Complexity Digest 2007.50

28-Dec-2007

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Content

  1. Sexual Selection in Males and Females, Science
    1. Predator Pressures Maintain Bees' Social Life, Innovations-report
  2. Google and the Wisdom of Clouds, Business Week
    1. IBM Virtual World Defies Laws Of Physics, Network World
  3. Why Complex Systems Engineering Needs Biological Development, Complexity
    1. Recognizing Simple Human Actions Using 3d Head Movement, Computational Intelligence
  4. Performance Variability Enables Adaptive Plasticity Of 'Crystallized' Adult Birdsong, Nature
  5. The Physiology Of Champions, Innovations-report
  6. More 'Altruistic' Punishment In Larger Societies, Proc. Biol. Sc.
    1. Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians, Innovations-report
  7. Tied Up In Knots - Anything That Can Tangle Up, Will, Including DNA, Science News
  8. Neuroscience: Neighbourly Synapses, Nature
    1. Locally Dynamic Synaptic Learning Rules In Pyramidal Neuron Dendrites, Nature
    2. Rapid Changes in Throughput from Single Motor Cortex Neurons to Muscle Activity, Science
  9. Tiny Living Machines - Devices Made Of Heart Tissue Could Screen Drugs And Power Implantable Robots., Technology Review
  10. Evolution: Did An Asteroid Shower Kick-Start The Great Diversification?, Science
  11. Animal Cell Differentiation Patterns Suppress Somatic Evolution, PLoS Computational Biology
    1. Microbiology: Detoxifying Enzyme Helps Animals Stomach Bacteria, Science
  12. Why Don't We Get Cancer All The Time?, Eurekalert
    1. UA Research Looks At Cell Cooperation And Cancer, Arizona Daily Star
  13. Cancer Diagnostics: One-Stop Shop, Nature
    1. Scientists Identify And Repress Breast Cancer Stem Cells In Mouse Tissue, Science Daily
    2. Scientists Weigh Stem Cells' Role as Cancer Cause, NY Times
  14. North By Northwest - The Planet's Wandering Magnetic Poles Help Reveal History Of Earth And Humans, Science News
  15. Portrait Of A Meltdown: Many Factors Led To 2007's Record Low In Arctic Sea Ice, Science News
    1. Dead Serious - Experts Worry About Lack Of Progress In Efforts To Reduce Lifeless Zone In The Gulf Of Mexico, Science News
  16. Physicists Make Ripples With Their 'Magic Carpet', Nature
  17. Physics: A Quantum Less Quirky, Nature
    1. Quantum Origin Of Quantum Jumps: Breaking Of Unitary Symmetry Induced By Information Transfer In The Transition From Quantum To Classical, Phys.
    2. Superconductivity Without Phonons, Nature
  18. Breakthrough of the Year, Science
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Combating Terrorist Networks, Tufts e-News
    2. Combating Islamist Terrorism in Europe, AmericanDiplomacy.org
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Sexual Selection in Males and Females, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Our current understanding of Darwin's theory,(...), is that reduced investment in gametes and parental care by males increases their potential rate of reproduction (PRR), biasing the relative numbers of sexually active males to receptive females at any one time (the operational sex ratio, or OSR). Biased OSRs, in turn, lead to increased intensity of intrasexual competition, greater variance in breeding success, and stronger selection for traits affecting competitive ability in males than in females. In addition, they are likely to favor the evolution of greater selectivity in choice of mating partners by females, generating selection pressures in males for traits that display their quality as breeding partners.
    Editor's Note: Is this an explanation why there are more outstanding male scientists, artists, composers, etc. in recorded human history?

    1. Predator Pressures Maintain Bees' Social Life, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The complex organisation of some insect societies is thought to have developed to such a level that these animals can no longer survive on their own. Research (...) suggests that rather than organisational, genetic, or biological complexity defining a 'point of no return' for social living, pressures of predation create advantages to not living alone. The ancient systems of sociality in bees, wasps, termites, and ants seem to have become an obligatory way of life for these organisms as there are almost no examples of species reverting to solitary lifestyles. (...)

  2. Google and the Wisdom of Clouds, Business Week Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In the process Google could become, in a sense, the world's primary computer.(...)

    What is Google's cloud? It's a network made of hundreds of thousands, or by some estimates 1 million, cheap servers, each not much more powerful than the PCs we have in our homes. It stores staggering amounts of data, including numerous copies of the World Wide Web. This makes search faster, helping ferret out answers to billions of queries in a fraction of a second.

    1. IBM Virtual World Defies Laws Of Physics, Network World Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Every chunk of ice-core tells tales about the distant world it came from
      IBMers play with giant boulder, hold meetings in the air and under water

      IBM is building a virtual world to help its employees collaborate, and while it's not the first big technology company to do so, Big Blue may be unusual in that it decided not to mess with those silly laws of physics in its own virtual environment.(...)

      "Why do we need walls and ceilings to do a meeting?" asks Michael Ackerbauer of IBM, who is building the company's virtual world, called the Metaverse. "We've had meetings under water and up in the air. Meetings are where you want them to be."

  3. Why Complex Systems Engineering Needs Biological Development, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Here we shall discuss the need of Complex Systems Engineering to adopt principles from natural development of complex biological organisms - besides principles of natural evolution - to acomplish the type of performance that biology achieves regularly. We shall situate Complex Systems Engineering and discuss an example of how it could be employed.

    1. Recognizing Simple Human Actions Using 3d Head Movement, Computational Intelligence Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Recognizing human actions from video has been a challenging problem in computer vision. Although human actions can be inferred from a wide range of data, it has been demonstrated that simple human actions can be inferred by tracking the movement of the head in 2D. (...) Although tracking the movement of the head alone does not provide sufficient information for distinguishing among complex human actions, it could serve as a complimentary component of a more sophisticated action recognition system. In this article, we extend this idea by developing a (...) recognition system by detecting and tracking the 3D position of the head (...).

  4. Performance Variability Enables Adaptive Plasticity Of 'Crystallized' Adult Birdsong, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Significant trial-by-trial variation persists even in the most practiced skills. One prevalent view is that such variation is simply 'noise' that the nervous system is unable to control or that remains below threshold for behavioural relevance. An alternative hypothesis is that such variation enables trial-and-error learning, in which the motor system generates variation and differentially retains behaviours that give rise to better outcomes. Here we test the latter possibility for adult bengalese finch song. Adult birdsong is a complex, learned motor skill that is produced in a highly stereotyped fashion from one rendition to the next.

  5. The Physiology Of Champions, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: What could be a greater test of the limits of human physiology than the Olympics? To mark the 2008 games in Beijing, the Journal of Physiology present a special issue focusing on the science behind human athleticism and endurance. This unique collection of original research and in-depth reviews examines the genes that make a champion, the physiology of elite athletes, limits to performance and how they might be overcome. (...)

  6. More 'Altruistic' Punishment In Larger Societies, Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: If individuals will cooperate with cooperators, and punish non-cooperators even at a cost to themselves, then this strong reciprocity could minimize the cheating that undermines cooperation. (...) Here we present new results that expand on a previous report from a large cross-cultural project. This project has already shown that there is considerable cross-cultural variation in punishment and cooperation. Here we test the hypothesis that population size (and complexity) predicts the level of third-party punishment. Our results show that people in larger, more complex societies engage in significantly more third-party punishment than people in small-scale societies.

    1. Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Mathematicians (...) have solved the mystery of traffic jams by developing a model to show how major delays occur on our roads, with no apparent cause. Many traffic jams leave drivers baffled as they finally reach the end of a tail-back to find no visible cause for their delay. (...) developed a mathematical model to show the impact of unexpected events such as a lorry pulling out of its lane on a dual carriageway. Their model revealed that slowing down below a critical speed when reacting to such an event, a driver would force the car behind to slow down further (...).

  7. Tied Up In Knots - Anything That Can Tangle Up, Will, Including DNA, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    CATALOG OF COILS. Ropes knotted up spontaneously when tumbled in a box. Each knot (off-white) example is paired with the corresponding idealized knot (gold). Raymer/UCSD
    (...) knots¡Xeven complex knots¡Xform surprisingly fast and often. The string first coils up, and then its free ends swivel around the other coils, tracing a random path among them. That essentially makes the coils into a braid, producing knots, the scientists say.

    The results' relevance may go well beyond explaining the epidemic of tangled venetian blind cords. That's because spontaneous knots seem to be prevalent in nature, especially in biological molecules. For example, knottiness may be crucial to the workings of certain proteins (see "Knots in Proteins").

  8. Neuroscience: Neighbourly Synapses, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Experiences shape our behaviour, memories and perception. Mechanistically, they also influence the brain's circuitry, and cooperativity between neuronal contacts during learning may contribute to this process.(...)

    Harvey and Svoboda3 asked whether LTP induction at one spine might alter the ability of neighbouring spines to undergo plasticity. They find that, after LTP induction, although structural and functional plasticity is limited to the stimulated spine, surprisingly, the threshold for the induction of plasticity in its immediate neighbour synapses is dramatically reduced. This effect is seen in spines located within roughly 10 micrometres of the stimulated spine and lasts for about 5 minutes (...).

    1. Locally Dynamic Synaptic Learning Rules In Pyramidal Neuron Dendrites, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission underlies aspects of learning and memory. LTP is input-specific at the level of individual synapses, but neural network models predict interactions between plasticity at nearby synapses. Here we show in mouse hippocampal pyramidal cells that LTP at individual synapses reduces the threshold for potentiation at neighbouring synapses. (...) The reduction in the threshold for LTP induction lasted 10 min and spread over 10 mu of dendrite.

    2. Rapid Changes in Throughput from Single Motor Cortex Neurons to Muscle Activity, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Motor cortex output is capable of considerable reorganization, which involves modulation of excitability within the cortex. Does such reorganization also involve changes beyond the cortex, at the level of throughput from single motor cortex neurons to muscle activity? We examined such throughput during a paradigm that provided incentive for enhancing functional connectivity from motor cortex neurons to muscles. Short-latency throughput from a recorded neuron to muscle activity not present during some behavioral epochs often appeared during others.

  9. Tiny Living Machines - Devices Made Of Heart Tissue Could Screen Drugs And Power Implantable Robots., Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In a fourth-floor lab at Harvard University, Adam Feinberg is peering through a low-magnification microscope and using a scalpel to cut out triangles and rectangles from a thin polymer. What's impossible to see with the naked eye is a one-cell-thick layer of heart tissue coating each shape. When Feinberg connects the petri dish holding the triangles and rectangles to a pacemaker, the tissue begins to rhythmically contract, and the shapes come alive--twisting, pinching, and even swimming through a solution.

  10. Evolution: Did An Asteroid Shower Kick-Start The Great Diversification?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: This week, a team of geologists and paleontologists reports that a collision in the asteroid belt showered Earth with debris just when the Ordovician diversification was getting started, suggesting a cause-and-effect connection. (...)

    The two detailed records from rocks of the same age showed that the onset of the rain of debris on Earth and the main burst of diversification "coincide precisely," writes the group.

  11. Animal Cell Differentiation Patterns Suppress Somatic Evolution, PLoS Computational Biology Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Cell differentiation in multicellular organisms has the obvious function during development of creating new cell types. However, in long-lived organisms with extensive cell turnover, cell differentiation often continues after new cell types are no longer needed or produced. Here, we address the question of why this is true. It is believed that multicellular organisms could not have arisen or been evolutionarily stable without possessing mechanisms to suppress somatic selection among cells within organisms, which would otherwise disrupt organismal integrity.

    1. Microbiology: Detoxifying Enzyme Helps Animals Stomach Bacteria, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Last week, microbiologists reported that when bacteria colonize vertebrate intestines, the tissue produces an enzyme that appears to defuse a dangerous toxin the microbes wield, helping to explain how we can live in peaceful coexistence with the scads of potentially noxious bacteria in our guts.

      (...)

      In many parts of the body, just a few bacteria may spark a massive inflammatory reaction. One bacterial compound, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), for example, can trigger septic shock, organ failure, and death. But in our intestines, dense populations of bacteria reside without eliciting more than a blink from the immune system.

  12. Why Don't We Get Cancer All The Time?, Eurekalert Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The seemingly inefficient way our bodies replace worn-out cells is a defense against cancer, according to new research.

    Having the neighboring cell just split into two identical daughter cells would seem to be the simplest way to keep bodies from falling apart.

    However that would be a recipe for uncontrolled growth, said John W. Pepper of The University of Arizona in Tucson. (...)

    "When cells reach the point where they divide constantly, instead of only when needed, they are cancer cells."

    1. UA Research Looks At Cell Cooperation And Cancer, Arizona Daily Star Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The computational biology approach that Pepper uses is a relatively new field that has developed rapidly over the past decade. It started at the Santa Fe Institute, where Pepper worked as a post-doctoral researcher before coming to the UA. The field has seen sharp changes as the idea of virtual experiments has caught on as way to accomplish what can't be done in traditional wet labs.

      Pepper himself is interested in building bridges between disciplines by applying basic ideas of evolutionary biology to cancer or other disease-related research. Pepper said that although the research paper he just published has no immediate implications in cancer treatments, he hopes his research can get people thinking about cancer in new ways.

  13. Cancer Diagnostics: One-Stop Shop, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Detecting cancer early and monitoring its progress non-invasively are high on oncologists' agenda. So the design of a neat device that detects and counts cancer cells shed into the blood by tumours is a welcome advance.

    A hallmark of carcinomas - malignant tumours of epithelial tissues such as breast and colon - is the invasion of neighbouring tissues at an early stage of tumour growth. This process is associated with the shedding of tumour cells into the bloodstream.

    1. Scientists Identify And Repress Breast Cancer Stem Cells In Mouse Tissue, Science Daily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In the cancer stem cell hypothesis, reduction of tumor volume alone will not suffice if the stem cells which originally gave rise to the cancer are not specifically targeted and destroyed.

      The new Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory research not only suggests one possible way of accomplishing this therapeutic goal -- the Hannon lab is initiating a demonstration study in mice -- but it also demonstrated that one component of a chemotherapy cocktail currently used as first-line therapy against certain kinds of breast cancer has the potential to actually enrich the subpopulation of stem-like cells that serve as cancer progenitors.

    2. Scientists Weigh Stem Cells' Role as Cancer Cause, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Within the next few months, researchers at three medical centers expect to start the first test in patients of one of the most promising - and contentious - ideas about the cause and treatment of cancer.

      The idea is to take aim at what some scientists say are cancerous stem cells - aberrant cells that maintain and propagate malignant tumors.

      Although many scientists have assumed that cancer cells are immortal - that they divide and grow indefinitely - most can only divide a certain number of times before dying.

  14. North By Northwest - The Planet's Wandering Magnetic Poles Help Reveal History Of Earth And Humans, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    MOVED BY MAGNETISM. Explorers first found the north magnetic pole at Canada's Cape Adelaide in 1831. Blue dots (direct surface observations) and red dots (models using satellite data) denote the pole's movement since then. Green dots indicate the pole's future location if its current rate and direction of motion continue. Olsen and Mandea
    Such wanderings stem from irregularities in the process that generates the magnetic field, says Olsen. Although Earth's inner core is solid and primarily composed of iron, its outer core is a molten mix of iron and lighter metals that is constantly on the move. The flow of that material, which carries charged particles and conducts electricity, produces the magnetic field, says Olsen. Long-lived eddies and swirling currents in the fluid, which moves at an average speed of about 20 km/yr and is no more viscous than water, make the magnetic field deep within Earth much more complex than it is at the planet's surface. "It's a highly chaotic system," says Olsen.

  15. Portrait Of A Meltdown: Many Factors Led To 2007's Record Low In Arctic Sea Ice, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    GOING DOWN. The long-term decline in the extent of the Arctic Ocean's end-of-summer sea ice is shown superimposed on a graphic depicting this year's record-low ice coverage. NASA
    A variety of climatological factors converged this year in a perfect storm that dramatically melted the Arctic Ocean's ice cover to a record low. The abrupt downturn could be a harbinger of ice-poor summers for decades to come. (...)

    Second, Zhang notes, unusually strong summer winds pushed much of the ice out of the central Arctic, leaving a large area of thin ice and open water. Third, a decrease in cloud cover in the Arctic—a trend suspected but not confirmed earlier this year (SN: 6/16/07, p. 382)—allowed more sunlight to reach the ocean. Because open water absorbs more of the sun's radiation than snow-covered ice, it significantly boosts warming trends both for the ocean and for the atmosphere above it (SN: 11/12/05, p. 312). This so-called ice/albedo feedback accelerated this year's melting, says Zhang.

    1. Dead Serious - Experts Worry About Lack Of Progress In Efforts To Reduce Lifeless Zone In The Gulf Of Mexico, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      MURKY WATERS. The latest map of the dead zone, created in summer 2007, shows the span of lifeless waters off the coast of Louisiana. Red and yellow highlight areas where oxygen levels are too low for fish and shrimp to survive. Nancy Rabalais, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
      The water that tumbles out of the Mississippi River into the salty Gulf of Mexico has traveled thousands of miles. From its source in Minnesota, the river winds through 10 states on its journey to the ocean, collecting runoff from the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains, and everywhere in between. The river flows through the fields of the Corn Belt, gathering fertilizer, and through cities, where sewage leaches into its currents. (...)


  16. Physicists Make Ripples With Their 'Magic Carpet', Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The key to a magic carpet is to create uplift by making ripples that push against fluids such as air or water. If it is close to a horizontal surface, like a piece of foil settling down onto the floor, such rippling movements create a high pressure in the gap between the sheet and the floor. "As waves propagate along a flexible foil, they generate a fluid flow that leads to a pressure that lifts the foil, roughly balancing its weight," Mahadevan explains.

  17. Physics: A Quantum Less Quirky, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Zurek shows that it is in fact a consequence of an intuitively more satisfactory postulate: that if one makes a measurement twice in rapid succession, one always obtains the same result. He uses an argument based on his and William Wootters's proof of the celebrated 'no-cloning' theorem (essentially, that you can't create identical copies of an unknown quantum state) to show that if a measurement were to leave a system in anything other than an eigenstate of that measurement, immediate repetition of the measurement would have a chance of yielding a different result.

    1. Quantum Origin Of Quantum Jumps: Breaking Of Unitary Symmetry Induced By Information Transfer In The Transition From Quantum To Classical, Phys. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Measurements transfer information about a system to the apparatus and then, further on, to observers and (often inadvertently) to the environment. I show that even imperfect copying essential in such situations restricts possible unperturbed outcomes to an orthogonal subset of all possible states of the system, thus breaking the unitary symmetry of its Hilbert space implied by the quantum superposition principle. Preferred outcome states emerge as a result. They provide a framework for "wave-packet collapse," designating terminal points of quantum jumps and defining the measured observable by specifying its eigenstates.

    2. Superconductivity Without Phonons, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The idea of superconductivity without the mediating role of lattice vibrations (phonons) has a long history. It was realized soon after the publication of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity 50 years ago that a full treatment of both the charge and spin degrees of freedom of the electron predicts the existence of attractive components of the effective interaction between electrons even in the absence of lattice vibrations - a particular example is the effective interaction that depends on the relative spins of the electrons.

  18. Breakthrough of the Year, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The breakthrough of this year has to do with humans, genomes, and genetics. But it is not about THE human genome (as if there were only one!). Instead, it is about your particular genome, or mine, and what it can tell us about our backgrounds and the quality of our futures.

    A number of studies in the past year have led to a new appreciation of human genetic diversity. As soon as genomes are looked at individually, important differences appear: Different single-nucleotide polymorphisms are scattered throughout, and singular combinations of particular genes forming haplotypes emerge.

    • Source: Breakthrough of the Year, Donald Kennedy, DOI: 10.1126/science.1154158, Science : Vol. 318. no. 5858, p. 1833, 07/12/21

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

    1. Combating Terrorist Networks, Tufts e-News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The threat of terrorists in Pakistan obtaining nuclear weapons further complicates the problem, according to Howard. He explained to the Metro that the fear is that without a state structure in some of those uncontrolled areas in Pakistan, nuclear weapons may wind up in the wrong hands.

      "As long as there's a state structure and you can pick up the phone and call a president, a prime minister, a king or a dictator and work with them to control nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, that's good," he told the Metro.

    2. Combating Islamist Terrorism in Europe, AmericanDiplomacy.org Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Western Europe has emerged as a central front in the Global War on Terrorism, and with its large, growing, unintegrated, and disaffected Muslim minorities, long-term prospects for success are increasingly problematic. This threat, which has global as well as regional implications, is not sufficiently recognized in the current U.S. National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, according to this essay, and countering it should be made an explicit priority in this strategy.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Observation of Berry's Phase in a Solid-State Qubit, P. J. Leek, J. M. Fink, A. Blais, R. Bianchetti, M. G?ppl, J. M. Gambetta, D. I. Schuster, L. Frunzio, R. J. Schoelkopf, A. Wallraff, 07/12/21, Science: 1889-1892. A controllable geometric phase, or Berry's phase, is produced by moving a superconducting qubit along a path and may provide robust quantum information storage., DOI: 10.1126/science.1149858
      2. Cognitive Recovery in Socially Deprived Young Children: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project, Charles A. Nelson, III, Charles H. Zeanah, Nathan A. Fox, Peter J. Marshall, Anna T. Smyke, Donald Guthrie, 07/12/21, Science: 1937-1940. In a randomized controlled trial, children in Romania who were raised in foster care showed better cognitive development than did children raised in institutions.
      3. Furry Math: Macaques Can Do Sums Like People In A Hurry, 07/12/22, Science News, Macaques and college students showed similarities in performance on a computer test of split-second arithmetic, suggesting a common inheritance of the ability to do approximate math without counting.
      4. Boltzmann, Lotka And Volterra And Spatial Structural Evolution: An Integrated Methodology For Some Dynamical Systems, A. Wilson, 2007/12/11, Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2007.1288
      5. Running, Swimming And Diving Modifies Neuroprotecting Globins In The Mammalian Brain, T. M. Williams, M. Zavanelli, M. A. Miller, R. A. Goldbeck, M. Morledge, D. Casper, D. Ann Pabst, W. McLellan, L. P. Cantin, D. S. Kliger, 2007/12/18, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1484
      6. Evolution With A Restricted Number Of Genes, 2007/12/18, ScienceDaily
      7. 'Jekyll And Hyde' Bacteria Offer Pest Control Clue, 2007/12/20, Innovations-report
      8. Monkeys Can Perform Mental Addition, 2007/12/20, ScienceDaily
      9. Norway Backs Open Document Format: End Of The Line For Microsoft Word, M. Chapman, 2007/12/21, vnunet.com
      10. Nano Bible: Entire Old Testament Written On A Pinhead, 2007/12/21, ScienceDaily
      11. Putting The Brakes On Bike Thieves: System Alerts Security If Someone Takes Your Bike, 2007/12/21, ScienceDaily
      12. Modularity, Reuse, And Hierarchy: Measuring Complexity By Measuring Structure And Organization, G. S. Hornby - hornbyaemail.arc.nasa.gov, Nov.-Dec. 2007, Online 2007/11/27, Complexity, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.20202
      13. The Networked Household, T. L. M. Kennedy, B. Wellman, Oct. 2007, Information, Communication & Society, DOI: 10.1080/13691180701658012

    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. Winter School 2008: Chemical Discrimination and Localization using Biologically Based Olfactory Processing, San Diego, CA, 08/01/10-12
      2. Evolution and Physics Concepts, Models and Applications, Bad Honnef, Germany, 08/01/21-23
      3. The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 08/03/01-03
      4. The 3rd Intl Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15
      5. 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28
      6. 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28
      7. 2nd Applied Neuroscience Meeting, Monterrey, Mexico, 08/04/03-06
      8. Fumee 1 - 1St Futures Meeting - Understanding Anticipatory Systems, Rovereto (Italy), 08/04/10-12
      9. 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12
      10. CHAOS2008 Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference, Chania, Crete, Greece, 08/06/03-06
      11. Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Tenth Annual... Applying Systems Biology, San Francisco, CA, 08/06/09-11
      12. 9nd Intl Mathematica Symposium, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 08/06/20-24
      13. The 14th Intl Conf on Auditory Display (ICAD), Paris, France, 08/06/24-27
      14. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      15. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      16. 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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