Complexity Digest 2008.11

13-Mar-2008

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Content

  1. Cooperation, Punishment And Revenge In Economics And Society, Science Daily
    1. Behavior: Punishment and Cooperation, Science
    2. Antisocial Punishment Across Societies, Science
  2. Neuroscience, Evolution And The Sapient Paradox: The Factuality Of Value And Of The Sacred, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
  3. Tool Use, Communicative Gesture And Cerebral Asymmetries In The Modern Human Brain, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
    1. Between Brains, Bodies And Things: Tectonoetic Awareness And The Extended Self, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
  4. Distributed Robustness in Cellular Networks: Insights from Synthetic Evolved Circuits, SFI Working Papers
    1. Spontaneous Coordinated Activity in Cultured Networks: Analysis of Multiple Ignition Sites, Primary Circuits, and Burst Phase Delay Distributions, SFI Working Papers
    2. To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You, NY Times
    3. Web Mashups Made Easy, Technology Review
  5. Social Networking Moves to the Cellphone, NY Times
  6. Riff Riders: Brain Scans Tune In To Jazz Improvisers, Science News
  7. Brain Enhancement Is Wrong, Right?, NY Times
    1. A Complex In Psychosis, Nature
    2. Short-Term Stress Can Affect Learning And Memory, PhysOrg.com
  8. Researchers Discover The Structural Alphabet Of RNA, PhysOrg.com
  9. Nanotech Puts Cancer In The Cross Hairs, Forbes
    1. An Oncogene-Induced DNA Damage Model for Cancer Development, Science
  10. Signal Transduction: Sweet Conundrum, Science
    1. Keeping It Regular With Protons, Nature
  11. Mind Reading with Functional MRI
  12. Genomics: Fungal Symbiosis Unearthed, Nature
  13. 3-D Modeling Advance, Technology Review
    1. Predictive Information and Explorative Behavior of Autonomous Robots, SFI Working Papers
    2. How Does Your Quasicrystal Grow?, Nature
    3. Quantum Physics: Tangled Memories, Nature
  14. Levitating Joystick Improves Computer Feedback, New Scientist
  15. A World Without Trucks, Low-tech Magazine
    1. Notes On The Theorizing Of Global Environmental Politics, Global Env. Politics
    2. Oceanography: Red Tide Rising, Nature
  16. Visualizing Complex Pigment Mixtures In Living Cells, ScienceDaily
  17. Language Of A Fly Proves Surprising, PhysOrg.com
  18. Age and Evolution of the Grand Canyon Revealed by U-Pb Dating of Water Table-Type Speleothems, Science
    1. Earth's Rotation May Account For Wayward Spacecraft, New Scientist
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. US Seeks Terrorists In Web Worlds, BBC News
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Cooperation, Punishment And Revenge In Economics And Society, Science Daily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Research from The University of Nottingham has shed new light on the way in which people co-operate for the common good -- and what happens when they don't.

    (..) economists studied the extent to which some people will sacrifice personal gain to benefit the wider public, while 'freeloaders' try to take advantage of their generosity.

    Marked national differences arose when freeloaders were punished for putting their own interests ahead of the common good. And whether they accepted their punishment or retaliated in kind depended on what kind of society they lived in, the researchers found.

    1. Behavior: Punishment and Cooperation, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) university students in democratic societies with advanced market economies show different social behavior from that exhibited by students in more traditional societies based on authoritarian and parochial social institutions. Their results suggest that the success of democratic market societies may depend critically on moral virtues as well as material interests, so the depiction of civil society as the sphere of "naked self-interest" is radically incorrect.

      The standard view holds that human nature has a private side in which we interact morally with a small circle of intimates and a public side in which we behave as selfish maximizers.

    2. Antisocial Punishment Across Societies, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: We document the widespread existence of antisocial punishment, that is, the sanctioning of people who behave prosocially. Our evidence comes from public goods experiments that we conducted in 16 comparable participant pools around the world. However, there is a huge cross-societal variation.

      Some participant pools punished the high contributors as much as they punished the low contributors, whereas in others people only punished low contributors. In some participant pools, antisocial punishment was strong enough to remove the cooperation-enhancing effect of punishment.

  2. Neuroscience, Evolution And The Sapient Paradox: The Factuality Of Value And Of The Sacred, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The human genome, and hence the human brain at birth, may not have changed greatly over the past 60000 years. Yet many of the major behavioural changes that we associate with most human societies are very much more recent, some appearing with the sedentary revolution of some 10000 years ago. Among these are activities implying the emergence of powerful concepts of value and of the sacred. What then are the neuronal mechanisms that may underlie these consistent, significant (and emergent) patterns of behaviour?

  3. Tool Use, Communicative Gesture And Cerebral Asymmetries In The Modern Human Brain, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Determining the brain adaptations that underlie complex tool-use skills is an important component in understanding the physiological bases of human material culture. It is argued here that the ways in which humans skilfully use tools and other manipulable artefacts is possible owing to adaptations that integrate sensory-motor and cognitive processes. (...) left cerebral hemisphere, particularly the left parietal cortex, of modern humans is specialized for this purpose. This brain area integrates dynamically representations that are computed in a distributed network of regions, (...) This shared brain mechanism may reflect common origins of the human specializations for complex tool use and language.

    1. Between Brains, Bodies And Things: Tectonoetic Awareness And The Extended Self, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: This paper presents the possible outline of a framework that will enable the incorporation of material culture into the study of the human self. To this end, I introduce the notions of extended self and tectonoetic awareness. Focusing on the complex interactions between brains, bodies and things and drawing a number of different and usually unconnected threads of evidence from archaeology, philosophy and neuroscience together, I present a view of selfhood as an extended and distributed phenomenon that is enacted across the skin barrier and which thus comprises both neural and extra-neural resources. (...)

  4. Distributed Robustness in Cellular Networks: Insights from Synthetic Evolved Circuits, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Evolved natural systems are known to display some sort of distributed robustness against the loss of individual components. Such type of robustness is not just the result of redundancy. Instead, it seems to be based on degeneracy, i. e., the ability of elements that are structurally different to perform the same function or yield the same output. Here we explore the problem of how relevant is degeneracy in evolved digital systems, and what types of network structures underlie the resilience of evolved designs to the removal or loss of a given unit. It is shown that fault tolerant circuits are obtained only if robustness arises in a distributed manner. No such reliable systems are reached just by means of just redundant organization, thus suggesting that reliable designs are necessarily tied to degeneracy.

    1. Spontaneous Coordinated Activity in Cultured Networks: Analysis of Multiple Ignition Sites, Primary Circuits, and Burst Phase Delay Distributions, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: All higher order central nervous systems exhibit spontaneous neural activity, though the purpose and mechanistic origin of such activity remains poorly understood. We quantitatively analyzed the ignition and spread of collective spontaneous electrophysiological activity in networks of cultured cortical neurons growing on microelectrode arrays. Leader neurons, which form a mono-synaptically connected primary circuit, and initiate a majority of network bursts were found to be a small subset of recorded neurons. Leader/follower firing delay times formed temporally stable positively skewed distributions. Blocking inhibitory synapses usually resulted in shorter delay times with reduced variance. These distributions are characterizations of general aspects of internal network dynamics and provide estimates of pair-wise synaptic distances. The resulting analysis produced specific quantitative constraints and insights into the activation patterns of collective neuronal activity in self-organized cortical networks, which may prove useful for models emulating spontaneously active systems.

    2. To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Web companies are, in effect, taking the trail of crumbs people leave behind as they move around the Internet, and then analyzing them to anticipate people's next steps. So anybody who searches for information on such disparate topics as iron supplements, airlines, hotels and soft drinks may see ads for those products and services later on.

      Consumers have not complained to any great extent about data collection online. But privacy experts say that is because the collection is invisible to them.

    3. Web Mashups Made Easy, Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Software being developed at Intel makes it easy for people with no programming experience to combine data from different Web pages. (...)

      A new research project from Intel Research, in Berkeley, CA, is trying to take some of the mystery out of crafting a mashup. Called Mash Maker, the project aims to let people use their ordinary Web browsers to combine information from different sites. If, for example, you are looking at apartments on Craigslist, you can easily add information about nearby restaurants from Yelp, a recommendation site, essentially augmenting the data on the Craigslist page.

  5. Social Networking Moves to the Cellphone, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Most mobile social networks seek to capitalize on location information. The SpaceMe service from GyPSii, for instance, will show users where friends and other members are in real time.

    A GyPSii search will show users a map of their environs dotted with photos, videos and information from other members.

    Bliin, another network that started in Amsterdam, lets users update and post their whereabouts every 15 seconds.

  6. Riff Riders: Brain Scans Tune In To Jazz Improvisers, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: It would come as no surprise to the late saxophonist and improvisational master John Coltrane, but when accomplished jazz musicians play free-form, their brain activity suggests a release of self-expression from conscious monitoring and self-censorship.

    Such neural activity may lie at the heart of musical improvisation and perhaps other improvisational feats, (...).

    "What we think is happening is that when you're telling your own musical story, you're shutting down neural impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas," (...).

  7. Brain Enhancement Is Wrong, Right?, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Luci Gutiérrez
    (...) colleagues had admitted to regular use of prescription drugs like Adderall, a stimulant, and Provigil, which promotes wakefulness, to improve their academic performance. The former is approved to treat attention deficit disorder, the latter narcolepsy, and both are considered more effective, and more widely available, than the drugs circulating in dorms a generation ago. (...)

    "Suppose you're preparing for the SAT, or going for a job interview - in those situations where you have to perform on that day, these drugs will be very attractive," (...). "The desire for cognitive enhancement is very strong, maybe stronger than for beauty, or athletic ability."

    1. A Complex In Psychosis, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The molecular basis of psychoses such as schizophrenia remains largely mysterious. The interaction between two of the brain receptors involved adds to evidence that will help in the search for explanations. (...)

      Gonz?lez-Maeso and colleagues provide a new concept ¡X that direct physical coupling of two receptors mediates complex pharmacological and behavioural responses. (...)

      Finally, the new results may provoke a reassessment of the effects of hallucinogens as useful models of the brain disturbances that characterize schizophrenia.

    2. Short-Term Stress Can Affect Learning And Memory, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with learning and memory, University of California, Irvine researchers have found.
      identified a novel process by which stress caused these effects. They found that rather than involving the widely known stress hormone cortisol, which circulates throughout the body, acute stress activated selective molecules called corticotropin releasing hormones, which disrupted the process by which the brain collects and stores memories.

      Learning and memory take place at synapses, which are junctions through which brain cells communicate. These synapses reside on specialized branchlike protrusions on neurons called dendritic spines.

  8. Researchers Discover The Structural Alphabet Of RNA, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A team of bioinformaticians at the Universit? de Montr?al (UdeM) report in the March 6th edition of Nature the discovery of a structural alphabet that can be used to infer the 3D structure of ribonucleic acid (RNA) from sequence data, providing new tools to understand the role of this important class of cellular regulators.

    The folding of a single-stranded RNA molecule is determined by the interactions between its constituent nucleotides. The classical approach to RNA modelling suffers from an important limitation: it only takes into account the canonical Watson-Crick interactions A:U and G:C, that is those where the nucleotides are facing each other.

  9. Nanotech Puts Cancer In The Cross Hairs, Forbes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Cancer researchers believe that further engineering the shape or surface properties of nanoparticles can enable the particles to actively target tumors, and thereby maximize their diagnostic or therapeutic function at the cancer site, while minimizing collateral damage to healthy tissue. The targeting mechanism can be something as simple as folic acid, which binds selectively to folate receptors common to ovarian, breast, lung and colon cancers. (...)

    An active gene produces a specific protein, but when the body has enough of that protein, the gene releases an inhibitor to stop production. Cancer cells, by their very nature, confuse or even reverse this process. So the idea behind RNAi therapies is to deliver the chemical signals that throw the switch for production of selective proteins.

    1. An Oncogene-Induced DNA Damage Model for Cancer Development, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Of all types of DNA damage, DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) pose the greatest challenge to cells. One might have, therefore, anticipated that a sizable number of DNA DSBs would be incompatible with cell proliferation. Yet recent experimental findings suggest that, in both precancerous lesions and cancers, activated oncogenes induce stalling and collapse of DNA replication forks, which in turn leads to formation of DNA DSBs. This continuous formation of DNA DSBs may contribute to the genomic instability that characterizes the vast majority of human cancers.

  10. Signal Transduction: Sweet Conundrum, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: High blood glucose concentration causes a transcription factor to be modified with a sugar moiety, triggering the liver to produce yet more glucose. (...)

    Simple substrates such as glucose and amino acids not only supply energy for growth and biological functions, they also convey information, alerting the organism to the nutritional state of the cellular environment. Thus, glucose not only provides potential energy for generating adenosine 5¡¬-triphosphate in unicellular organisms, but also instructs them to repress the synthesis of enzymes that metabolize alternative substrates.

    1. Keeping It Regular With Protons, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Muscle coordination is mostly governed by motor programs built into the nervous system. But one program - the defecation cycle in a worm - has a mechanism that avoids nerves completely and uses protons as signals.

  11. Mind Reading with Functional MRI Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Credit: Technology Review
    Scientists can accurately predict which of a thousand pictures a person is looking at by analyzing brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The approach should shed light on how the brain processes visual information, and it might one day be used to reconstruct dreams.

    "[The research] suggests that fMRI-based measurements of brain activity contain much more information about underlying neural processes than has previously been appreciated," (...).

  12. Genomics: Fungal Symbiosis Unearthed, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Associations between plant roots and fungi are a feature of many terrestrial ecosystems. The genome sequence of a prominent fungal partner opens new avenues for studying such mycorrhizal interactions.

  13. 3-D Modeling Advance, Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Immersive photos: This 3-D model of the Trevi Fountain in Rome (above) was created using Make3D, a Web service that reconstructs a single photo into a 3-D visualization. Credit: Jeff/Stanford University
    (...) Web service called Make3D that lets users turn a single two-dimensional image of an outdoor scene into an immersive 3-D model. (...)

    To convert the still images into 3-D visualizations, Andrew Ng, (...), developed a machine-learning algorithm that associates visual cues, such as color, texture, and size, with certain depth values based on what they have learned from studying two-dimensional photos paired with 3-D data. For example, says Ng, grass has a distinctive texture that makes it look very different close up than it does from far away. The algorithm learns that the progressive change in texture gives clues to the distance of a patch of grass.

    1. Predictive Information and Explorative Behavior of Autonomous Robots, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Measures of complexity are of immediate interest for the field of autonomous robots both as a means to classify the behavior and as an objective function for the autonomous development of robot behavior. In the present paper we consider predictive information in sensor space as a measure for the behavioral complexity of a two-wheel embodied robot moving in a rectangular arena with several obstacles. The mutual information (MI) between past and future sensor values is found empirically to have a maximum for a behavior which is both explorative and sensitive to the environment. This makes predictive information a prospective candidate as an objective function for the autonomous development of such behaviors. We derive theoretical expressions for the MI in order to obtain an explicit update rule for the gradient ascent dynamics. Interestingly, in the case of a linear or linearized model of the sensorimotor dynamics the structure of the learning rule derived depends only on the dynamical properties while the value of the MI influences only the learning rate. In this way the problem of the prohibitively large sampling times for information theoretic measures can be circumvented. This result can be generalized and may help to derive explicit learning rules from complexity theoretic measures.

    2. How Does Your Quasicrystal Grow?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Somewhere between the amorphous glasses and the rigidly regimented periodic crystals lie the quasicrystals: ordered, predictable, yet non-periodic arrangements of atoms. How do these strange structures form?

      Such investigations could provide a new understanding of why quasicrystals form, and make it possible to grow even more highly perfect quasicrystalline solids, as well as quasicrystalline colloids and more general self-assembled heterostructures. Intriguing as such studies are on a fundamental level, there is also a strong practical interest in understanding these materials: quasicrystalline solids are stronger and less deformable than normal crystals made of similar elements, and the photonic bandgap structure in some quasi- crystal dielectric heterostructures might make them immensely valuable in circuits that won the basis not of electrons, but of light.

    3. Quantum Physics: Tangled Memories, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The latest quantum trick - mapping two entangled photon states onto two separate regions of an atomic cloud, and then retrieving them - could be a fillip for applications, among them quantum cryptography. (...)

      That would allow the controlled entanglement of two distant atomic samples - a step that might be of great importance for the practical implementation of quantum protocols to generate secure keys for the transfer of information over public networks.

  14. Levitating Joystick Improves Computer Feedback, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The maglev interface can exert enough force to make objects feel reassuringly solid, says Hollis, resisting as much as 40 newtons of force before it shifts even a millimetre.

    That's enough to feel the same as a hard surface and better than most existing interfaces, he says. "Current devices feel very mushy, so it's hard to simulate a hard surface."

    The device can track movements of the bar as small as two microns, a fiftieth the width of a human hair. "That's important for feeling very subtle effects of friction and texture," says Hollis.

  15. A World Without Trucks, Low-tech Magazine Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    If water, sewage, gas and oil can be transported through underground pipelines, why not consumer goods as well?
    Trucks are an important cause of noise and air pollution, they bring about severe traffic accidents, they consume a lot of fuel and they demand a lot of space. An automated, underground transport system erases all these problems. Thanks to the automated control, the low speed and the higher efficiency of the electric drive, the energy consumption of the system is much lower than that of any other form of transport. Moreover, harmful batteries are not needed since the vehicles receive electricity from the rails.

    1. Notes On The Theorizing Of Global Environmental Politics, Global Env. Politics Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Although global environmental politics (GEP), like other areas of international relations, should be theorized, no single unified theory of GEP is in the offing, nor should be. Nevertheless, assuming that the ultimate societal goal is ecological and social sustainability, at least three elements are necessary in that theorizing: starting points, metaphors, and normative content. The primary starting points for GEP include concern for irreversible diminution of the earth's life support systems, the consequences of ever-increasing throughput of material and energy, and the injustices of uneven distribution. (...)

    2. Oceanography: Red Tide Rising, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Algal blooms can make life miserable for coastal dwellers and wreak havoc on marine ecosystems. Mark Schrope reports on Florida's efforts to predict these red tides.(...)

      Red tides occur around the world, from Europe to New Zealand, and are caused by blooms of similar algal species. Karenia brevis is, however, a particularly nasty one; its outbreaks have afflicted the coast of Florida since as far back as the 1500s, and now do so almost every year to varying degrees.

  16. Visualizing Complex Pigment Mixtures In Living Cells, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: In a technical advance that could allow researchers to watch cells as they act during the process of photosynthesis, scientists have developed a method that extends the power of fluorescence-mediated bio-imaging to see discrete pigments inside live cells of bacteria. The method is providing fresh insights into what happens on a molecular level during photosynthesis. It also promises to provide important information about the inner workings of cells as they engage in the photosynthesis process of collecting sunlight and turning it into chemical energy. Such information could be valuable in helping researchers fine tune the bacteria for specific purposes, said (...).

  17. Language Of A Fly Proves Surprising, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Under complex flight scenarios, the fly's neurons fired very quickly. The researchers looked at the firing patterns and mapped them with a binary code of ones and zeroes, much like computer instructions, or binary messages in digital phone communications.

    The team found that the impulses were like a primitive, but very regular "language" with the neuron firing at precise times depending on what the fly's visual sensors were trying to tell the rest of the fly about the visual stimulus. When they examined this language, it spoke volumes about how the harnessed fly reacted to its world.

  18. Age and Evolution of the Grand Canyon Revealed by U-Pb Dating of Water Table-Type Speleothems, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The age and evolution of the Grand Canyon have been subjects of great interest and debate since its discovery. We found that cave mammillaries (water table indicator speleothems) from nine sites in the Grand Canyon showed uranium-lead dating evidence for an old western Grand Canyon on the assumption that groundwater table decline rates are equivalent to incision rates. Samples in the western Grand Canyon yielded apparent water table decline rates of 55 to 123 meters per million years over the past 17 million years, in contrast to eastern Grand Canyon samples that yielded much faster rates (166 to 411 meters per million years).

    1. Earth's Rotation May Account For Wayward Spacecraft, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      NASA's NEAR spacecraft received a larger boost from Earth's gravity when it flew by in 1998 than expected, an anomaly also seen with other spacecraft that has yet to be explained (Illustration: NASA)
      The flyby boosted Galileo's speed by several kilometres per second, as expected, but radio tracking of the spacecraft found the boost was very slightly larger than expected, by about 4 millimetres per second. (...)

      (...) the formula suggests some sort of connection to Earth's rotation. (...)

      One possibility that the team investigated comes from Einstein's general theory of relativity, which predicts that spinning objects distort the fabric of space around them. This effect could in principle influence the trajectory of objects near a spinning body like Earth, but the team's calculations show it would be far too weak an influence to explain the flyby anomalies.

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

    1. US Seeks Terrorists In Web Worlds, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Experts say terror groups are unlikely to use games such as World of Warcraft
      The US government has begun a project to develop ways to spot terrorists who are using virtual worlds.

      Codenamed Reynard it aims to recognise "normal" behaviour in online worlds and home in on anomalous activity.

      It is likely to develop tools and techniques for intelligence officers who are hunting terrorists and terror groups on the net or in virtual worlds.

      The project was welcomed by experts tracking terror groups using the net to organise or carry out attacks.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Identification of Functional Information Subgraphs in Complex Networks, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Vadas Gintautas, and Michael I. Ham, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 08-01-003
      2. On the Generative Nature of Prediction, Wolfgang Löhr and Nihat Ay, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 08-02-004
      3. Diversity Emerging: From Competitive Exclusion to Neutral Coexistence in Ecosystems, Juan E. Keymer, Miguel A. Fuentes, and Pablo A. Marquet, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 08-03-008
      4. A Refinement of the Common Cause Principle, Nihat Ay, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 08-01-001
      5. Things To Think With: Words And Objects As Material Symbols, A. Roepstorff, 2008/02/25, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0015
      6. FBI Admits To Internet Spying: Agency Repeatedly Broke Its Own Rules, Says Mueller, I. Thomson, 2008/03/07, vnunet.com
      7. Physics Breakthrough Much Ado About 'Nothing': University Of Calgary Team Enhances Understanding Of The Universe By Capturing Unique Form Of Void, 2008/03/07, Innovations-report
      8. TV Scheduling In America Has Overshadowed Natural Circadian Rhythms, 2008/03/07, ScienceDaily & University of Chicago Press Journals
      9. Your Brain On Krispy Kremes: How Hunger Motivates, 2008/03/08, ScienceDaily & Northwestern University
      10. Mystery Behind The Strongest Creature In The World, 2008/03/11, Innovations-report
      11. A Topological Approach To Cultural Dynamics, 2008/03/11, Innovations-report
      12. Brain Network Linked To Contemplation In Adults Is Less Complex In Children, 2008/03/11, ScienceDaily & Washington University School of Medicine.
      13. Is Culture Inherited Through Social Learning?, K. Reisman - kenapluribo.com, Summer 2007, Online 2008/02/11, Biological Theory, DOI: 10.1162/biot.2007.2.3.300
      14. A Darwinian Theory Of Cultural Evolution Can Promote An Evolutionary Synthesis For The Social Sciences, A. Mesoudi - am786acam.ac.uk, Summer 2007, Online 2008/02/11, Biological Theory, DOI: 10.1162/biot.2007.2.3.263
      15. The Transition To Experiencing: II. The Evolution Of Associative Learning Based On Feelings, S. Ginsburg - simonaaopenu.ac.il, E. Jablonka - jablonkaapost.tau.ac.il, Summer 2007, Online 2008/02/11, Biological Theory, DOI: 10.1162/biot.2007.2.3.231

    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, 08/01/22-27
      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. The 3rd Intl Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15
      2. 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28
      3. 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28
      4. Nexus for Change II, Bowling Green, OH, 08/03/29-04/01
      5. 2nd Applied Neuroscience Meeting, Monterrey, Mexico, 08/04/03-06
      6. Fumee 1 - 1St Futures Meeting - Understanding Anticipatory Systems, Rovereto (Italy), 08/04/10-12
      7. 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12
      8. Emergence In The Physical And Biological World: A Notion In Search Of Clarification, Erice (Italy), 08/04/12-16
      9. BIO_IT World Conf & Expo, Boston, MA, 08/04/28/30
      10. Chaos And Dynamics In Biological Networks, Cargese, Corsica, France, 08/05/05-09
      11. Brittle Fracture and Plastic Slip: from the Atomistic to the Engineering Scale, Udine, Italy, 08/05/26-30
      12. CHAOS2008 Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference, Chania, Crete, Greece, 08/06/03-06
      13. International Conference on Chaos, Complexity & Conflict, Omaha, NE, 08/06/05-07
      14. 4th Organization Studies Summer Workshop: "Embracing Complexity: Advancing Ecological Understanding in Organization Studies", Pissouri, Cyprus, 08/06/05-07
      15. Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Tenth Annual... Applying Systems Biology, San Francisco, CA, 08/06/09-11
      16. AUTOMATA 2008, EPSRC Workshop Cellular Automata Theory and Applications, Bristol, UK, 08/06/12-14
      17. 9th Intl Mathematica Symposium, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 08/06/20-24
      18. The 14th Intl Conf on Auditory Display (ICAD), Paris, France, 08/06/24-27
      19. 7th Intl Summer School and Conf "Let's Face Chaos through Nonlinear Dynamics", Maribor, Slovenia, 08/06/29-07/13
      20. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      21. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      22. Complex Systems and Social Simulations, CEU Summer University, Budapest, Hungary, 08/07/07-18
      23. 2008 Gordon Research Conf on Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems, Waterville, ME, 08/07/13-18
      24. Nonlinear Fracture Mechanics Models, Udine, Italy, 08/07/14-18
      25. Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21
      26. 1st Intl Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Synchronization (INDS'08), Klagenfurt, Austria, 08/07/18-19
      27. Scratch@MIT,Cambridge, MA, 08/07/24-26
      28. 8th Intl Conf on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems, Brighton, UK, 08/07/31-08/02
      29. Intl Conf DEscribing COmplex Systems (DECOS), Zadar, Croatia, 08/09/03-07

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. 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


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