Complexity Digest 2003.09

03-Mar-2003

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Content

  1. Complex Systems: All Together Now, Nature
    1. With 6 Degrees of Separation, Computers Stay in Sync, NYTimes
    2. Promise Of Intelligent Networks, BBC News
  2. Robustness in Social Processes, The Bulletin Of The Santa Fe Institute
    1. Promiscuity and the Evolution of Sexual Transmitted Diseases, arXiv
  3. Managing Risk In A Four-Digit Number Game, SIAM Review
  4. Knotty Calculations, Science News
    1. Quantum Computing: The Qubit Duet, Nature
    2. Quantum Oscillations In Two Coupled Charge Qubits, Nature
  5. Photos Bolster Idea of Water, and Possibly Life, on Mars, NYTimes
  6. Innovation in Natural, Experimental, and Applied Evolution, The Bulletin Of The Santa Fe Institute
    1. Exploring Scale: The Advantages of Thinking Small, MIT Sloan Management Review
  7. From Swimming To Walking: A Single Basic Network For Two Different Behaviors, Biol. Cybernetics
  8. Animal Behaviour: How Self-Organization Evolves, Nature
    1. Goat Fish Act Like Sheep, Nature Physics Portal
    2. Unusual Synchronization Of Red Sea Fish Energy Expenditures, Ecology Letters
    3. Swarm Intelligence: An Interview with Eric Bonabeau, The O'Reilly Network
    4. Snooty Exchanges Are Key to Mouse Society, Science
  9. Genes May Draw Your Road Map, But You Still Chart Your Course, NYTimes
    1. With Sheet Metal Cutouts, the Tree of Life Emerged, NYTimes
  10. Breakthrough in Gene Therapy, health-news.co.uk
  11. Molecular Biology: A Fix For RNA, Nature
    1. Capturing Polo Kinase, Science
  12. Eye Movements Indicate Initial Attempts To Process What Humans Hear, ScienceDaily
  13. Brain Scans Reflect Problem-Solving Skill, NYTimes
    1. 'Looking for Spinoza': The Source of Emotion, NYTimes
    2. Brain Imaging Of Tongue-Twister Sentence Comprehension: Twisting The Tongue And The Brain, Brain & Language
  14. Neurobiology: Interneurons Take Charge, Nature
  15. Giant Supramolecular Liquid Crystal Lattice, Science
  16. Scientists Identify Blood Stem Cell, UPI
    1. New Stem Cell Reservoir Found in Blood, News in Science
    2. Breast Cancer Tumour "Stem Cells" Found, health-news.co.uk
  17. Molecular Self-Assembly Technique May Mimic How Cells Assemble Themselves, NSF Press Release
  18. DNA Computer Sets Guinness Record, UPI Science News
    1. DNA Molecule Provides A Computing Machine With Both Data And Fuel, PNAS
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Crime: A Google for Cops, Newsweek
    2. UK Man Whose Identity 'Stolen' Cleared in U.S. Probe, ABCNews,Reuters
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts
    3. Conference Announcements
      1. Public Conference Calls
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

  1. Complex Systems: All Together Now, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Neurons are activated at different times, (...), some of them will momentarily fall into sync with each other before drifting out of phase again. (...), Hopfield fed the word 'one' into the network and tracked the firing of the neurons until he spotted a group that moved into phase. He then strengthened the coupling between these neurons. When the word 'one' was presented a second time, this coupling was sufficient to prompt a burst of synchronous and easily detectable firing when the neurons drifted into phase.

    1. With 6 Degrees of Separation, Computers Stay in Sync, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Their model, (...), shows that synchronization can be achieved by having processors occasionally and randomly check what some other processor in the system is doing. Indeed, (...), it is not even necessary for every processor to take part in the random checks. A system will still stay synchronized even with a few layabouts. The randomness of the checks is a key. In effect, it ensures that synchronization is spread throughout the parallel system. (...) But the system departs from human links in a significant way: it does not have hubs (...).

    2. Promise Of Intelligent Networks, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Computer scientists at Intel are developing mesh networking technologies that can automatically work out the best route for data as demand changes or devices join and leave the system. The researchers believe such automatic networking systems will be needed as the numbers of devices that can communicate wirelessly proliferate. (...) were working on so-called mesh network systems that can work out the best way to link all the devices they are in contact with, and find the ideal route for the data the devices are swapping.

  2. Robustness in Social Processes, The Bulletin Of The Santa Fe Institute Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In a world of uncertainty, rapid change, and increasing complexity, one might think that failure of social processes should prove the rule rather than the exception. And yet both the past and the present provide many examples of social processes that we instinctively label as robust to failure, whether because of the agility with which they have responded to changing circumstances, or because of their record of surviving deliberate internal or external attack, or merely because they have proved so long-lived.

    1. Promiscuity and the Evolution of Sexual Transmitted Diseases, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We study the relation between different social behaviors and the onset of epidemics in a model for the dynamics of sexual transmitted diseases. The model considers the society as a system of individual sexuated agents that can be organized in couples and interact with each other. The different social behaviors are incorporated assigning what we call a promiscuity value to each individual agent. The individual promiscuity is taken from a distributions and represents the daily probability of going out to look for a sexual partner, abandoning its eventual mate. In terms of this parameter we find a threshold for the epidemic which is much lower than the classical fully mixed model prediction, i.e. $R_0$ (basic reproductive number) $= 1$. Different forms for the distribution of the population promiscuity are considered showing that the threshold is weakly sensitive to them. We study the homosexual and the heterosexual case as well.

  3. Managing Risk In A Four-Digit Number Game, SIAM Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The four-digit number game is a popular game of chance played in Southeast Asia. The players in this game choose a four-digit number and place their bets on it. In this paper, we study the design of a control mechanism for managing bets in this game. Our objective is to design a control mechanism to decide whether bets should be accepted or rejected. We propose a nonlinear optimization model for this problem and provide the mathematical justification for the control mechanism used by several operators in this region. (...) we show that our control mechanism can accept more money per draw (...).

  4. Knotty Calculations, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: At the heart of the connection between computer science and quantum physics is a knot invariant called the Jones polynomial, which associates a given knot with an array of numbers. The Jones polynomial involves a complex mathematical formula, and although calculating it is easy for simple knots, it is enormously difficult for messy, tangled knots. (...) In the late 1980s, physicist Edward Witten, a major figure in string theory (...), described a physical system that should calculate information about the Jones polynomial during the course of its regularly scheduled activities (...).

    1. Quantum Computing: The Qubit Duet, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Solid-state qubits (made, for example, from tiny samples of superconducting material) are an attractive alternative, however, as they could be more easily built into working devices, profiting from the highly developed methods of nanotechnology. So far, solid-state qubits have lagged behind in the race to build the first quantum computer, handicapped by decoherence which implies the breakdown of the quantum information-storing state within the qubit. But new designs have improved the quality of individual qubits, and the next step, to connect qubits together, has now been taken (...).

    2. Quantum Oscillations In Two Coupled Charge Qubits, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A practical quantum computer, if built, would consist of a set of coupled two-level quantum systems (qubits) . Among the variety of qubits implemented, solid-state qubits are of particular interest because of their potential suitability for integrated devices. A variety of qubits based on Josephson junctions have been implemented; these exploit the coherence of Cooper-pair tunnelling in the superconducting state. (...) Here we demonstrate a Josephson circuit consisting of two coupled charge qubits. Using a pulse technique, we coherently mix quantum states and observe quantum oscillations, (...). Editor's Note: The authors seem to assume that all quantum computers will be based on qubits. Potential alternatives are discussed in Knotty Calculations

  5. Photos Bolster Idea of Water, and Possibly Life, on Mars, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: NASA issues new theory and revised interpretation of earlier observations, bolstering idea that Mars has more water than previously thought and encouraging speculation about possibility of life on planet; identifies melting snow deposits in photographs taken by Mars Odyssey spacecraft as likely cause of many of planet's deep gullies; recent studies by other scientists, showing that both Martian polar regions are capped almost entirely with ice (...). A new theory and a revised interpretation of earlier observations have bolstered the idea (...).

  6. Innovation in Natural, Experimental, and Applied Evolution, The Bulletin Of The Santa Fe Institute Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Evolutionary innovation involves the acquisition of novel morphologies--behaviors or other attributes that open new niches, providing access to new ways of making a living. These include the major evolutionary transitions such as the origins of life and its major domains, the development of photosynthesis and other energy-capture methods, eukaryotes, and multicellularity. But it also includes the less sweeping innovations that solve more circumscribed problems. Artificially directed evolution has been applied with striking results to developing proteins, RNAs, viruses, and bacteria for specific functions.

    1. Exploring Scale: The Advantages of Thinking Small, MIT Sloan Management Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: When it comes to thinking about scale, the assumption of corporate leaders since Henry Ford's day has been that bigger is better. And in many situations, such thinking is inarguably correct because of the cost efficiencies that size provides. But sometimes efficiencies can mask opportunities. In their research, the authors found that small-scale operations provide significant advantages in four areas. They allow companies to locate hot spots and tap into local knowledge networks; they make it possible to respond more rapidly to customer needs and to trends in regional demand; they enable companies to monitor potentially disruptive technologies; and they help hold down labor costs while developing managerial talent. Using case studies, the authors illustrate how companies in a wide variety of industries have found the hidden benefits of small-scale approaches to corporate needs. They conclude that executives who develop a deeper understanding of scale and learn when it is better to think small can have a potentially huge impact on their companies' long-term success. Frits K. Pil is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business and a research scientist at the university's Learning, Research and Development Center. Matthias Holweg is a Sloan Research Fellow at MIT's Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development and a senior research fellow at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre at Cardiff Business School in Wales. They can be reached at and.

  7. From Swimming To Walking: A Single Basic Network For Two Different Behaviors, Biol. Cybernetics Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: In this paper we consider the hypothesis that the spinal locomotor network controlling trunk movements has remained essentially unchanged during the evolutionary transition from aquatic to terrestrial locomotion. Two distinct inputs were identified which reproduced the main features of the swimming and walking motor patterns in the newt. (...)a nonuniform distribution of these stretch receptors along the trunk can explain the discontinuities exhibited in the swimming pattern of the newt. Thus, separate limb pattern generators can influence the original network controlling axial movements (...) via a mechanical coupling between trunk and limbs, which in turn influences the sensory signals sent back to the network.

  8. Animal Behaviour: How Self-Organization Evolves, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Self-organized systems can evolve by small parameter shifts that produce large changes in outcome. Concepts from mathematical ecology show how the way swarming bees dance helps to achieve unanimous decisions. (...) Myerscough treats the scout bees dancing for alternative sites as populations, and models their growth and extinction with the tools of mathematical ecology. From this approach it is evident how a slight difference in the way the dance-language 'recruitment' of other bees is structured in foraging and house-hunting influences the outcome of each process.

    1. Goat Fish Act Like Sheep, Nature Physics Portal Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The fish swim in groups of about a dozen. Every so often, all drop to the sea floor and root about in the sand in search of worms and shellfish. By truffling in concert, each fish may catch prey that evades its fellows, the researchers suggest - prey burrow away when they sense goatfish coming. Even fish in tanks two metres apart ape each other's behaviour, (...). They keep in step by eye contact; if they can't see each other they don't synchronize.
      • Source: Goat Fish Act Like Sheep, John Whitfield, Nature Physics Portal, 03/02, Synchronized swimming helps fish find food.

    2. Unusual Synchronization Of Red Sea Fish Energy Expenditures, Ecology Letters Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The highly gregarious goat fish Parupeneus forskalii found in the Red Sea at Eilat, Israel exhibit highly synchronous swimming and feeding activity. Five fish were studied under controlled conditions and highly resolved time-series of their energy expenditures were measured. All fish demonstrated strong phase synchronization in that their activity levels, although erratic in time and intensity, were collectively coordinated and peaked simultaneously together. The synchronization of these wildly varying, and possibly chaotic signals of energy expenditures, were quantified using phase analysis. We suggest that, ecologically, this collective synchronization is a strategy that increases food-catch.

    3. Swarm Intelligence: An Interview with Eric Bonabeau, The O'Reilly Network Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The most amazing thing about social insect colonies is that there's no individual in charge. If you look at a single ant, you may have the impression that it is behaving, if not randomly, at least not in synchrony with the rest of the colony. You feel that it is doing its own things without paying too much attention to what the others are doing. But sometimes you also see "ant highways," that is, impressive columns of ants that can run over hundreds of feet.

    4. Snooty Exchanges Are Key to Mouse Society, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) neuroscientists report a major step toward understanding how pheromone cues are processed in the brain. By recording the electric chatter of neurons in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) of mice as they sniff another mouse, the researchers have discovered neurons that vary their activity in response to the sex and genetic strain of the sniffee. (...) AOB extracts important social information from pheromonal cues. (...) For instance, one neuron in the brain of a mouse of the CBA strain grew six times more active when the sniffed animal was a male BALBc mouse.

  9. Genes May Draw Your Road Map, But You Still Chart Your Course, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Meanwhile, most of us have to contend with a complex set of genes that may or may not predispose us to ailments, ranging in seriousness from superficial skin cancer to premature heart disease. And a genetic predisposition is just that: it is not destiny, but rather a tendency that can be encouraged or discouraged to express itself by how we live our lives. Some experts estimate that about 30 percent of longevity is determined by genes; the rest is up to us.

    1. With Sheet Metal Cutouts, the Tree of Life Emerged, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: So that's what it looks like, deoxyribonucleic acid, what Francis Crick was boasting about when he walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge, England, half a century ago and told the lunch crowd that he and James Watson had just discovered the secret of life. The way the two deduced the molecule's beautifully intertwined structure - (...)- is one of the great stories of science. The significance lies not just in what they discovered but in how: by building one of the first complex molecular models.

  10. Breakthrough in Gene Therapy, health-news.co.uk Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: UK scientists have discovered a new way of delivering gene therapy that, is not only more effective than present techniques, but may also be safer. Gene therapy is usually delivered using viruses, but this carries the risk of infection of non-target tissue and dangerous immune responses. The new technique, developed by scientists at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, Imperial College London and the Medical Research Council, uses a combination of ultrasound and microbubbles - tiny gas bubbles already used to improve ultrasound scans in the heart, liver and many other areas.

  11. Molecular Biology: A Fix For RNA, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) cells repair chemically or physically damaged DNA. But the discovery that damaged RNA can also be repaired may come as a surprise. What's more, some of the same enzymes are involved. The 'central dogma' of biology states that DNA makes RNA makes protein, and that this relationship governs the flow of genetic information in almost all living organisms. Damage to any one of these molecules can subvert the normal information flow. (...) repair of damaged RNA (and proteins) has been considered unlikely to even exist.

    1. Capturing Polo Kinase, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The interactions of kinases in signaling cascades and cell cycle pathways are so complex that it can be difficult to identify the protein binding domains that mediate these interactions. In a Perspective, Sillje and Nigg discuss a new proteomic screen (Elia et al.) that identifies the Polo-box binding domain of the mitotic kinase Plk1 as the domain that binds to phosphorylated sites in docking proteins such as Cdc25.

  12. Eye Movements Indicate Initial Attempts To Process What Humans Hear, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: By mapping eye movements in fractions of a second (...) humans attempt to make sense of what they are hearing through visual cues long before they have heard an entire idea. The finding offers insight into how the mind uses vision to rapidly process information. Psycholinguists know that as humans process language they make many split-second decisions about the words they are hearing. But questions remain about how humans cope with uncertainty at every stage (...). "On the basis of one or two sounds, we saw the participants' eye movements begin to shift. As soon as they identified a word, they began to map it."

  13. Brain Scans Reflect Problem-Solving Skill, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The first large-sample imaging study to probe individual differences in "general fluid intelligence" has been conducted by researchers at Washington University, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. It shows how differences in the ability to reason and solve problems might translate into differences in the firing of neurons.

    1. 'Looking for Spinoza': The Source of Emotion, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: But if emotion is just perception of the body, why isn't simple awareness of the body's position and temperature (proprioception) invariably accompanied by corresponding emotions? An emotion is a type of feeling (fear or joy, for example), directed toward a particular external object, with certain sorts of bodily expression. It is not simply reducible to the bodily expressions alone (that's why we call them merely ''expressions''). Nothing in Damasio's book ever comes to grips with these not-so-subtle, and well-known, objections to the theory he is promoting.

    2. Brain Imaging Of Tongue-Twister Sentence Comprehension: Twisting The Tongue And The Brain, Brain & Language Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: This study used fMRI to investigate the neural basis of the tongue-twister effect in a sentence comprehension task. Participants silently read sentences equated for the syntactic structure and the lexical frequency of the constituent words, but differing in the proportion of words that shared similar initial phonemes. The manipulation affected not only the reading times and comprehension performance, but also the amount of activation seen in a number of language-related cortical areas. The effect was not restricted to cortical areas (...) but also extended to areas associated with other aspects of language processing associated with phonological processing and storage.

  14. Neurobiology: Interneurons Take Charge, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In particular, the new results1 show that the dynamics of hippocampal networks are related to the diversity in the hippocampal interneuron population. Pyramidal cells are relatively uniform in their structure and behaviour. But interneurons form distinct classes, in terms of their shape, the inputs to which they respond, the other neuron populations they connect to, and the specific parts of neurons with which they make contact. Klausberger et al. now show that morphologically distinct classes of hippocampal interneurons also contribute differently to network states.

  15. Giant Supramolecular Liquid Crystal Lattice, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Self-organized supramolecular organic nanostructures have potential applications that include molecular electronics, photonics, and precursors for nanoporous catalysts. Accordingly, understanding how self-assembly is controlled by molecular architecture will enable the design of increasingly complex structures. We report a liquid crystal (LC) phase with a tetragonal three-dimensional unit cell containing 30 globular supramolecular dendrimers, each of which is self-assembled from 12 dendron (tree-like) molecules, for the compounds described here. The present structure is one of the most complex LC phases yet discovered. A model explaining how spatial arrangement of self-assembled dendritic aggregates depends on molecular architecture and temperature is proposed.

  16. Scientists Identify Blood Stem Cell, UPI Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Although monocytes were known to exist, "it was not known that (there was a subtype) behaving like a stem cell" and capable of becoming other cell types, Huberman said. The reason the monocyte stem cells went undetected is that in order for them to behave like stem cells a substance called a growth factor must be added to them. Growth factors direct the growth of cells and can determine the type of tissue into which a stem cell can develop.

    1. New Stem Cell Reservoir Found in Blood, News in Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A new type of stem cell in white blood cells has been discovered by U.S. researchers, opening up potential alternatives to embryonic stem cells for treatment of transplant patients. Adult stem cells are known to lurk in the marrow of bones where blood is made. In this latest work, Dr Eliezer Huberman, a molecular biologist at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, tried to identify blood cells that might be able to act like stem cells. They studied adult monocytes, a type of white blood cell. Using a series of growth factors, they were able to make the monocytes convert into a range of different types: epithelial cells, neuronal cells, liver cells, T lymphocytes and mature macrophages.

    2. Breast Cancer Tumour "Stem Cells" Found, health-news.co.uk Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: US scientists believe they have discovered how to zone in on the most dangerous breast cancer cells and aid the development of new, more effective treatments. Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that only a small minority of neoplastic cells in human breast cancers are capable of producing new malignant tumours. These cells have many of the properties of stem cells. Although similar cells have been identified in human leukaemia, these are the first to be found in solid tumours, said Dr Michael Clarke, who directed the study.

  17. Molecular Self-Assembly Technique May Mimic How Cells Assemble Themselves, NSF Press Release Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) created tree-like molecules that assemble themselves into precisely structured building blocks of a quarter-million atoms. Such building blocks may be precursors to designing nanostructures for molecular electronics or photonics materials, which "steer" light in the same way computer chips steer electrons. (...) The researchers start with tree-like organic molecules, called dendrons, each of which is roughly cone-shaped. Twelve of the dendrons assemble themselves into 8,500-atom spheres. Once assembled, the spheres become a "liquid crystal," a material that flows like a liquid but has some properties of a crystalline solid.

  18. DNA Computer Sets Guinness Record, UPI Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The device's input, output and "software" are composed of DNA molecules, while the hardware is made of naturally occurring enzymes that can manipulate DNA. When mixed together in a solution, the hardware and software work together, with the enzyme regulating the input according to rules encoded on the software molecule. All computers need energy, and the research team's previous DNA computer used a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the biochemical whose high-energy phosphate bonds are used by all cells as their standard fuel.

    1. DNA Molecule Provides A Computing Machine With Both Data And Fuel, PNAS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Each computational step of the automaton consists of a reversible software molecule/input molecule hybridization followed by an irreversible software-directed cleavage of the input molecule, which drives the computation forward by increasing entropy and releasing heat. (...) In the previous automaton, software/input ligation consumed one software molecule and two ATP molecules per step.(...). Our experiments demonstrate 3 x 1012 automata per Łgl performing 6.6 x 1010 transitions per second per Łgl with transition fidelity of 99.9%, dissipating about 5 x 10-9 W/Łgl as heat at ambient temperature.

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

    1. Crime: A Google for Cops, Newsweek Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Dubbed by its creator as "Google for law enforcement," Coplink is really nothing more glamorous than computer code. It's based on an achingly simple, but frustratingly elusive, premise: if the sundry databases used by crimefighters could talk to one another, the importance of seemingly inconsequential pieces of information would become more readily apparent. Had Coplink been up and running during last fall's sniper investigation, it would have quickly flagged investigators to the multiple times that police had stopped John Muhammad and Lee Malvo near a shooting scene (...).

    2. UK Man Whose Identity 'Stolen' Cleared in U.S. Probe, ABCNews,Reuters Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: U.S. officials have determined that 72-year-old Derek Bond, nabbed in South Africa on suspicion of being an internationally wanted fugitive, is in fact what he claims to be: a frightened British pensioner who was the victim of identity theft. "He certainly deserves an apology and an explanation," John Lewis, an assistant U.S. attorney, told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday. Officials said they expected him to be released shortly, ending a two-week ordeal that saw the mild-mannered retiree from Bristol, southwest England, detained as one of America's most wanted criminals.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. SFI Working Papers
        1. Phase Transition and Landscape Statistics of the Number Partitioning Problem, Peter F. Stadler, Wim Hordijk, José F. Fontanari, DOI: SFI-WP 03-02-006
        2. Allometric Scaling of Ant Foraging Trail Networks, Joseph Jun, John W. Pepper, Van M. Savage, James F. Gillooly, James H. Brown, DOI: SFI-WP 03-02-005
        3. Network Dynamics and Field Evolution: The Growth of Interorganizational Collaboration in the Life Sciences, Walter W. Powell, Douglas R. White, Kenneth W. Koput, Jason Owen-Smith, DOI: SFI-WP 03-02-004
        4. “If It Isn’t Broken, Don’t Fix It”: Extremal Search on a Technology Landscape, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, DOI: SFI-WP 03-02-003
        5. An Error Catastrophe in Cancer?, Ricard V. Solé, Thomas S. Deisboeck, DOI: SFI-WP 03-02-002
        6. Spin Glasses: Still Complex After All These Years?, Daniel L. Stein, DOI: SFI-WP 03-01-001
      2. New Gauze Promotes Natural Healing, Philip Ball, Biodegradable bandage made from wound-healing proteins
      3. A Global Representation Of The Protein Fold Space, Jingtong Hou, Gregory E. Sims, Chao Zhang, and Sung-Hou Kim, PNAS published 26 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.2628030100
      4. Community Disassembly By An Invasive Species, Nathan J. Sanders, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Nicole E. Heller, Deborah, M. Gordon, PNAS published 25 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0437913100
      5. Origin And Evolution Of Circadian Clock Genes In Prokaryotes, Volodymyr Dvornyk, Oxana Vinogradova, Eviatar Nevo, PNAS published 25 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0130099100
      6. Phase Locking Between Human Primary And Secondary Somatosensory Cortices, Cristina Simoes, Ole Jensen, Lauri Parkkonen, Riitta Hari, PNAS published 21 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0437944100
      7. Mexican Hats And Pinwheels In Visual Cortex, Kukjin Kang, Michael Shelley, and Haim Sompolinsky, PNAS published 24 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0138051100
      8. Further Genetic Evidence For A Panic Disorder Syndrome Mapping To Chromosome 13q, Steven P. Hamilton, Abby J. Fyer, Martina Durner, Gary A. Heiman, Ada Baisre de Leon, Susan E. Hodge, James A. Knowles, Myrna M. Weissman, PNAS published 25 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0335669100
      9. Stochastic Gene Expression As A Many-Body Problem, Masaki Sasai and Peter G. Wolynes, PNAS published 26 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.2627987100
      10. Kiss-And-Run, Fuse-Pinch-And-Linger, Fuse-And-Collapse: The Life And Times Of A Neurosecretory Granule, Timothy A. Ryan, PNAS published 26 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0530260100
      11. Regional Squabbling Scuttles an Iraqi Opposition Meeting, Judith Miller, David Rohde, NYTimes, 03/02/25, An effort to showcase cooperation between Turkey and the Kurdish parties in northern Iraq ended in chaos and recriminations.
      12. Neural Deficits In Children With Dyslexia Ameliorated By Behavioral Remediation: Evidence From Functional MRI, Elise Temple, Gayle K. Deutsch, Russell A. Poldrack, Steven L. Miller, Paula Tallal, Michael M. Merzenich, and John D. E. Gabrieli, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA published 25 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0030098100
      13. Science Panel Faults Bush Global Warming Research Plan, AP, Siliconvalley.com, 03/02/26
      14. Climate Modelling: Severe Summertime Flooding In Europe, Jens H. Christensen, Ole B. Christensen, Nature 421, 805 - 806 (2003); doi:10.1038/421805a
      15. New Ages For Human Occupation And Climatic Change At Lake Mungo, Australia, James M. Bowler, Harvey Johnston, Jon M. Olley, John R. Prescott, Richard G. Roberts, Wilfred Shawcross, Nigel A. Spooner, Nature 421, 837 - 840 (2003); Doi:10.1038/Nature01383
      16. Dolly's Death Leaves Researchers Woolly On Clone Ageing Issue, Jim Giles, Jonathan Knight, Nature 421, 776 (2003); Doi:10.1038/421776a
      17. The Complete Folding Pathway Of A Protein From Nanoseconds To Microseconds, Ugo Mayor, Nicholas R. Guydosh, Christopher M. Johnson, J. Gunter Grossmann, Satoshi Sato, Gouri S. Jas, Stefan M. V. Freund, Darwin O. V. Alonso, Valerie Daggett, Alan R. Fersht, Nature 421, 863 - 867 (2003); Doi:10.1038/Nature01428
      18. A Mode Hypothesis For Finger Interaction During Multi-Finger Force-Production Tasks, F. Danion, G. Schöner, M. Latash, S. Li, J. P. Scholz & V. M. Zatsiorsky, Biol. Cybernetics, Vol. 88 Issue 2, pp:91-98, Feb. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00422-002-0336-z
      19. Mathematics Reflecting Sensorimotor Organization, G. McCollum, Biol. Cybernetics, Vol. 88 Issue 2, pp:108-128, Feb. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00422-002-0344-z
      20. Sex Differences In Semantic Language Processing: A Functional MRI Study, L. C. Baxter, A. J. Saykin, L. A. Flashman, S. C. Johnson, S. J. Guerin, D. R. Babcock & H. A. Wishart, Brain & Language, Vol. 84, Issue 2, pp:264-272, Feb. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0093-934X(02)00549-7
      21. A Faster Single-Term Divisible Electronic Cash: Zcash, M. Zhong, Electr. Comm. Res. & Appl., Vol. 1, Issues 3-4, pp:331-338, Aut.-Winter 2002,  DOI: 10.1016/S1567-4223(02)00024-8
      22. A Personalized Recommendation Procedure For Internet Shopping Support, J. K. Kim, Y. H. Cho, W. J. Kim, J. R. Kim & J. H. Suh, Electr. Comm. Res. & Appl., Vol. 1, Issues 3-4, pp: 301-313, Aut.-Winter 2002, DOI: 10.1016/S1567-4223(02)00022-4
      23. vCOM: Electronic Commerce In A Collaborative Virtual World, X. Shen, T. Radakrishnan and N. D. Georganas, Electr. Comm. Res. & Appl., Vol. 1, Issues 3-4, pp: 281-300, Aut.-Winter 2002, DOI: 10.1016/S1567-4223(02)00021-2
      24. An MPEG-4 Renderer For High Quality Video Composition And Texture Mapping, Q. L. Nguyen-Phuc & C. M. Sorolla, J. VLSI Signal Processing, 33 (3): 255-265, Mar. 2003
      25. OHSU Researchers Discover Brain Cell Mechanism Possibly Linked To Mental Retardation, ScienceDaily, 2003/02/20
      26. Has Your Computer Talked Back To You Lately? New Software Translation Tool Can Communicate, ScienceDaily, 2003/02/24
      27. Artificial Skin Gets A Grip, J. Aslett, Alphagalileo, 2003/02/21
      28. Rubbish Reveal Even Secret Things, H. Häivälä,Alphagalileo, 2003/02/24
      29. People In The Middle Ages Were Fashion Conscious Too, H. Häivälä, Alphagalileo, 2003/02/24
      30. Mobile Phones Could Be Allowed In Some Parts Of Hospitals, E. Dickinson, Alphagalileo, 2003/02/26
      31.  Phase Structures of Resource Allocation Games, Robert Savit, Sven A. Brueckner, H. Van Dyke Parunak, John Sauter, 2003-02-24, DOI: nlin.AO/0302053, arXiv
      32. Scars on Quantum Networks Ignore the Lyapunov Exponent, Holger Schanz , Tsampikos Kottos, 2003-02-24, arXiv
      33. Slow Feature Analysis Yields a Rich Repertoire of Complex Cell Properties, Berkes, Pietro , Wiskott, Laurenz, 2003, CogPrints

       


    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Television & Children's Media Policy: Where Do We Go From Here?, Annenberg Public Policy Center at U. Penn, Washinghton, DC, 03/02/28, c-span, (clip12657), 1:35
      2. INSC 2003, International Nonlinear Sciences Conference, Conference Webcast
      3. World Economic Forum Meeting "Building Trust", Davos, Switzerland, 03/01/23-28
      4. 2002 Financial Management Conference, 02/10/16-19
      5. Artificial Life Conference (A-Life 8), Sydney, Australia, 02/12/09-13
      6. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

       


    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. GGF7 - The 7th Global Grid Forum, "Grids Around the World", Tokyo, JP, 03/03/04-07
      2. Complexity Science In Practice: Understanding & Acting To Improve Health and Health Care, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota USA, 03/03/21-22
      3. Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning (IDEAL'03), Hong Kong, 03/03/21-23
      4. 2003 AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Computational Synthesis: From Basic Building Blocks To High Level Functionality, Stanford, 03/03/24-27
      5. Jahrestagung 2003 des AKSOE (Physics of Socio-Economical Systems), Dresden, Germany, 03/03/24-28
      6. Design and Product Complexity Meeting, Open Univ, Milton Keynes, UK, 03/04/07
      7. Explorations of Complexity - A Science of Qualities: A Conversation with Brian Goodwin, Open Univ, Milton Keynes, UK, 03/04/07
      8. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected, U. of Texas at Austin, Texas, 03/04/10-12
      9. 7th Annual Swarm Researchers and Users Meeting (SwarmFest2003), Notre Dame, IN, 03/04/13-14
      10. Agent-Based Simulation 4, Montpellier, France, 03/04/28-30
      11. 2003 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Santa Clara, CA, 03/04/22-25
      12. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, The Beckman Center, Irvine, CA, 03/05/09-11
      13. The Opening of Systems Theory, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, DK, 02/05/23-25
      14. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/01-04
      15. 21st ICDE World Conf on Open Learning and Distance Education, Hong Kong, 03/06/01-05
      16. 17th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS 2003), San Diego, California, 03/06/10-13
      17. 2003 Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC '03), Montreal, Canada, 03/06/20-24
      18. 5th Intl Conf "Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics", Kiev, Ukraine, 03/06/23-29, Mirror
      19. 47th Meeting of the Intl Soc for the System Sciences: Conscious Evolution Of Humanity: Using Systems Thinking To Construct Agoras Of The Global Village, Iraklion, Crete, Greec, 03/07/07-11
      20. 9th International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, 03/07/07-09, Wkshp on Assistive Technologies for the Blind, 03/07/06
      21. 2003 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, IL,03/07/12-16
      22. 2nd Intl Joint Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-2003), Melbourne, Australia, 03/07/14-18
      23. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Orlando, Florida, 03/07/27-30
      24. 13th Annual International Conference, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences,Boston, MA, USA, 03/08/08-10
      25. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 03/09/22-25
      26. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      27. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Beijing, China, 03/10/13-17
      28. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 03/11/19-22
      29. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 03/11/29-30
      30. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 03/12/15-17

       


      1. Public Conference Calls Next Article Bookmark and Share

        1. Complexity And Medical Practice, Pat Rush & Bob Lindberg, PlexusCalls, 03/01/10, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        2. John Holland in Conversation, PlexusCalls, - Audio File Available Now, mp3
        3. Are Disease and Aging Information/Complexity Loss Syndromes?, PlexusCalls, 02/11/08, 1 - 2 pm EST (To learn more about Ary Goldberger’s work and HeartSongs, Music of the Heart.) Audio File Available Now, mp3
        4. Brenda Zimmerman in Conversation, PlexusCalls, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        5. The Complexity of Entrepreneurship: A Launchcyte Story, Tom Petzinger, PlexusCalls, 02/11/22, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        6. A Practical and Appreciative Approach to Complex and Chronic Challenges, Keith McCandless, PlexusCalls, Jan 2003, Audio File Available Now, mp3

         


    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test Bookmark and Share

      We are in the process of upgrading the Complexity Digest archives to a format with improved search capabilities. Also, we will finally be able to adequately publish the valuable feedback and comments from our knowledgable readers. You are cordially invited to become a beta tester of our new ComDig2 archive.

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