Complexity Digest 2004.05    Feb. 03, 2004
  Archive:http://www.comdig.org, European Mirror:http://www.comdig.de
  Asian Mirror: http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/ (Chinese GB-Code)
  "I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking
  1. Effective Complexity, SFI Working Papers
    1. External and Internal Complexity of Complex Adaptive Systems, SFI Working Papers
    2. The Physics of Time and Dimension in the Economics of Financial Control In memory of Per Bak, SFI Working Papers
  2. The Waterwheel in the Waterfall, arXiv
  3. Complex Systems In Language Evolution: The Cultural Emergence, Adv. in Complex Sys.
    1. Language, Biology, And The Mind, Edge.org
  4. Decision Spread In The Corporate Board Network, Adv. in Complex Sys.
  5. "Look At Me When I'm Talking To You", Alphagalileo
  6. Rare Ant May Help Solve Some Mysteries Of Social Evolution, ScienceDaily
  7. Economic Development By The Creation Of New Sectors, J. Evol. Econ.
  8. Data, Information And Knowledge: Have We Got It Right?, J. Evol. Econ.
  9. The Coming Search Wars, NY Times
  10. Agent Models And Different User Ontologies For An Electronic Market Place, Knowl. & Info. Sys.
  11. The Role Of Increasing Temperature Variability In European Summer Heatwaves, Nature
    1. Global Chilling, NYTimes
    2. Nitric Acid Increases Relative Humidity in Low-Temperature Cirrus Clouds, Science
  12. Budgets of Mass Destruction, NYTimes
    1. Pres. Bush in Discussion on the Economy, c-span Video
  13. Drug May Give Cells A Fresh Start, Natue Science update
  14. UTA Researchers Develop Sensors To Think Smart, Fort Worth Business Press
  15. Nanotech Spy Eyes Life Inside The Cell, New Scientist
    1. Cell Division: Burning The Spindle At Both Ends, Nature
  16. Insight And The Sleep Committee, Nature
    1. Slumber May Fortify Memory, Stir Insight, Science News
  17. Advanced Motion-tracking Camera For Surveillance, Security, ScienceDaily
    1. Smart Cellphone Antennas Boost Coverage, New Scientist
  18. How to Hack an Election, NY Times
    1. Divided We Stand... Still, Orgnet
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. 9/11 Commission Report, NPR Audio
    2. 9/11 and the Bush Administration - Is Ignorance Bliss?, The Progressive Trail
    3. Pakistan Warns U.S. About Crossing Border, AP/Newsday
    4. Family Bonds Strengthen Terrorism Networks, NPR Audio
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
      1. Strategic Thinking in a Complex World, Smithsonian Resident Associates Program
  1. Effective Complexity, SFI Working Papers

    Abstract: It would take a great many different concepts - or quantities - to capture all of our notions of what is meant by complexity (or its opposite, simplicity.) However, the notion that corresponds most closely to what we mean by complexity in ordinary conversation and in most scientific discourse is “effective complexity.” In nontechnical language, we can define the effective complexity (EC) of an entity as the length of a highly compressed description of its regularities [6,7,11].
    For a more technical definition, we need a formal approach both to the notion of minimum description length and to the distinction between regularities and those features that are treated as random or incidental.

    [ Discussion ]


    1. External and Internal Complexity of Complex Adaptive Systems, SFI Working Papers

      Abstract: We introduce concepts of external and internal complexity to analyze the relationship between an adaptive system and its environment. We apply this theoretical framework to the construction of models in a cognitive system and the selection between hypotheses through selective observations performed on a data set in a recurrent process and propose a corresponding neural network architecture.

      [ Discussion ]


    2. The Physics of Time and Dimension in the Economics of Financial Control In memory of Per Bak, SFI Working Papers

      Abstract: The provision of the goods and services of a modern economy is controlled by a multiplicity of financial instruments. The basic properties of these instruments are considered here.

      [ Discussion ]


  2. The Waterwheel in the Waterfall, arXiv

    Abstract: A fundamental problem in evolutionary ecology research is to explain how different species coexist in natural ecosystems. This question is directly related with species trophic competition. However, competition theory, based on the classical logistic Lotka-Volterra equations, leads to erroneous conclusions about species coexistence. The reason for this is incorrectly interpreted interspecific interactions, expressed in the form of the competition coefficients. Here I use the logistic Lotka-Volterra type competition equations derived from the so called resource competition models to obtain the necessary conditions for species coexistence. These models show that only species with identical competitive abilities may coexist. Due to such relations between competing species ecosystems biodiversity decreases in the course of evolution.

    [ Discussion ]


  3. Complex Systems In Language Evolution: The Cultural Emergence, Adv. in Complex Sys.

    Abstract: Language arises from the interaction of three complex adaptive systems - biological evolution, learning, and culture. We focus here on cultural evolution, and present an Iterated Learning Model of the emergence of compositionality, a fundamental structural property of language. Our main result is to show that the poverty of the stimulus available to language learners leads to a pressure for linguistic structure. When there is a bottleneck on cultural transmission, only a language which is generalizable from sparse input data is stable. Language itself evolves on a cultural time-scale, and compositionality is language's adaptation to stimulus poverty.

    [ Discussion ]


    1. Language, Biology, And The Mind, Edge.org

      Excerpts: He believes that "the mechanisms that build our brains are just a special case of the mechanisms that build the rest of our body. (...)

      His goal is twofold: (a) "to track closely the progress in genetics, and try to think about the question of how a tiny number of genes can lead you from an ancestral chimpanzee view of the world to a human view of the world"; and (b) "to rethink linguistics as a question of adapting from primate systems that are already in place.

      [ Discussion ]


  4. Decision Spread In The Corporate Board Network, Adv. in Complex Sys.

    Abstract: The boards of large corporations sharing some of their directors are connected in complex networks. Boards are responsible for corporations' long-term strategy and are often involved in decisions about a common topic related to the belief in economical growth or recession. We are interested in understanding under which conditions a large majority of boards making the same decision can emerge in the network. We present a model (...) to explain the fact that boards of the largest corporations of a country can, in the span of a few months, make the same decisions about general topics.

    [ Discussion ]


  5. "Look At Me When I'm Talking To You", Alphagalileo

    Excerpts: Teachers shouldn't just assume a child is not paying attention if they are seen "staring into the distance" when asked a question. (...) adults can switch off from environmental stimulation (both live faces and other sorts of visual displays) in order to concentrate better, a technique called gaze aversion. When remembering information, thinking of an answer to a question, planning what we are going to say or speaking, we often close our eyes (...) especially when the task in hand is difficult. However, the new research has found that children also use gaze aversion to help them concentrate on difficult material.

    [ Discussion ]


  6. Rare Ant May Help Solve Some Mysteries Of Social Evolution, ScienceDaily

    Excerpts: L. minutissimus is a unique social parasite in that it lives entirely within the colonies of other ant species. But unlike parasitic slave-maker ants, which raid and virtually destroy the colonies of unsuspecting hosts, L. minutissimus appears to move in and live amiably with its host. (...) it doesn't appear to stage the bloodthirsty coups common to its slave-maker ant relatives. Rather, it behaves much like the unwelcome in-laws who come to visit for an undetermined length of time. Slave-makers therefore rely on overt aggression to make a living, but L. minutissimus is apparently accepted into host colonies without any violence.

    [ Discussion ]


  7. Economic Development By The Creation Of New Sectors, J. Evol. Econ.

    Abstract: (...) first entrepreneur entering a market enjoys a temporary monopoly. This temporary monopoly is eroded by the entry of imitators, that gradually increases the intensity of competition. The saturation is reinforced as the demand for what was a new product comes to be satisfied. In this way the adjustment gap initially created by the innovation is eliminated transforming a niche into a mature market, which becomes one of the routines of the economic system. (...) economic development is a process in which new activities emerge, old ones disappear, the weight of all economic activities and their patterns of interaction change.

    [ Discussion ]


  8. Data, Information And Knowledge: Have We Got It Right?, J. Evol. Econ.

    Abstract: Economists make the unarticulated assumption that information is something that stands apart from and is independent of the processor of information and its internal characteristics. We argue that they need to revisit the (...). Some associate information with data, and others associate information with knowledge. But since none of them readily conflates data with knowledge, this suggests too loose a conceptualisation of the term information. We argue that the difference between data, information, and knowledge is in fact crucial. Information theory and the physics of information provide us with useful insights with which to build an economics of information (...).

    [ Discussion ]


  9. The Coming Search Wars, NY Times

    Excerpts: As a result, Google now has an immense number of users, with 200 million searches on an average day. That gives it a great advantage over its competitors, which are now trying to catch up.

    "The system that has the most users benefits the most," said Nancy Blachman, (...) author of an independent guide to using Google. "Microsoft faces a tremendous challenge because Google fine-tunes its system by watching how users adjust their queries."

    But Google has done more than develop a smart new technology.

    [ Discussion ]


  10. Agent Models And Different User Ontologies For An Electronic Market Place, Knowl. & Info. Sys.

    Abstract: In this paper the agent-based electronic market architecture GEMS is described. The market incorporates different user perspectives: consumers, retailers, and producers. Ontologies for the different user perspectives are included. Knowledge is included to relate information from the different perspectives; for example, evaluation knowledge that can be used to derive product evaluations in terms of user ontology from product information based on producer ontology. Agent models are used as a high-level design structure for the architecture. It is shown how this combination of agent models, ontologies and knowledge provides an adequate approach to the distributed and knowledge-intensive character of the application.

    [ Discussion ]


  11. The Role Of Increasing Temperature Variability In European Summer Heatwaves, Nature

    Excerpts: We find that an event like that of summer 2003 is statistically extremely unlikely, even when the observed warming is taken into account. We propose that a regime with an increased variability of temperatures (in addition to increases in mean temperature) may be able to account for summer 2003. To test this proposal, we simulate possible future European climate with a regional climate model in a scenario with increased atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations, and find that temperature variability increases by up to 100%, with maximum changes in central and eastern Europe.

    [ Discussion ]


    1. Global Chilling, NYTimes

      Excerpts: We may be able to blame the Northeast's current severe cold spell, ironically, on global warming. New Yorkers may be able to blame the city's current cold spell — the most severe in nearly a decade — on global warming. Global warming doesn't mean that every place on the globe gets warmer. The weather history that can be read in polar ice-core samples indicates that previous periods of warming affected North America and Europe far differently than they did the tropics — the Northern Hemisphere got a lot colder. It's far too early to say for sure, but the same processes may be at work today.

      [ Discussion ]


    2. Nitric Acid Increases Relative Humidity in Low-Temperature Cirrus Clouds, Science

      Excerpts: In situ measurements of the relative humidity with respect to ice (RHi) and of nitric acid (HNO3) were made in both natural and contrail cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere. (...) We propose that surface HNO3 molecules prevent the ice/vapor system from reaching equilibrium by a mechanism similar to that of freezing point depression by antifreeze proteins. {Delta}-ice represents a new link between global climate and natural and anthropogenic nitrogen oxide emissions. Including {Delta} -ice in climate models will alter simulated cirrus properties and the distribution of upper tropospheric water vapor.

      Editor's Note: We know that clouds are extremely sensitive parameters for climate change dynamics. The role of nitric acid as a cloud “anti freeze” could possible create a significant shift in that parameter with unforeseen consequences.

      • Nitric Acid Increases Relative Humidity in Low-Temperature Cirrus Clouds, R. S. Gao, P. J. Popp, D. W. Fahey, T. P. Marcy, R. L. Herman, E. M. Weinstock, D. G. Baumgardner, T. J. Garrett, K. H. Rosenlof, T. L. Thompson, P. T. Bui, B. A. Ridley, S. C. Wofsy, O. B. Toon, M. A. Tolbert, B. Kärcher, Th. Peter, P. K. Hudson, A. J. Weinheimer, A. J. Heymsfield, Science Jan 23 2004: 516-520
      [ Discussion ]


  12. Budgets of Mass Destruction, NYTimes

    Excerpts: (...) what we have in the Bush team is a faith-based administration. It launched a faith-based war in Iraq, on the basis of faith-based intelligence, with a faith-based plan for Iraqi reconstruction, (...). This group believes that what matters in politics and economics are conviction and will — not facts, social science or history. (...) The latest report from the Congressional Budget Office says the deficit is expected to total some $2.4 trillion over the next decade — almost $1 trillion more than the prediction of just five months ago.

    [ Discussion ]


    1. Pres. Bush in Discussion on the Economy, c-span Video

      Summary: Pres. Bush in Discussion on the Economy In an event hosted by Fidelity Investments Consulting, Pres. Bush participates in a conversation on the economy. 1/30/2004: MERRIMACK, NH: 45 min.

      Editor's Note: The format of this "discussion" is that of a testimonial church service. People who believe in his tax policy give testimony on how they could use the tax break for “finishing an upstairs bathroom” (Pres. Bush: “I’d suggest the toilet as well.” 26:10min).

      The president of the U.S. with the largest budget deficit in world history then goes on to explain: “The government’s got plenty of money." (27:02min) Video

      [ Discussion ]


  13. Drug May Give Cells A Fresh Start, Natue Science update

    Excerpts:
    Might we one day regenerate limbs like an salamander?
    © Image Source
    When they treated mouse muscle-forming cells with the drug, the cells apparently reverted to a 'blank' state capable of forming other kinds of tissues. The researchers were then able to guide the cells into becoming bone or fat cells instead.(...)

    A handful of others are trying to 'dedifferentiate' adult cells instead — effectively turning back the clock on grown-up cells so they revert into stem cells. This research is inspired by organisms such as the salamander, whose cells can dedifferentiate when it regenerates a lost limb or tail.

    [ Discussion ]


  14. UTA Researchers Develop Sensors To Think Smart, Fort Worth Business Press

    Excerpts: The prototype sample is a polymer (plastic) four inches in diameter with sensors that are 40 microns square.

    Depending on the type of sensor used, the material can be used for various applications.

    For first responders or in the defense industry, “Smart Skin” suits could be utilized to warn people when they have entered an area of toxic gases. A T-shirt on a diabetic could monitor insulin and glucose problems based on body temperature.

    “This could help prevent sudden infant death syndrome,” (...)

    [ Discussion ]


  15. Nanotech Spy Eyes Life Inside The Cell, New Scientist

    Excerpts:
    Looking inside a cell
    (...) biochemists are hoping to go one step further, deploying viruses as "nano-cameras" to get a unique picture of what goes on inside living cells and a greater understanding of how viruses themselves work.

    A team led by Bogdan Dragnea at Indiana University in Bloomington is exploiting the ability of viruses laden with gold to break into cells, along with the viral shell's own telltale response to laser light. Together these give an unprecedented picture of the chemical and physical activity in cells.

    [ Discussion ]


    1. Cell Division: Burning The Spindle At Both Ends, Nature

      Excerpts: Accurate transmission of the genome during cell division requires the physical separation of replicated chromosomes. The identities of two molecular motors needed to do the job in fruitflies are now revealed.

      A dramatic event in the life of a cell is its transformation into two genetically identical progeny. (...) Errors in this process can result in cell death or contribute to cancer. The mitotic spindle — the apparatus that distributes the chromosomes — has been studied for decades. Nonetheless, the molecular mechanisms underlying chromosome transport have remained elusive.

      [ Discussion ]


  16. Insight And The Sleep Committee, Nature

    Excerpts: If subjects were exposed to the task continuously for 13 blocks, (...), the proportion who gained insight was similar to that in the awake groups. (...) favourable effect of sleep on insight occurred only if a memory had been formed before the sleep period.

    The data further suggest that the conscious use of the hidden rule did not evolve from procedural learning — that is, from the unconscious acquisition of a skill through practice. Rather, it stemmed from separate mental representations that were rearranged during sleep after training had taken place.

    [ Discussion ]


    1. Slumber May Fortify Memory, Stir Insight, Science News

      Excerpts:
      SLEEP ON IT. Rats' memories for novel experiences may get a boost during slow-wave sleep.
      Ribeiro
      Rats permitted to explore novel objects display distinctive activity throughout much of their brains. That activity reappears—even more strongly than originally—during a stage of slumber called slow-wave sleep, (...).

      A reprise of waking neural activity during slow-wave sleep—the longest sleep stage in rats and people—promotes recall of novel experiences, the scientists propose. Then, neural changes crucial for memory storage occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, in their view.

      "These two phases of sleep play separate, complementary roles in memory," (...).

      [ Discussion ]


  17. Advanced Motion-tracking Camera For Surveillance, Security, ScienceDaily

    Excerpts: (...) researcher has made that job considerably easier and less expensive, thanks to a new technology he developed that can automatically track moving objects in real time. Using low-cost, commercially available hardware, the Automatic Image Motion Seeking (AIMS) camera follows a moving object and keeps the target at the center of the field of view. "This camera has broad impact for security surveillance, because it eliminates the need to have a full-time guard watching a video screen. It's one intelligence level above any other existing system, and we've found the right compromise between speed and accuracy."

    [ Discussion ]


    1. Smart Cellphone Antennas Boost Coverage, New Scientist

      Better cellphone coverage
      It is how this antenna is controlled that is crucial. It is no good expecting people in a control centre to decide where coverage needs expanding, (...)

      So the researchers have placed an autonomous software agent in charge of each antenna. (...)

      In Adamant, if a cell has too many users, the software agent in charge of that cell simply negotiates with those in charge of neighbouring antennas, asking which can help. If a neighbour is not too busy, that antenna can "reach out" to those with no coverage.

      [ Discussion ]


  18. How to Hack an Election, NY Times

    Excerpts: Concerned citizens have been warning that new electronic voting technology being rolled out nationwide can be used to steal elections. Now there is proof.

    When the State of Maryland hired a computer security firm to test its new machines, these paid hackers had little trouble casting multiple votes and taking over the machines' vote-recording mechanisms. The Maryland study shows convincingly that more security is needed for electronic voting, starting with voter-verified paper trails.

    When Maryland decided to buy 16,000 AccuVote-TS voting machines, there was considerable opposition.

    [ Discussion ]


    1. Divided We Stand... Still, Orgnet

      Excerpts: I used the political books on the New York Times Bestseller List as a starting point for 'snowball sampling'. In the network map above, two books are linked if they were bought together. The network is organized and displayed by an algorithm that looks at the pattern of connections and finds the emergent structure. (...) Two distinct clusters, with dense internal ties have emerged. (...) Yet, this network of 67 books is dependent on just 2 nodes to remain connected -- Sleeping with the Devil and Bush at War.

      [ Discussion ]


  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks


    1. 9/11 Commission Report, NPR Audio

      Excerpts: The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks wants two more months to complete its investigation, saying there's no way to finish by the May 27 deadline imposed by Congress.

      [ Discussion ]


    2. 9/11 and the Bush Administration - Is Ignorance Bliss?, The Progressive Trail

      Excerpts: The commission has been given only three months to complete its review of 200 interviews and 2 million documents, many of which had to be pried loose from an uncooperative executive branch that has done nearly everything it could to frustrate the commission’s purpose. As former Commissioner Max Cleland, a former Democratic senator from Georgia, told Eric Boehlert of Salon last November: "I think the White House has made it darn near impossible to get full access to the documents by May, much less get a full report out analyzing those documents by May."

      [ Discussion ]


    3. Pakistan Warns U.S. About Crossing Border, AP/Newsday

      Excerpts: He said so far tribesmen in the border regions, which are largely autonomous from the central government, are showing restraint as Pakistani troops search the region for al-Qaida fugitives. "We are urging them not to resist the (Pakistani) army," Durrani said. "But if Americans go into their areas, the tribesmen will not listen to us." Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants are believed to be in hiding in the border regions -- possibly inside Pakistan -- and sympathies for the Taliban run high there.

      [ Discussion ]


    4. Family Bonds Strengthen Terrorism Networks, NPR Audio

      Excerpts: The wives of two men tied to the Jamaa Islamiya terrorist network in Southeast Asia remain supportive in the face of evidence that their husbands plotted and executed terrible crimes -- in one case the bombing of a Bali nightclub in which more than 200 people died. Kelly McEvers reports from Indonesia.

      [ Discussion ]


  20. Links & Snippets


    1. Other Publications

      1. Dynamic Response of Permian Brachiopod Communities to Long-Term Environmental Change, Thomas D. Olszewski, Douglas H. Erwin, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 03-12-067
      2. Modularity “for Free” in Genome Architecture, Ricard V. Solé, Pau Fernandez, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 03-12-071
      3. Finite State Automata Resulting from Temporal Information Maximization, Thomas Wennekers, Nihat Ay, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 04-01-001
      4. The Efficiency Of Muscle Contraction, Nicholas P. Smith, Christopher J. Barclay, Denis S. Loiselle, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, (January 21, 2004), 10.1016/S0079-6107(03)00108-1
      5. Crossmodal Integration - Insights From The Chemical Senses, Dana M. Small, Trends in Neurosciences, (January 20, 2004), 10.1016/S0166-2236(04)00003-7
      6. Information Processing, Dimensionality Reduction And Reinforcement Learning In The Basal Ganglia, Izhar Bar-Gad, Genela Morris and Hagai Bergman Progress in Neurobiology, (January 20, 2004), 10.1016/S0301-0082(03)00192-8
      7. The Physiological Basis Of Transcranial Motor Cortex Stimulation , In Conscious Humans, V. Di Lazzaro, A. Oliviero, F. Pilato, E. Saturno, M. Dileone, P. Mazzone, A. Insola, P.A. Tonali, J.C. Rothwell, Clinical Neurophysiology, 2004, 115:2255-266
      8. New Form Of Matter Created In Lab,
        A new form of matter
        A new form of matter - only the sixth ever seen - has been made in the lab and it could provide a new way to transmit electricity.
      9. Jumping Genes Are Fruit Flies' Saviors, Science Now, A chunk of rogue DNA may protect flies against pesticides
      10. Think Outside the Bison, People , Science Now, Failure to adapt to a changing food supply doomed the Neanderthals
      11. Office Workers Want To Break Free, BBC News. Employees that can telecommute from the beach or their back garden could be more productive, a survey suggests.
      12. Nuclear Inquiry Skips Pakistani Army, David Rohde, Pakistan's military-led government appears to be glossing over evidence that senior military officials may have approved the sale of nuclear technology.
      13. Statistical Mechanical Description Of The Parking-Lot Model For Vibrated Granular Materials, Phys. Rev. E 69, 011307 (2004) G. Tarjus and P. Viot, Phys. Rev. E 69, 011307 (2004)
      14. Energy Balance In Feedback Synchronization Of Chaotic Systems, C. Sarasola F. J. Torrealdea A. d'Anjou A. Moujahid M. Graña, Phys. Rev. E 69, 011606 (2004)
      15. General Fractal-Discrete Scheme For High-Frequency Lung Sound Production, L. P. L. de Oliveira, B. E. J. Bodmann, D. Faistauer, Phys. Rev. E 69, 011905 (2004)
      16. Entanglement Production In Coupled Chaotic Systems: Case Of The Kicked Tops, Jayendra N. Bandyopadhyay, Arul Lakshminarayan, Phys. Rev. E 69, 016201 (2004)
      17. Pattern Formation Capacity Of Spatially Extended Systems, Serguei Vakulenko, Bogdan Kazmierczak, Stéphane Génieys, Phys. Rev. E 69, 016215 (2004)
      18. Deficits, Fruit Flies and the Beltway, John Kasich, Some advice for Washington, from a former chairman of the House Budget Committee, on curtailing the rise and growth of government spending.
      19. Dawn Of The Y: Papaya—Glimpse Of Early Sex Chromosome, Genetic mappers say that the papaya plant has a rudimentary Y chromosome, the youngest one in evolutionary terms yet found, offering a glimpse of the evolution of sex chromosomes.
      20. Pushing Cancer Over The Edge: Compounds Trigger Tumor-Cell Suicide, Compounds that free cancer cells to commit suicide slow tumor growth.
      21. Conduit to the Brain: Particles enter the nervous system via the nose, Tiny airborne particles can apparently infiltrate the brain by shimmying up the nerve that governs smell.
      22. Wet 'n' Wild, Scientists have tracked the weirdness of water to microscopic arrangements of molecules and perhaps to the existence of a second, low-temperature form of the familiar substance.
      23. Warming Climate May Slam Many Species, Expected increases in global temperature could eradicate from a sixth to a half of the plant and animal species across large areas of the globe, a new analysis suggests.
      24. Nanotube Implants Could Aid Brain Research, Electrically conducting carbon nanotubes could be the ideal material for probing the brain and treating neural disorders.
      25. Hot Or Cold? Debate On Protein Heats Up, Wasabi and horseradish trigger the same pain-signaling receptor on nerve cells.
      26. Insect Receptor For Sweat Creates Buzz, A sweat-sensing cell-surface protein allows female mosquitoes to target human skin.
      27. Neuroplasticity: Changes In Grey Matter Induced By Training, Bogdan Draganski, Christian Gaser, Volker Busch, Gerhard Schuierer, Ulrich Bogdahn, Arne May, Nature 427, 311 - 312 (22 January 2004), DOI: 10.1038/427311a
      28. Most Flexible Electronic Paper Yet Revealed , Will Knight, 04/01/26, New Scientist,
        The displays can be rolled into a tube with a 2 cm diameter (Image: Philips)
      29. Tea Strainer In The Neck 'Stops Strokes' , Laura Spinney, 04/01/28, New Scientist,
        The diverter
      30. 'Shakespeare, Einstein and the Bottom Line', 04/01/31, NPR Audio, NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to David Kirp, author of a new book about the commercialization of higher education in America called Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education. (Published by Harvard University Press.)
      31. Science And Society Would Benefit If Researchers Disclosed The Cost Of Their Work, 04/02/02, The Scientist
      32. HIV Continues To Elude Researchers, 04/02/02, The Scientist
      33. Smoking Out the Enemy, 04/02/02, The Scientist, Latent HIV reservoirs lead researchers to 'shock and kill' strategies
      34. The Greatest Regeneration, 04/02/02, The Scientist, Researchers go out on a limb with some new models for regrowth
      35. A Neuro-Fuzzy Technique For Document Binarisation, N. Papamarkos, 2003/11/08, Neural Computing & Applications, DOI: 10.1007/s00521-003-0382-z
      36. Running C++ Models Under the Swarm Environment, Richard Leow, Russell K. Standish, 2004-01-27, arXiv, DOI: cs.MA/0401025
      37. New Form of Matter Created in Lab, David Whitehouse, 2004-01-29, BBC News
      38. Planning Just-in-Time versus Planning Just-in-Case, Nurit Alfasi, Juval Portugali, 2004-02, Cities 21(1):29-39, DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2003.10.007
      39. The Circular Topology of Rhythm in Asynchronous Random Boolean Networks, Philipp Rohlfshagen, Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, 2004-02, Biosystems 73(2):141-152, DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2003.11.003
      40. Brain Structure Implicated In Early Onset Depression, G. Bradley, 2004/01/26, Alphagalileo
      41. Long-term Effects Of Embryo Culture On Behavior Studied, 2004/01/27, ScienceDaily & University Of Pennsylvania
      42. What Stops Mars Express Getting Lost In Space?, G. De Marchi, 2004/01/29, Alphagalileo
      43. Death-defying Approach Devised By Penn Scientists To Prevent Cell Apoptosis, 2004/01/30, ScienceDaily & University Of Pennsylvania Medical Center
      44. An Astrophysical Basis For A Universal Origin Of Life, S. A. Colgate, S. Rasmussen, J. C. Solem, K. Lackner, Dec. 2003, Advances in Complex Systems, DOI: 10.1142/S0219525903001079
      45. Electronic Roads: Intelligent Navigation Through Multi-Contextual Information, G. Fakas, A. Kakas, C. N. Schizas, Jan. 2004, Knowledge and Information Systems, DOI: 10.1007/s10115-003-0090-0
      46. A Model Of Endogenous Political Party Platforms, A. M. Gomberg, F. Marhuenda, I. O.-Ortín, Jul. 2004, Economic Theory
      47. Effectiveness Of Recruitment Behavior In Stingless Bees (Apidae, Meliponini), S. Jarau, M. Hrncir, V. M. Schmidt, R. Zucchi, F. G. Barth, Nov. 2003, Insectes Sociaux, DOI: 10.1007/s00040-003-0684-2
      48. Multiple Unloadings By Nectar Foragers In Honey Bees: A Matter Of Information Improvement Or Crop Fullness?, M. H. Huang, T. D. Seeley, T. D. Seeley, Nov. 2003, Insectes Sociaux, DOI: 10.1007/s00040-003-0682-4
      49. Evidence For Notch-Mediated Lateral Inhibition In Organizing Butterfly Wing Scales, R. D. Reed, online 2003/11/14, Development Genes and Evolution, DOI: 10.1007/s00427-003-0366-0
      50. Pitch Shifts And Song Structure Indicate Male Quality In The Dawn Chorus Of Black-Capped Chickadees, P. J. Christie, D. J. Mennill, L. M. Ratcliffe, online 2003/11/15, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, DOI: 10.1007/s00265-003-0711-3
      51. Why Do Honey Bees Dance?, A. Dornhaus, L. Chittka, online 2003/11/22, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, DOI: 10.1007/s00265-003-0726-9
      52. Effects Of Kinship On Territorial Conflicts Among Groups Of Lions, Panthera Leo, G. Spong, S. Creel, online 2003/11/22, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, DOI: 10.1007/s00265-003-0723-z

    2. Webcast Announcements

      1. Voices of Public Intellectuals Lecture Series: Democracy's Response to the Terrorist Threat Now in its fifth year, the Radcliffe Institute Voices of Public Intellectuals lecture series brings issues affecting civic life to a public forum. This year's series of three lectures features experts in the study of terrorism and the prosecution of terrorists to explore the effects of terrorism on democracy. These lectures take place in Cambridge on February 26, March 4, and March 11 at 4 p.m.
      2. World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland
      3. The Process of Curricular Review: Redefining a World-Class Education, Benedict Gross, Thomas Bender, Harvard@home, 04/01/21, Dean of Harvard College Benedict Gross discusses Harvard's first comprehensive review of the undergraduate curriculum in almost 3 decades. This program introduces the process of curricular review by presenting two segmented lectures. The first, by Dean Gross, outlines the approach and considerations in undertaking the current review. The second lecture, presented by NYU Professor Thomas Bender, presents a historical perspective on academic culture.
      4. Cancer Biology , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, How the spread of cancer is like wound healing gone awry.
      5. Tracking Ebola , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, A new study might help scientists predict where Ebola may! strike next.
      6. Animal Thought and Communication, NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, How do animals think and communicate with each other? And what can studying animals tell us about the evolution of language in humans? In this hour, NPR's Ira Flatow and guests look at thought and communication in apes, gorillas and monkeys. What can non-human primates tell us about communication in humans?
      7. CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And Intelligent Systems, 2004 Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
      8. EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
      9. The Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Po tential and Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
      10. ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      11. New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
      12. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      13. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      14. 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      15. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      16. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      17. Edge Videos

      [ Discussion ]


    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements

      1. Physics of Socio-Economic Systems, 1st Intl Winter School 2004, Konstanz, Germany, 04/02/16-20
      2. The O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, San Diego, CA, 04/02/09-12
      3. Advances in Molecular Electronics: From molecular materials to single molecule devices, Dresden, Germany, 04/02/23
      4. Leadership in Rapidly Changing Business Environments -Learning and Adapting in Time, Cambridge, MA, 04/02/26-27
      5. 4th Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS 2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02
      6. Conference on Longevity , Sydney, Australia, 04/03/05-07
      7. Arbeitskreis Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme Jahrestagung (AKSOE), Regensburg, Germany, 04/03/08-12
      8. 11th Annual Winter Chaos Conference Dynamical Systems Thinking in Science and Society, Stony Creek, CT, USA, 04/03/12-14
      9. Capital Science 2004, Washington, 04/03/20-21
      10. Fractal 2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 04/04/04-07
      11. 6th German Workshop on Artificial Life 2004 (GWAL-6), Bamberg, Germany, 04/04/14-16
      12. The 9th IEEE Intl Conf on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems, Florence, Italy, 04/04/14-16
      13. 2004 Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC'04), Arlington, VA., USA, 04/04/18-22
      14. NKS (New Kind of Science) 2004 Conference and Minicourse, Boston, Massachusetts, 04/04/22-25
      15. IDS'04 - Intentional Dynamic Systems Symposium, Memphis, TN, USA, 04/04/24-26
      16. Urban Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse, Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30
      17. What Really Matters ?The Global Forum 2004, Santa Fe, NM, 04/05/02-040
      18. 5th International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004), Boston, MA, USA, 04/05/16-21
      19. 3rd Intl Conf on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success", Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 04/05/19-21
      20. 4th Intl Conf on Fractals And Dynamic Systems In Geoscience, München, Germany, 04/05/19-22
      21. 9th Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction Agents (WEHIA04), Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29
      22. 13th International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05
      23. ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy, 04/06/14-17
      24. 7th Intl Conf on Linking Systems Thinking, Innovation,Quality, Entrepreneurship and Environment (STIQE), MARIBOR, SLOVENIA, 04/06/24-26
      25. NAACSOS 2004, North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science, Pittsburgh PA, 04/06/27-29
      26. Statphys - Kolkata V An International Conference on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes , Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
      27. 3rd Intl School Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics Discrete Dynamical Systems and Applications , Urbino (Italy), 04/07/07-09
      28. `Perspectives on Nonlinear Dynamics 2004 (PNLD-2004), Chennai, India, 04/07/12-15
      29. From Animals To Animats 8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17
      30. 14th Annual International Conference The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences , Milwaukee, WI, USA, 04/07/15-18
      31. 3rd Intl Conf Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2004), New York City, 04/07/19-23
        1. 7th Intl Workshop on: Trust in Agent Societies , New York City, 04/07/19-20
      32. 8th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21
      33. 2004 Summer Simulation MultiConference (SummerSim'04), San Jose Hyatt, San Jose, California, 04/07/25-29
      34. SME 2004 Symposium on Modeling and Control of Economic Systems , University in Redlands, CA, 04/01/28-31
      35. 6th International Mathematica Symposium (IMS 2004), Banff, Canada, 04/08/02-06
      36. Fractals and Natural Hazards at 32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28
      37. ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, , Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01
      38. ANTS 2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium, 04/09/05-08
      39. Dynamic Ontology, An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of Reality, and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy, 04/09/08-11
      40. 9th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15
      41. The Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18
      42. The 8th Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22
      43. XVII Brazilian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao - Brazil, 04/09/22-24
      44. TEDMED Conference , Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15
      45. Wolfram Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois, 04/10/21-23
      46. 6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape, Delft, The Netherlands, 04/10/25-27
      47. Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference , Rio de Janeiro, 04/11

      [ Discussion ]


      1. Strategic Thinking in a Complex World, Smithsonian Resident Associates Program

        Recognizing the world as one vast interconnected system is essential to understanding the level of complexity in today’s global environment.
        This course is designed to give you a working knowledge of complexity science, and to show how to apply insights from the new science to your life and work, and to world events.

        [ Discussion ]


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