous, and sweeping. But our fallback and oversight systems are slow, understaffed, and unresponsive. It takes a millionth of a second for the Transportation Security Administration's body-cavity-search roulette wheel to decide that you're a potential terrorist and stick you on a no-fly list, but getting un-Tuttle-Buttled is a nightmarish, months-long procedure that makes Orwell look like an optimist. (...)


    2. N3Logic: A Logical Framework For the World Wide Web, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: The Semantic Web drives towards the use of the Web for interacting with logically interconnected data. Through knowledge models such as Resource Description Framework (RDF), the Semantic Web provides a unifying representation of richly structured data. Adding logic to the Web implies the use of rules to make inferences, choose courses of action, and answer questions. This logic must be powerful enough to describe complex properties of objects but not so powerful that agents can be tricked by being asked to consider a paradox.

  6. Network Pharmacology, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The common analogy of drug action is that of a lock and key, with a drug acting as a selective 'key' that fits into the 'lock' of a specific drug target. Over the past two decades, the concept of designing exquisitely selective ligands to avoid unwanted side effects has become the predominant paradigm in drug discovery. However, a growing body of post-genomic biology is revealing a far more complex picture of drug action.
    • Source: Network Pharmacology, Andrew L Hopkins, DOI: 10.1038/nbt1007-1110, Nature Biotechnology 25, 1110 - 1111 (2007), 2007

    1. Drug - Target Network, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The global set of relationships between protein targets of all drugs and all disease-gene products in the human protein-protein interaction or ‘interactome' network remains uncharacterized. We built a bipartite graph composed of US Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs and proteins linked by drug-target binary associations. The resulting network connects most drugs into a highly interlinked giant component, with strong local clustering of drugs of similar types (...).

      Topological analyses of this network quantitatively showed an overabundance of ‘follow-on' drugs, that is, drugs that target already targeted proteins.

      • Source: Drug - Target Network, Muhammed A Yldrm, Kwang-Il Goh, Michael E Cusick, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Marc Vidal, DOI: 10.1038/nbt1338, Nature Biotechnology 25, 1119 - 1126 (2007), 07/10/05

  7. Cancer's Mutational Landscape, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The genomes of human tumors contain many sequence alterations, a subset of which help drive tumor growth. Wood et al. (see Perspective by Trent and Touchman) have now undertaken a systematic sequence analysis of >18,000 genes in human breast and colorectal tumors. Depiction of the mutational data on a topographic map indicates that each of these tumor types contains only a few gene "mountains" mutated at high frequency and a much larger number of gene "hills" mutated at low frequency.

    1. The Gene Topography of Cancer, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: On page 1108 of this issue, Wood et al. (3) advance this endeavor by describing the mutational spectrum of nearly every well-annotated human gene [18,191 distinct genes from the Reference Sequence (RefSeq) resource] in 11 breast and 11 colorectal tumors through systematic sequencing of coding exons.

      The resulting sequence "landscape" of these tumor genomes is striking. The authors find a scattering of five well-studied genes that are commonly mutated (which they call "mountains"), as well over 200 genes mutated at a lower frequency ("hills") in these two cancers. For the first time, there is evidence that most of the mutations that drive cancer may not occur in such gene mountains, but rather are spread across heterogeneous gene hills.

      • Source: The Gene Topography of Cancer, Jeffrey M. Trent, Jeffrey W. Touchman, DOI: 10.1126/science.1151428, Science : Vol. 318. no. 5853, pp. 1079 - 1080, 07/11/16

    2. The Genomic Landscapes Of Human Breast And Colorectal Cancers., Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Human cancer is caused by the accumulation of mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. To catalog the genetic changes that occur during tumorigenesis, we isolated DNA from 11 breast and 11 colorectal tumors and determined the sequences of the genes in the Reference Sequence database in these samples. Based on analysis of exons representing 20,857 transcripts from 18,191 genes, we conclude that the genomic landscapes of breast and colorectal cancers are composed of a handful of commonly mutated gene "mountains" and a much larger number of gene "hills" that are mutated at low frequency.

  8. Shifting Patterns: Malaria Dynamics And Rainfall Variability In An African Highland, Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The long-term patterns of malaria in the East African highlands typically involve not only a general upward trend in cases but also a dramatic increase in the size of epidemic outbreaks. The role of climate variability in driving epidemic cycles at interannual time scales remains controversial, in part because it has been seen as conflicting with the alternative explanation of purely endogenous cycles exclusively generated by the nonlinear dynamics of the disease. We analyse a long temporal record of monthly cases from 1970 to 2003 in a highland of western Kenya with both a time-series epidemiological model (...).

    1. Ancient Retroviruses Spurred Evolution Of Gene Regulatory Networks In Humans And Other Primates, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: When ancient retroviruses slipped bits of their DNA into the primate genome millions of years ago, they successfully preserved their own genetic legacy. Today an estimated 8 percent of the human genetic code consists of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) -- the DNA remnants from these so-called "selfish parasites." Surprisingly, the infected hosts and their primate descendants also appear to have benefited from this genetic invasion, new evidence suggests. The ancient retroviruses -- distant relatives of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)--helped a gene called p53 become an important "master gene regulator" in primates, (...).

  9. Paralysed Man's Mind Is 'Read', BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Electrodes were planted in the part of the brain which controls speech
    Electrodes were planted in the part of the brain which controls speech Scientists say they may be on the brink of translating into words the thoughts of a man who can no longer speak, after a pioneering experiment. Electrodes have been implanted in the brain of Eric Ramsay, who has been "locked in" - conscious but paralysed - since a car crash eight years ago. These have been recording pulses in areas of the brain involved in speech.

    Now, New Scientist magazine reports, they are to use the signals he generates to drive speech software.

  10. Antidepressant Extends Life of Worms, NPR-ATC Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    PA-HO
    An antidepressant used in humans can extend the life span of tiny worms by about 30 percent, according to a new finding that has intrigued scientists who study aging.

    The worms, called C. elegans, normally live for just a couple of weeks. But Linda Buck, a scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, wanted to see if she could use chemicals to make the worms live longer. So her lab bought a large, random assortment to try.

    1. Cooperation And Conflict In Quorum-Sensing Bacterial Populations, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: It has been suggested that bacterial cells communicate by releasing and sensing small diffusible signal molecules in a process commonly known as quorum sensing (QS). (...) It is generally assumed that QS is used to coordinate cooperative behaviours at the population level. However, evolutionary theory predicts that individuals who communicate and cooperate can be exploited. Here we examine the social evolution of QS experimentally in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and show that although QS can provide a benefit at the group level, exploitative individuals can (...) spread.

  11. Scientists Produce Embryonic Stem Cells from Skin, NPR-TOTN Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Junying Yu Genetic modifications in skin cells (above) induced the cells into what scientists call a pluripotent state - a condition that is essentially the same as that of embryonic stem cells. University of Wisconsin-Madison
    The crux of the discovery, published online Tuesday by the journals Cell and Science, is a "direct reprogramming" technique that adds a cocktail of four genetic factors to run-of-the-mill human skin cells. (...)

    He said it was unclear whether the cells he produced from skin were identical to embryonic stem cells, but "all I can say is they are very similar."

  12. Epigenetics: Reversing The 'Irreversible', Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: "Do not speak - unless it improves on silence" is generally wise advice, and is even vital for a subset of essential genes. New studies describe how, when appropriate, the silence of these genes is broken.

    In cellular tissues, it is essential that certain genes are turned on in appropriate cells but remain silent in others. For years, the dogma has been that some forms of gene silencing are irreversible, or at least extremely stable.

  13. Scientists Get First Look At How Water 'Lubricates' Proteins, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientists are one step closer to understanding how proteins move when they perform functions essential for supporting life. For the first time, scientists have directly observed how water lubricates the movements of protein molecules to enable different functions to happen. In a paper (...) report using ultra-fast light pulses to reveal how water molecules link up with proteins and enable them to move and function. (...) Proteins are complex molecules that form the main support structure for plant and animal cells, and they also regulate biochemical reactions. (...) scientists have long known that proteins can't function unless they are immersed in water. (...)

  14. Use The Calm Between The Storms, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Steve Sparks is professor of geology at the University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK.

    To save lives and livelihoods, natural and social scientists must work with decision-makers and politicians in the time between natural disasters as well as during them.

    Science has many roles in the forecasting and mitigation of natural hazards. It underlies technological solutions to giving early warning, producing advice for authorities in areas at risk, and designing effective relief strategies. It also provides critical information for policy-makers and the public to help save lives and avoid economic losses.

    1. Knowledge Gaps Pour Cold Water On Sea Fertilization, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The parties to the London Convention, the international treaty governing ocean dumping, have agreed that large-scale ocean 'fertilization' is currently not justified given gaps in scientific knowledge. Adding iron, phosphate or urea can stimulate plankton growth in nutrient-poor parts of the ocean ˇX thereby sucking down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and potentially helping to combat climate change. But critics warn that the ecological impact is poorly understood, and at its meeting in London last week, the convention endorsed concerns issued in June by its scientific advisory group.

    2. What Every President Should Know, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Test your knowledge on issues of science, with 17 questions that every world leader should find a breeze.

      Taken from undergraduate exams given in the course 'Physics for future presidents' by Richard A. Muller at the University of California, Berkeley.

  15. Shadow World - How Many Dimensions Space Has Could All Be A Matter Of Perspective, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    YOU'RE JUST PROJECTING. Universes with different physical laws and even different numbers of dimensions could have an underlying mathematical equivalence, much as a single pattern in this artist's impression looks different when projected onto surfaces with different geometries. A. Sandberg
    In his vision, the mathematical machinery of strings completely translates into a more ordinary quantum theory of particles, but one whose particles would live in a universe without gravity. Gravity would be replaced by forces similar to the nuclear forces that prevailed in the universe's first instants. And this would be a universe with fewer dimensions than the realm inhabited by strings.

  16. Light Wormholes Could Wire Space Invisibly, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A prescription for wormholes that transmit light invisibly between remote regions has been devised by a team of researchers. These 'electromagnetic wormholes' are the light-based equivalent of space-time wormholes, the staples of science fiction that permit time travel and create short cuts across intergalactic space. They could one day be used in three-dimensional (3D) video-display units wired up with invisible light-carrying cables.

  17. Sand Could Shed Light On Quark-Gluon Plasma, PhysicsWorld.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Time sequence of photographs showing a jet of glass beads striking the target: In the first photograph (far left), the jet is about to strike the target. The next two photographs show the formation of a disk of sand perpendicular to the incoming jet. The final photograph (far right) shows an axial view of the same collision. (Courtesy: Xiang Cheng, University of Chicago).
    Furthermore, Nagel and colleagues believe that this liquid-like behaviour of colliding particles has been seen before -- at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US. Two years ago, researchers at the RHIC smashed together pairs of gold nuclei to create multi-particle "quark-gluon plasma". Such a plasma is believed to be present in the early Universe - just before it has cooled enough for quarks and gluons to combine and form protons and neutrons.


  18. 'Trapped Rainbow' Storage Of Light In Metamaterials, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Light usually propagates inside transparent materials in well known ways. However, recent research has examined the possibility of modifying the way the light travels by taking a normal transparent dielectric and inserting tiny metallic inclusions of various shapes and arrangements. As light passes through these structures, oscillating electric currents are set up that generate electromagnetic field moments; these can lead to dramatic effects on the light propagation, such as negative refraction. Possible applications include lenses that break traditional diffraction limits and 'invisibility cloaks'.

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

    1. The Price Of Power - How Much Does US Dependence On Oil Influence International Diplomacy?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: John Deutch, a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency under President Clinton, gives his thoughts on the issue.(...)

      The energy-security consequences of oil and gas are very heavily dependent on the behaviour of markets and governments. The fact that we depend so much on oil from the Persian Gulf - from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Kuwait - leads to questions about these nations' political stability and the role of terrorists.

    2. Fixing The Meaning Of 9/11: Hegemony, Coercion, And The Road To War In Iraq, Security Studies Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: As the costs of the invasion and occupation of Iraq mount, scholars have sought to explain how the United States came to launch this war in the first place. Many have focused on the "inflation" of the Iraq threat (...). The effective fixing of the meaning of the September 11 attacks in terms of the "War on Terror" substantially circumscribed political debate, and we explain why this discourse became dominant. The Bush administration then capitalized on the existing portrait of Saddam Hussein to bind Iraq tightly into the War on Terror and thereby silence leading Democrats and legitimate the war. (...)

    3. A Crime-Terror Nexus? Thinking On Some Of The Links Between Terrorism And Criminality, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Decreasing state sponsorship for terrorism in the post-9/11 environment has pressed terrorist groups to find alternative sources of financial support. Some groups have created their own "in-house" criminal capabilities, for example FARC, the LTTE, and Al Qaeda. Several analysts have argued that this "mutation" in organizational form may lead terrorist groups to ally with organized crime, whereas others have suggested that distinct organizational and ideological differences between the two will preclude cooperation. Drawing on both accounts, it is argued (...) the degree of a terrorist group's organizational capacity and need are key predictors of the types of crime they will engage (...).

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Entanglement-Free Heisenberg-Limited Phase Estimation, B. L. Higgins, D. W. Berry, S. D. Bartlett, H. M. Wiseman, G. J. Pryde, 07/11/15, Nature 450, 393-396, DOI: 10.1038/nature06257
      2. Quantum Optics: Kittens Catch Phase, Jonathan P. Dowling, 07/11/15, Nature 450, 362-363, DOI: 10.1038/450362b
      3. Engineering Entropy-Driven Reactions and Networks Catalyzed by DNA, David Yu Zhang, Andrew J. Turberfield, Bernard Yurke, Erik Winfree, 07/11/16, Science : 1121-1125. Biochemical circuits based on nucleic acids can use output strands of oligonucleotides as catalysts for subsequent reactions to amplify small signals for use in sensors.
      4. Transgenerational Plasticity Is Adaptive in the Wild, Laura F. Galloway, Julie R. Etterson, 07/11/16, Science : 1134-1136. A wild herb nongenetically adapts to local light conditions and passes the adaptation to offspring, illustrating how sedentary organisms cope with variable environments.
      5. Climate Politics, 2007/11, News@Nature
      6. Individual Space-Time Activity-Based Modelling Of Infectious Disease Transmission Within A City, Y. Yang, P. Atkinson, D. Ettema, 2007/11/13, Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2007.1218
      7. Biomechanics And Control Of Vocalization In A Non-Songbird, C. P. H. Elemans, R. Zaccarelli, H. Herzel, 2007/11/13, Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2007.1237
      8. Evolutionary Associations Between Nectar Properties And Specificity In Bird Pollination Systems, S. D. Johnson, S. W. Nicolson, 2007/11/13, Biological Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0496
      9. How to Trap a Rainbow, Katharine Sanderson, 2007/11/14, News@Nature, DOI: 10.1038/news.2007.246
      10. The Most Accurate Measurement Ever Made, Philip Ball, 2007/11/14, News@Nature, DOI: 10.1038/news.2007.242
      11. Are Networks With More Edges Easier to Synchronize?, Zhisheng Duan, Wenxu Wang, Chao Liu and Guanrong Chen, 2007/11/15, arXiv, DOI: 0711.2442
      12. Plug In To Reduce Power USE, 2007/11/16, Innovations-report
      13. Enzymes Key To Brainpower Identified, 2007/11/16, ScienceDaily
      14. Left Brain Helps Hear Through The Noise, 2007/11/18, ScienceDaily
      15. Yahoo Settles China Dissident Case: Outside Pressure Gets Too Much, I. Thomson, 2007/11/19, vnunet.com
      16. "Time-Sharing" Birds Key To Evolutionary Mystery, 2007/11/19, Innovations-report
      17. Runners Do Not Push Off The Ground But Fall Forwards Via A Gravitational Torque, N. Romanov, G. Fletcher, Sep. 2007, Sports Biomechanics, DOI: 10.1080/14763140701491625
      18. Who Is Better Off From Trade Liberalization? An Experience From Urban China, Y. He - yin.heaccer.pku.edu.cn, Sep. 2007, online 2007/10/02, Asian Economic Journal, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8381.2007.00258.x

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. 7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02
      2. Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007
      3. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 07/01/24-28
      4. TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006
      5. Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03
      6. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05
      7. 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30
      8. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      9. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      10. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      11. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      12. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      13. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      14. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      15. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      16. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      17. 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
      18. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      19. 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
      20. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      21. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      22. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      23. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      24. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      25. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      26. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      27. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Australia New Zealand Systems Conference 2007 "Systemic development: Local solutions in a global environment", Auckland, New Zealand, 07/12/02-05
      2. Expanding Secondary Use of Health Data: An NSF Biomedical Informatics Workshop, Corbett, Oregon, 07/12/04-05
      3. The 3rd Indian Intl Conf on Artificial Intelligence (IICAI-07), Pune, INDIA, 07/12/17-19
      4. Winter School 2008: Chemical Discrimination and Localization using Biologically Based Olfactory Processing, San Diego, CA, 08/01/10-12
      5. The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 08/03/01-03
      6. The 3rd Intl Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15
      7. 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28
      8. 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28
      9. 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12
      10. Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Tenth Annual... Applying Systems Biology, San Francisco, CA, 08/06/09-11
      11. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      12. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      13. Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. " Wolfram Research is Now the Official Math Brain Trust for the Hit CBS Series NUMB3RS. 07/10/05
      2. A short notice from Dean LeBaron

        Dear ComDig Readers,

        Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you -- as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that, in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them.

        Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist. With Gottfried's permission, I am posting this note with information, below, about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude.

        I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his progress with great interest and hope.

        Dean LeBaron
        Publisher, Complexity Digest

        Bank Information:

        If your contribution is made by check:
        Please mail the check, payable to "Gottfried Mayer", to:
        Manufacturers & Traders Trust
        2080 Western Avenue
        20 Mall
        Guilderland, NY 12084 USA
        (on the back of the check, please write: "For Deposit Only: Account # 983 338 3814")

        If your contribution is made by wire:
        Manufacturers & Traders Trust
        2080 Western Avenue
        20 Mall

        Guilderland, NY 12084 USA
        SWIFT Code# MANTUS33
        UID: 209 791
        ABA routing # 022 00 00 46 [for US wire transfers]
        Account # 983 338 3814
        Ref. Gottfried Mayer

      3. Intl Master of Science in Methods For Management Of Complex Systems - Academic Year 2007-2008, Institute for Advanced Study, Pavia, Italy, 08/01/01
      4. News notes on Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) for July 2007 are now available on-line, 07/08/04
      5. National Humanities Center Launches Humanities/Sciences Website, 07/04, As part of its ongoing "Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity: The Human & The Humanities" project (ASC), the National Humanities Center makes public a new website for the initiative which significantly expands the potential pool of humanists and scientists engaged in the exploration and examination of topics surrounding the question of human being.

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