Complexity Digest 2008.49

04-Dec-2008

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Content

  1. Science Goes Hollywood: NAS Links With Entertainment Industry, Science
  2. Standing in Someone Else's Shoes, Almost for Real, NY Times
  3. Car Industry: Charging Up The Future, Nature
  4. Chain Of Firms' Bankruptcy: A Macroscopic Study Of Link Effect In A Production Network, Adv. Complex Sys.
    1. Econophysics And Economic Complexity, Adv. Complex Sys.
  5. Adult Brain Neurons Can Remodel Connections, ScienceDaily
  6. Diversity Sustains An Evolving Network, Interface
  7. Molecule Shuts Down Food Intake And Turns On 'Siesta Mode', Innovations-report
  8. Stem Cell Bioprocessing: Fundamentals And Principles, Interface
  9. Organic Chemistry: Short Cuts To Complexity, Nature
  10. Biochemistry: Controlled Chaos, Science
  11. Molecular Biology: The Bloom's Complex Mousetrap, Nature
  12. A Fast, Robust And Tunable Synthetic Gene Oscillator, Nature
  13. Protein Found To Set The Heart's Cadence, Science News
  14. Social Amoeba Seek Kin Association, ScienceDaily
    1. New Research Sheds Light On Fly Sleep Circuit, Innovations-report
    2. Electrifying Love: Electric Fish Use Species-Specific Discharge For Mate Recognition, Biol. Lett.
  15. North Atlantic Cold-Water Sink Returns To Life, Nature News
  16. Distant World Sports Gassy Signature Of Habitability, Nature
  17. Earth Science: On The Evolution Of Minerals, Nature
  18. Particle Physics: Mass By Numbers, Nature
    1. Physics: Reflections on a Wall of Light, Science
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Nuclear, Biological Terror Attack 'Likely': US Commission, AFP
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Science Goes Hollywood: NAS Links With Entertainment Industry, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The National Academy of Sciences has launched a collaboration called the Science & Entertainment Exchange that it hopes will "be a service to all of Hollywood" by connecting scientific authorities to the people who produce, write, direct, and animate films and TV shows.
    Editor's Note: More and more kids perceive the world increasingly through movies and video games. To connect back to the real world it is important to convey the information where physical laws end and the domain of phantasy begins.

  2. Standing in Someone Else's Shoes, Almost for Real, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: From the outside, psychotherapy can look like an exercise in self-absorption. In fact, though, therapists often work to pull people out of themselves: to see their behavior from the perspective of a loved one, for example, or to observe their own thinking habits from a neutral distance.

    (...) creating a "body swapping" illusion that could have a profound effect on a range of therapeutic techniques. At the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience last month, Swedish researchers presented evidence that the brain, when tricked by optical and sensory illusions, can quickly adopt any other human form, no matter how different, as its own.

  3. Car Industry: Charging Up The Future, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A new generation of lithium-ion batteries, coupled with rising oil prices and the need to address climate change, has sparked a global race to electrify transportation. (...)

    Dolezalek has been watching the global automobile sector embrace the idea of plug-in electric cars: "In three years we've gone from thinking 'it can't be done' to not only 'it can be done' but 'we are all going to do it.'"

  4. Chain Of Firms' Bankruptcy: A Macroscopic Study Of Link Effect In A Production Network, Adv. Complex Sys. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: A link in a supplier-customer network is usually a creditor-debtor relationship. If a firm goes into a state of financial insolvency or bankruptcy, then firms on its upstream are affected secondarily along the links. By using 10-year data from recent data on bankruptcy in Japan, we show that this "link effect" is by no means negligible in a nationwide economy. While the total debt of bankruptcy typically amounts to as much as a few percent of GDP in Japan, nearly 20% of all bankruptcies are due to the link effect. Interestingly, we find that such a link effect becomes comparable with other causes (...).

    1. Econophysics And Economic Complexity, Adv. Complex Sys. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: This paper discusses the debate between those advocating a computational and those advocating a dynamic definition of complexity, and how this relates to issues in econophysics. It then reviews the criticisms that have been raised about ways in which econophysics has been done, noting that many of these are now being dealt with. Finally, it argues that while an obvious way to resolve many of these matters is to have economists and physicists work together, the physicists should be sure to work with economists who understand the complexity critique of conventional economic theory and are thus not led astray into building models (...).

  5. Adult Brain Neurons Can Remodel Connections, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Overturning a century of prevailing thought, scientists are finding that neurons in the adult brain can remodel their connections. (...) found that a type of neuron implicated in autism spectrum disorders remodels itself in a strip of brain tissue only as thick as four sheets of tissue paper at the upper border of cortical layer 2. (...) "Our goal is to extract clues regarding the contribution of structural remodeling to long-term adult brain plasticity - the brain's ability to change in response to input from the environment - and what allows or limits this plasticity." (...)

  6. Diversity Sustains An Evolving Network, Interface Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: We study an evolutionary model of a complex system that evolves under catalytic dynamics and Darwinian selection and exhibits spontaneous growth, stasis and then a collapse of its structure. We find that the typical lifetime of the system increases sharply with the diversity of its components or species. We also find that the prime reason for crashes is a naturally occurring internal fragility of the system. This fragility is captured in the network organizational character (...). (...) This work suggests new parameters for understanding the robustness of evolving molecular networks, ecosystems, societies and markets.

  7. Molecule Shuts Down Food Intake And Turns On 'Siesta Mode', Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Researchers have identified a molecule that tells your brain your stomach is full - signaling that it's time to say no to a second piece of pumpkin pie and push back from the Thanksgiving table. In studies with mice and rats, researchers have found that a chemical messenger called NAPE is made in the small intestine after the animals ate a greasy meal. After eating, NAPE - N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine, a mouthful in itself -- enters the blood and travels to the brain, where it quashes hunger signals. Rats treated with extra NAPE for five days ate less and lost weight, hinting (...) appetite suppressants or obesity drugs. (...)

  8. Stem Cell Bioprocessing: Fundamentals And Principles, Interface Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In recent years, the potential of stem cell research for tissue engineering-based therapies and regenerative medicine clinical applications has become well established. In 2006, Chung pioneered the first entire organ transplant using adult stem cells (...) seven patients with myelomeningocele receiving stem cell-derived bladder transplants resulting in substantial improvements in their quality of life. While a bladder is a relatively simple organ, the breakthrough highlights the incredible benefits that can be gained from the cross-disciplinary nature of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) that encompasses stem cell research and stem cell bioprocessing. (...) This review aims to address the principles required for successful stem cell bioprocessing (...).
    • Source: Stem Cell Bioprocessing: Fundamentals And Principles, M. R. Placzek, I-M. Chung, H. M. Macedo, S. Ismail, T. M. Blanco, M. Lim, J. M. Cha, I. Fauzi, Y. Kang, D. C.L. Yeo, C. Y. Joan Ma, J. M. Polak, N. Panoskaltsis, A. Mantalaris, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2008.0442, Interface, 2008/11/25
    • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

  9. Organic Chemistry: Short Cuts To Complexity, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Nature produces an almost infinite number of structurally complex organic compounds that have fascinating - and potentially useful - biological properties. This has inspired generations of synthetic chemists to make not only the naturally occurring compounds, but also structurally modified analogues that have tailored properties and functions. Marine organisms are a particularly rich source of natural products, but so far only one such class of compound has entered clinical trials: bryostatins, which have anticancer activity in vivo. (...)

    Bryostatin 16 has been prepared in a remarkably short synthesis by Trost and Dong.

  10. Biochemistry: Controlled Chaos, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The cornerstone of modern protein structural biology is the sequence-structure-function paradigm, according to which a protein's function depends on its folding into a unique three-dimensional structure. Thus, proteins are traditionally viewed as rigid or semi-rigid "blocks," whose specificity and catalytic power are determined by the unique fit of a correct substrate onto the preformed and sturdy surface of the enzyme's active site (1). But the discovery of proteins that are wholly disordered or contain lengthy disordered segments, yet are functional (2-6), has wreaked havoc on the lock-and-key world view that demands highly organized proteins.

  11. Molecular Biology: The Bloom's Complex Mousetrap, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Genomic instability often underlies cancer. Analyses of proteins implicated in a cancer-predisposing condition called Bloom's syndrome illustrate the intricacies of protein interactions that ensure genomic stability.

  12. A Fast, Robust And Tunable Synthetic Gene Oscillator, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: One defining goal of synthetic biology is the development of engineering-based approaches that enable the construction of gene-regulatory networks according to 'design specifications' generated from computational modelling. This approach provides a systematic framework for exploring how a given regulatory network generates a particular phenotypic behaviour. Several fundamental gene circuits have been developed using this approach, including toggle switches and oscillators, and these have been applied in new contexts such as triggered biofilm development and cellular population control. Here we describe an engineered genetic oscillator in Escherichia coli that is fast, robust and persistent, with tunable oscillatory periods as fast as 13 min.

  13. Protein Found To Set The Heart's Cadence, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The protein PPARgamma also controls how the body uses glucose and lipids (...)

    The finding, (...), links the heart's daily clock with other metabolic functions of the body, helping to explain why sleep disturbances may lead to high blood pressure and diabetes.

    Heart rate and blood pressure rise and fall over the course of the day in a regular pattern, one of the body's best-known circadian rhythms. Blood pressure falls at night, rises sharply just before a person wakes up and then peaks about midmorning.

  14. Social Amoeba Seek Kin Association, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Starving "social amoebae" called Dictyostelium discoideum seek the support of "kin" when they form multi-cellular organisms made up of dead stalks and living spores, said researchers (...). "In fact, these single cells aggregate based on genetic similarity, not true kinship," said (...). However, it demonstrates a discrimination between "self" and "non-self" that is similar to that seen in the immune systems of higher organisms, he said. Dictyostelium discoideum begins as a single-celled organism. As long as these single cells have sufficient food and a pleasant environment, they are happy to remain that way. (...)"Cooperation is one of the success stories of the evolution of life," said (...).

    1. New Research Sheds Light On Fly Sleep Circuit, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In a novel study (...) researchers identify for the first time a specific set of wake-promoting neurons in fruit flies that are analogous to cells in the much more complex sleep circuit in humans. The study demonstrates that in flies, as in mammals, the sleep circuit is intimately linked to the circadian clock and that the brain's strategies to govern sleep are evolutionarily ancient. When it is time to wake up, the LNvs are believed to release a neuropeptide known as PDF, rousing the cells, and in turn, the flies. The cycle starts over again when GABA kicks in to quiet these neurons (...).

    2. Electrifying Love: Electric Fish Use Species-Specific Discharge For Mate Recognition, Biol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Mate choice is mediated by a range of sensory cues, and assortative mating based on these cues can drive reproductive isolation among diverging populations. A specific feature of mormyrid fish, the electric organ discharge (EOD), is used for electrolocation and intraspecific communication. (...) Our behavioural experiments using live males as well as EOD playback demonstrated that female mate recognition is influenced by EOD signals and that females are attracted to EOD characteristics of conspecific males. The dual function of the EOD for both foraging and social communication (including mate recognition leading to assortative mating) underlines the importance of electric signal differentiation (...).

  15. North Atlantic Cold-Water Sink Returns To Life, Nature News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Convective mixing resumes after a decade due to massive loss of Arctic ice. (...)

    Convective mixing, or 'overturning', of ocean waters at high latitudes helps to drive the Atlantic 'heat conveyor belt' that carries warm water northwards and cooler deep-water back south. The phenomenon also helps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - as cold water sinks, it carries dissolved CO2 with it, locking it away in the depths of the ocean for centuries. (...)


  16. Distant World Sports Gassy Signature Of Habitability, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Carbon dioxide has been spotted in the atmosphere of a gas-giant planet called HD 189733b, which orbits a star 63 light years from Earth.

    Along with water and methane, which have already been detected in the atmospheres of other extrasolar planets, the presence of carbon dioxide could give astronomers clues about whether a planet might support life.

  17. Earth Science: On The Evolution Of Minerals, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The variety of mineral species has increased since the birth of the Solar System and the development of terrestrial planets. A refreshing view likens the steady rise in mineral diversity to biological evolution.

    The 94 naturally occurring chemical elements can combine into an endless number of compounds. In nature, however, such compounds come as a few thousand mineral species, each with its own eclectic selection of atoms systematically organized in crystal lattices.

  18. Particle Physics: Mass By Numbers, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A highly precise calculation of the masses of strongly interacting particles, based on fundamental theory, is testament to the age-old verity that physical reality embodies simple mathematical laws. (...)

    So what value is added by using already-validated equations to compute already-measured hadron masses? (...)

    But perhaps a more profound answer is philosophical. A great vision of science - stretching from Pythagoras' credo "All things are number", to Kepler's ordering of the planets based on Platonic solids, to Wheeler's slogan "Its from bits" - has been that physical reality embodies ideally simple mathematical laws.

    1. Physics: Reflections on a Wall of Light, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Single-photon cooling of atoms offers a rare view of a real-life Maxwell's demon.

      Optical traps allow atoms to be cooled to ultralow temperatures, where the atoms can form exotic quantum states of matter. Studies to date have, however, been mostly confined to half a dozen or so atomic systems. The recently reported cooling of atoms (1) with a one-way wall of light (2, 3) now provides the opportunity to experiment with over 80% of the elements in the periodic table at temperatures of just a few microkelvin.

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

    1. Nuclear, Biological Terror Attack 'Likely': US Commission, AFP Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Terrorists are "likely" to use nuclear or biological weapons in the next five years, a US commission warned, highlighting Pakistan as the weakest link in world security.

      Without urgent action, "it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013," the bi-partisan commission said Tuesday in its report "World at Risk."

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Periodic Temperature-Associated Drought/Flood Drives Locust Plagues In China, Z. Zhang, B. Cazelles, H. Tian, L. C. Stige, A. Bräuning, N. C. Stenseth, 2008/11/18, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1284
      2. Want To Be Happier? Be More Grateful, 2008/11/27, ScienceDaily & Kent State University
      3. End Of The Road For 'Rip And Replace' IT: Businesses Looking At Making Better Use Of Existing Systems, I. Williams, 2008/11/28, vnunet.com
      4. How To Improve Email Communication: Developing Strategies To Mimic Face-To-Face Interactions, 2008/11/28, Innovations-report
      5. Using Invisibility To Increase Visibility, 2008/11/28, ScienceDaily & Institute of Physics
      6. Adaptive Investment Strategies For Periodic Environments, J. -E. N.-Barrientos - navarroainformatik.hu-berlin.de, Oct. 2008, Advances in Complex Systems, DOI: 10.1142/S0219525908001933
      7. Bushid Baseball? Three ‘Fathers’ And The Invention Of A Tradition, T. Blackwood - tsblackwoodagmail.com, Winter 2008, online 2008/09/19, Social Science Japan, DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyn032

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Can Ants Solve Traffic Jams?, Danielle Parsons, Slatev.com, 08/07/22

        As roads and highways become ever more clogged, Danielle Parsons tells us how researchers are studying ways to learn from nature's own traffic-flow experts: ants.

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

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI-08), Sydney, Australia, 08/12/09-12
      2. "Approaching Complexity" Workshop, IT Revolutions, Venice, 08/12/17-19
      3. NECSI Winter School, Cambridge, MA, 09/01/05-23
      4. COMPLEX'2009, First Intl Conf on Complex Systems: Theory and Applications, Shanghai, China, 09/02/23-25
      5. 3rd Biennial International Transdisciplinary Seminar on the Complexity Approach, Camaguey, Cuba. 09/02/23-27
      6. Models and Simulations 3 Conference, Charlottesville, USA 09/03/05-07
      7. 2nd Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-09.org), Arlington, Virginia, 09/03/06-09
      8. 2009 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, Nashville, Tennessee, USA,09/03/30-04/02
      9. 7th Annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, 09/04/27-29, Boston, MA
      10. 2nd Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference (CHAOS2009), Chania, Crete, Greece, 09/06/01-05 ==
      11. The 19th Annual Intl Conf Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences , Milwaukee, WI USA, 09/07/23-25
      12. 2009 Intl Conf of the System Dynamics Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 09/07/26-30
      13. 5th Intl Conf on Fractals and Dynamic Systems in Geoscience, Townsville, Australia, 09/08/13-14

    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

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