Complexity Digest 2008.47 20-Nov-2008 Archive: http://comdig.unam.mx "I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking, 2000 _________________________________________________________________ PDF files of our annual editions are available at www.comdig.de/AnnualEditions.html Aletter from Gottfried Mayer to our readers and friends is at http://www.comdig.de/GMLetter.html _________________________________________________________________ 01. The Innovative Brain, Nature 01.01. Why Do Intelligent People Live Longer?, Nature 02. The Two Cultures Of Wall Street, Nature 03. Science In The Meltdown, Nature 04. Associative Learning Of Social Value, Nature 05. Evolution: Vatican Science Conference Offers An Ambiguous Message, Science 05.01. Complex Systems And Mars Missions Help Understand How Life Began, Innovations-report 06. Does Biology Need An Organism Concept?, Biol. Rev. 07. A Female Homo erectus Pelvis from Gona, Ethiopia, Science 07.01. Anthropology: The Birth Of Childhood, Science 08. Behavior: A Biolinguistic Agenda, Science 08.01. Recognition Of Other Species' Aerial Alarm Calls: Speaking The Same Language Or Learning Another?, Proc. Biol. Sc. 09. Certain Types Of Thinking Are Best Suited To Certain Types Of Problem-solving, ScienceDaily 10. Fish Choose Their Leaders By Consensus, ScienceDaily 11. The Interaction Between Predation And Competition, Nature 12. Farming And Chemical Warfare: A Day In The Life Of An Ant?, Innovations-report 13. Global Change And Species Interactions In Terrestrial Ecosystems, Ecol. Lett. 14. Complex Seasonal Patterns Of Primary Producers At The Land–Sea Interface, Ecol. Lett. 15. Meteorology: Prediction With Plants, Nature 16. Neuroscience: Cool Songs, Nature 17. How Our Senses Combine To Give Us A Better View Of The World, ScienceDaily 18. Ion Channels: The Voltage-Sensor Quartet, Nature 19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks 19.01. How the Al Qaeda Terrorism Threat is Mutating, U.S. News & World Report 20. Links & Snippets 20.01. Other Publications 20.02. Webcast Announcements 20.03. Conference Announcements 20.04. Other Announcements _________________________________________________________________ 01. The Innovative Brain , Nature Excerpts: The creativity and innovation shown by entrepreneurs is a crucial source of employment and economic growth. Although there is potential for considerable profit in making the decision to 'go it alone', rather than working for an existing company, these individuals accept considerable risk. Many new ventures fail, with possible consequences for finances, reputation, self-esteem and even family stability. Psychological and biomedical research has traditionally considered risk-taking an abnormal expression of behaviour, as exemplified by its association with substance abuse and bipolar mania. We propose that entrepreneurs represent an example of highly adaptive risk-taking behaviour, with positive functional outcomes in the context of stressful economic decision-making. This 'functional impulsivity' may have evolutionary value as a means of seizing opportunities in a rapidly changing environment. Here, we present preliminary neurocognitive data from matched groups of entrepreneurs and managerial controls, which highlight the potential of this approach to examine advantageous risk-taking. * The Innovative Brain, Andrew Lawrence , Luke Clark , Jamie Nicole Labuzetta , Barbara Sahakian , Shai Vyakarnum , 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/456168a, Nature 456, 168-169 _________________________________________________________________ 01.01. Why Do Intelligent People Live Longer? , Nature Excerpts: Ten years ago, on 16 October 1998, I presented findings that people from Aberdeen with higher childhood IQs - measured at age 11 in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 - were significantly more likely to survive to age 76. (...) More thumping confirmatory studies of the link between intelligence and mortality have appeared since our first work. One of these contains nearly a million Swedish men tested at around age 19 during military induction and followed for almost 20 years. It shows a clear association: as intelligence test scores go up the scale, so too does the likelihood of survival over those two decades. * Why Do Intelligent People Live Longer?, Ian Deary , 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/456175a, Nature 456, 175-176 _________________________________________________________________ 02. The Two Cultures Of Wall Street , Nature Excerpts: Bernstein misses an important point: economists and physicists traditionally approach the problem of risk control in different ways. Risk control is the art of determining the likelihood of large and unexpected price changes happening in the future. It is well known that extremely large changes, and financial crashes in particular, are more frequent than would be expected from a 'normal' statistical distribution. Physicists tend to favour a 'power law' mathematical description to model the heavy tails of these distributions, giving a pessimistic view of the likelihood of large price movements. * The Two Cultures Of Wall Street, J. Doyne Farmer , 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/456173a, Nature 456, 173-174 _________________________________________________________________ 03. Science In The Meltdown , Nature Excerpts: The global economic downturn that helped precipitate the crash, and will be duly amplified by it, is widely expected to be the worst in a generation, at least. The effect this will have on the research enterprise will depend crucially on how the world's governments respond to the crisis — on what stimulus they think is necessary, and on what long-term commitments they may be willing to cut to deal with present pain (see page 141). Whatever those responses, there are likely to be adverse consequences for many research undertakings, from university departments to corporate laboratories. The cost of capital, and the timescales of return expected on investment, will change the outlook for industry. Changed economic expectations may have an impact on the way investments in education are seen. In this special report, Nature looks at the current impacts and future trends in academia, industry and government — and at the particular problems and opportunities in energy research. * Science In The Meltdown, M. Mitchell Waldrop , 08/11/12, DOI: 10.1038/456155a, Nature 456, 155-159 _________________________________________________________________ 04. Associative Learning Of Social Value , Nature Excerpts: Social learning is widely held to be distinct from other forms of learning in its mechanism and neural implementation; it is often assumed to compete with simpler mechanisms, such as reward-based associative learning, to drive behaviour. Recently, neural signals have been observed during social exchange reminiscent of signals seen in studies of associative learning. Here we demonstrate that social information may be acquired using the same associative processes assumed to underlie reward-based learning. * Associative Learning Of Social Value, Timothy E. J. Behrens , Laurence T. Hunt , Mark W. Woolrich , Matthew F. S. Rushworth , 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/nature07538, Nature 456, 245-249 _________________________________________________________________ 05. Evolution: Vatican Science Conference Offers An Ambiguous Message , Science Excerpts: Scientists who hoped for a clear statement of support for evolution from the Catholic Church at a closed-door conference on evolutionary origins held at the Vatican last week went home empty-handed. Others, expecting little, were happy with a d?tente between science and faith. * Evolution: Vatican Science Conference Offers An Ambiguous Message, John Bohannon , 08/11/14, Science: 1038. _________________________________________________________________ 05.01. Complex Systems And Mars Missions Help Understand How Life Began , Innovations-report Excerpts: Understanding how life started remains a major challenge for science. At a European Science Foundation (ESF) and COST 'Frontiers of Science' conference in Sicily in October, scientists discussed two new approaches to the problem. The first applies complex systems theory to the chemistry that preceded early life. The second involves studying Mars, which may yield ample evidence about what Earth was like when life evolved. (...) described the new and emerging science of complex systems chemistry. The field takes the opposite approach from that of the genomics pioneer Craig Venter, who wants to build a minimal living cell. (...) * Complex Systems And Mars Missions Help Understand How Life Began, 2008/11/14, Innovations-report * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 06. Does Biology Need An Organism Concept? , Biol. Rev. Excerpts: Among biologists, there is no general agreement on exactly what entities qualify as 'organisms'. Instead, there are multiple competing organism concepts and definitions. While some authors think this is a problem that should be corrected, others have suggested that biology does not actually need an organism concept. We argue that the organism concept is central to biology and should not be abandoned. Both organism concepts and operational definitions are useful. We review criteria used for recognizing organisms and conclude that they are not categorical but rather continuously variable. (...) suggest that it may result from positive feedback between natural selection and functional integration in biological entities. * Does Biology Need An Organism Concept?, J. W. Pepper jpepper1@email.arizona.edu , M. D. Herron , Nov. 2008, Online 2008/10/20 ● Contributed by Pritha Das, DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2008.00057.x, Biological Reviews _________________________________________________________________ 07. A Female Homo erectus Pelvis from Gona, Ethiopia , Science Excerpts: Analyses of the KNM-WT 15000 Homo erectus juvenile male partial skeleton from Kenya concluded that this species had a tall thin body shape due to specialized locomotor and climatic adaptations. Moreover, it was concluded that H. erectus pelves were obstetrically restricted to birthing a small-brained altricial neonate. Here we describe a nearly complete early Pleistocene adult female H. erectus pelvis from the Busidima Formation of Gona, Afar, Ethiopia [0.9-1.4 Mio years ago, Ed.]. This obstetrically capacious pelvis demonstrates that pelvic shape in H. erectus was evolving in response to increasing fetal brain size. * A Female Homo erectus Pelvis from Gona, Ethiopia, Scott W. Simpson , Jay Quade , Naomi E. Levin , Robert Butler , Guillaume Dupont-Nivet , Melanie Everett , Sileshi Semaw , 08/11/14, Science : 1089-1092. _________________________________________________________________ 07.01. Anthropology: The Birth Of Childhood , Science Excerpts: By contrast, "chimpanzees don't have childhoods. They are independent soon after weaning," (...). Humans are also the only animals that stretch out the teenage years, having a final growth spurt and delaying reproduction until about 6 years after puberty. On average, women's first babies arrive at age 19, with a worldwide peak of first babies at age 22.5. This lengthy period of development--comprised of infancy, juvenile years, and adolescence--is a hallmark of the human condition; researchers have known since the 1930s that we take twice as long as chimpanzees to reach adulthood. Even though we are only a bit bigger than chimpanzees, we mature and reproduce a decade later and live 2 to 3 decades longer, says Bogin. * Anthropology: The Birth Of Childhood, Ann Gibbons , 08/11/14, Science : 1040-1043. _________________________________________________________________ 08. Behavior: A Biolinguistic Agenda , Science Excerpts: When we transform thoughts into speech, we do something that no other animal ever achieves. Children acquire this ability effortlessly and without being taught, as though discovering how to walk. Damage to specific areas of the brain that are critical to language shows the profound selectivity of cerebral organization, underlining the exquisite biological structure of language and its computational features. Recent advances bring new insights into the neurogenetic basis of language, its development, and evolution, but also reveal deep holes in our understanding. * Behavior: A Biolinguistic Agenda, Marc D. Hauser , Thomas Bever , 08/11/14, Science : 1057-1059. _________________________________________________________________ 08.01. Recognition Of Other Species' Aerial Alarm Calls: Speaking The Same Language Or Learning Another? , Proc. Biol. Sc. Excerpts: Alarm calls given by other species potentially provide a network of information about danger, but little is known about the role of acoustic similarity compared with learning in recognition of heterospecific calls. In particular, the aerial ‘hawk’ alarm calls of passerines provide a textbook example of signal design because many species have converged on a design that thwarts eavesdropping by hawks, and call similarity might therefore allow recognition. We measured the response of fairy-wrens (...). Overall, call similarity was neither sufficient nor necessary for interspecific recognition, implying learning is essential in the complex task of sifting the acoustic world for cues about danger. * Recognition Of Other Species' Aerial Alarm Calls: Speaking The Same Language Or Learning Another?, R. D. Magrath , B. J. Pitcher , J. L. Gardner , 2008/11/11, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1368, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 09. Certain Types Of Thinking Are Best Suited To Certain Types Of Problem-solving , ScienceDaily Excerpts: A new study (...) reveals that certain types of thinking are best suited to solving certain types of problems. Specifically, geometry problems are best solved by a combination of verbal and spatial strategies, but not shape-based imagery strategies. Researchers investigated whether middle school students solved geometry problems more successfully than their peers when they were provided with clues consistent with their own style of thinking. The cognitive styles that were identified and the related clues were verbal, spatial, and shape-based. They found that regardless of the type of clue provided, spatial and verbal thinking styles were useful for solving the geometry problems, (...). * Certain Types Of Thinking Are Best Suited To Certain Types Of Problem-solving, 2008/11/12, ScienceDaily & Wiley-Blackwell * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 10. Fish Choose Their Leaders By Consensus , ScienceDaily Excerpts: Just after Americans have headed to the polls to elect their next president, a new report (...) reveals how one species of fish picks its leaders: Most of the time they reach a consensus to go for the more attractive of two candidates. "It turned out that stickleback fish preferred to follow larger over smaller leaders," said Ashley Ward of Sydney University. "Not only that, but they also preferred fat over thin, healthy over ill, and so on. The part that really caught our eye was that these preferences grew as the group size increased, through some kind of positive social feedback mechanism." (...) * Fish Choose Their Leaders By Consensus, 2008/11/14, ScienceDaily & Cell Press * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 11. The Interaction Between Predation And Competition , Nature Excerpts: Competition and predation are the most heavily investigated species interactions in ecology, dominating studies of species diversity maintenance. However, these two interactions are most commonly viewed highly asymmetrically. Competition for resources is seen as the primary interaction limiting diversity, with predation modifying what competition does, although theoretical models have long supported diverse views. Here we show, using a comprehensive three-trophic-level model, that competition and predation should be viewed symmetrically: these two interactions are equally able to either limit or promote diversity. * The Interaction Between Predation And Competition, Peter Chesson , Jessica J. Kuang , 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/nature07248, Nature 456, 235-238 _________________________________________________________________ 12. Farming And Chemical Warfare: A Day In The Life Of An Ant? , Innovations-report Excerpts: One of the most important developments in human civilisation was the practice of sustainable agriculture. But we were not the first - ants have been doing it for over 50 million years. Just as farming helped humans become a dominant species, it has also helped leaf-cutter ants become dominant herbivores, and one of the most successful social insects in nature. According to an article (...) leaf-cutter ants have developed a system to try and keep their gardens pest-free; an impressive feat which has evaded even human agriculturalists. Leaf-cutter ants put their freshly-cut leaves in gardens where they grow a special fungus that they eat. (...) * Farming And Chemical Warfare: A Day In The Life Of An Ant?, 2008/11/17, Innovations-report * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 13. Global Change And Species Interactions In Terrestrial Ecosystems , Ecol. Lett. Excerpt: The main drivers of global environmental change (CO2 enrichment, nitrogen deposition, climate, biotic invasions and land use) cause extinctions and alter species distributions, and recent evidence shows that they exert pervasive impacts on various antagonistic and mutualistic interactions among species. In this review, we synthesize data from 688 published studies to show that these drivers often alter competitive interactions among plants and animals, exert multitrophic effects on the decomposer food web, increase intensity of pathogen infection, weaken mutualisms involving plants, and enhance herbivory while having variable effects on predation. A recurrent finding is that there is substantial variability among studies (...). * Global Change And Species Interactions In Terrestrial Ecosystems, J. M. Tylianakis jason.tylianakis@canterbury.ac.nz , R. K. Didham , J. Bascompte , D. A. Wardle , Dec. 2008, Online 2008/10/02 ● Contributed by Pritha Das, DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01250.x, Ecology Letters _________________________________________________________________ 14. Complex Seasonal Patterns Of Primary Producers At The Land–Sea Interface , Ecol. Lett. Excerpt: Seasonal fluctuations of plant biomass and photosynthesis are key features of the Earth system because they drive variability of atmospheric CO2, water and nutrient cycling, and food supply to consumers. There is no inventory of phytoplankton seasonal cycles in nearshore coastal ecosystems where forcings from ocean, land and atmosphere intersect. We compiled time series of phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a) from 114 estuaries, lagoons, inland seas, bays and shallow coastal waters around the world, and searched for seasonal patterns as common timing and amplitude of monthly variability. The data revealed a broad continuum of seasonal patterns, with large variability across and within ecosystems. (...) * Complex Seasonal Patterns Of Primary Producers At The Land–Sea Interface, J. E. Cloern jecloern@usgs.gov , A. D. Jassby , Dec. 2008, Online 2008/10/11 ● Contributed by Pritha Das, DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01244.x, Ecology Letters _________________________________________________________________ 15. Meteorology: Prediction With Plants , Nature Excerpts: Taking into account the vegetation growth - which has a strong influence on soil moisture - in the months preceding the northern and southern East Asian summer monsoons allowed them to improve the reliability of forecasts by a factor of two for the northern and three for the southern monsoon. * Meteorology: Prediction With Plants, 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/456144, Nature 456, 144 _________________________________________________________________ 16. Neuroscience: Cool Songs , Nature Excerpts: Cooling a specific cluster of neurons in songbirds' brains slows song tempo without changing other acoustic features. This clever technique could be used for understanding neural control of other complex behaviours. * Neuroscience: Cool Songs, Chris M. Glaze , Todd Troyer , 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/456187a, Nature 456, 187-188 _________________________________________________________________ 17. How Our Senses Combine To Give Us A Better View Of The World , ScienceDaily Excerpts: From a young age we are taught about the five senses and how they help us to explore our world. Although each sense seems to be its own entity, recent studies have indicated that there is actually a lot of overlap and blending of the senses occurring in the brain to help us better perceive our environment. (...) wanted to know if a feeling from an electrical stimulation of a body part (such as the leg) which normally would not be perceived, would be felt if it was simultaneously accompanied by a visual or auditory signal. The researchers studied this by applying slight electrical stimulation (...). * How Our Senses Combine To Give Us A Better View Of The World, 2008/11/14, ScienceDaily & Association for Psychological Science * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 18. Ion Channels: The Voltage-Sensor Quartet , Nature Excerpts: Decoding the workings of voltage-gated sodium channels is crucial because their mutation leads to severe disease and their activity is modulated by toxins and drugs. An innovative approach now allows such investigations. * Ion Channels: The Voltage-Sensor Quartet, J. R. Bankston , R. S. Kass , 08/11/13, DOI: 10.1038/456183a, Nature 456, 183-185 _________________________________________________________________ 19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks _________________________________________________________________ 19.01. How the Al Qaeda Terrorism Threat is Mutating , U.S. News & World Report Excerpts: Iraq may be turning a corner, but Osama bin Laden is still out there - and dangerous In a notable shift, Hayden portrayed the tribal areas as the focus of the counterterrorism efforts. In doing so, he appeared to break with President Bush, who as recently as last month was still calling Iraq the central front in the war against terrorism. Hayden said that the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq "is on the verge of strategic defeat." * How the Al Qaeda Terrorism Threat is Mutating, Alex Kingsbury , 08/11/16, U.S. News & World Report _________________________________________________________________ 20. Links & Snippets _________________________________________________________________ 20.01. Other Publications - Q&A: Richard Stallman, Founder Of The GNU Project And The Free Software Foundation, R. Marshall , 2008/11/14, vnunet.com - The Network Of Everything, 2008/11/17, Innovations-report - Putting A New Spin On Current Research, 2008/11/14, Innovations-report - Genome And Proteome Annotation: Organization, Interpretation And Integration, G. A. Reeves , D. Talavera , J. M. Thornton , 2008/11/11, Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2008.0341 - Violent Video Games Affect Boys' Biological Systems, Study Finds, 2008/11/14, ScienceDaily & Vetenskapsrådet - Mineral Kingdom Has Co-evolved With Life, Scientists Find, 2008/11/14, ScienceDaily & Carnegie Institution - From Food-Dependent Statistics To Metabolic Parameters, A Practical Guide To The Use Of Dynamic Energy Budget Theory, S. A. L. M. Kooijman bas@bio.vu.nl , T. Sousa , L. Pecquerie , J. van der Meer , T. Jager , Nov. 2008, Online 2008/10/24, Biological Reviews, DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2008.00053.x - Reconstruction of Zebrafish Early Embryonic Development by Scanned Light Sheet Microscopy, Philipp J. Keller , Annette D. Schmidt , Joachim Wittbrodt , Ernst H.K. Stelzer , 08/11/14, Science : 1065-1069. Digitized tracking of each cell during the first 24 hours of zebrafish development reveals how the body axis and germ layer are formed and provides a community resource., DOI: 10.1126/science.1162493 - Random Tiling and Topological Defects in a Two-Dimensional Molecular Network, Matthew O. Blunt , James C. Russell , Maria del Carmen Gimenez-Lopez , Juan P. Garrahan , Xiang Lin , Martin Schroeder , Neil R. Champness , Peter H. Beton , 08/11/14, Science : 1077-1081. An organic molecule absorbed on graphite forms networks that represent an intermediate state between crystalline ordering and amorphous packing. _________________________________________________________________ 20.02. Webcast Announcements 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. 7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02 Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007 World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 08/01/22-27 TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006 Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03 Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30 Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18 Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27 An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06 Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25 Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23 Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14 ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9 T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast 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 Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19 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 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7 From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20 Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28 International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21 Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994 CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998 Edge Videos _________________________________________________________________ 20.03. Conference Announcements 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI-08), Sydney, Australia, 08/12/09-12 "Approaching Complexity" Workshop, IT Revolutions, Venice, 08/12/17-19 COMPLEX'2009, First Intl Conf on Complex Systems: Theory and Applications, Shanghai, China, 09/02/23-25 3rd Biennial International Transdisciplinary Seminar on the Complexity Approach, Camaguey, Cuba. 09/02/23-27 Models and Simulations 3 Conference, Charlottesville, USA 09/03/05-07 2nd Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-09.org), Arlington, Virginia, 09/03/06-09 2009 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, Nashville, Tennessee, USA,09/03/30-04/02 2009 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CIBCB 2009) IEEE Workshop on Evolving and Self-Developing Intelligent Systems (ESDID 2009) IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Agents (IA 2009) IEEE Workshop on Organic Computing (OC 2009) IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium (SIS 2009) IEEE Workshop on Evolvable and Adaptive Hardware (WEAH 2009) 7th Annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, 09/04/27-29, Boston, MA 2nd Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference (CHAOS2009), Chania, Crete, Greece, 09/06/01-05 2009 Intl Conf of the System Dynamics Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 09/07/26-30 5th Intl Conf on Fractals and Dynamic Systems in Geoscience, Townsville, Australia, 09/08/13-14 _________________________________________________________________ 20.04. Other Announcements 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 _________________________________________________________________ Complexity Digest is an independent publication available to organizations that may wish to repost ComDig (http://comdig.unam.mx/) to their own mailing lists. 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