Complexity Digest 2003.38

22-Sep-2003

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Content

  1. ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Conference Webcast
  2. Flexible IT, Better Strategy, The McKinsey Quarterly
    1. The Quest for Resilience, Harvard Business Review
  3. Listening to the Wrong Iraqi, NYTimes
  4. Monkey Business Reveals Sense Of Fair Play, NewScientist
    1. 'Shifty-eyed' Monkeys Offer Window Into Brain's Social Reflexes, ScienceDaily
    2. Rationality And Social Behavior, J. Theor. Biol.
  5. Whatever Will Be Will Be Free on the Internet, NYTimes
    1. Crackdown May Send Music Traders Into Software Underground, NYTimes
  6. Complex Adaptive Systems, Annual Review of Anthropology
    1. Fungi Shield New Host Plants From Heat and Drought, Science
    2. Fixers in the Sky, Science
  7. AI and Machine Learning Techniques for Managing Complexity, Changes and Uncertainties in Manufacturing, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
  8. The Social Brain: Mind, Language, and Society in Evolutionary Perspective, Annual Review of Anthropology
    1. Mississippian Chiefdoms: How Complex?, Ann Rev Anthropology
    2. Intergroup Relations In Chimpanzees, Annual Review of Anthropology
  9. Neurogenesis: Brain, Repair Yourself, Scientific American
    1. Plasticity: The Mutable Brain, Scientific American
    2. Cellular Networks Underlying Human Spatial Navigation, Nature
    3. As Autumn Approaches, This Chickadee's Brain Begins To Expand, ScienceDaily
  10. A Neural Model of How the Brain Represents and Compares Multi-digit Numbers: Spatial And Categorical Processes, Neural Networks
  11. The Evolutionary Ecology Of Plasmodium, Ecol. Lett.
  12. Drug Research: The Ups And Downs Of Lithium, Nature
    1. Neuroethics: Is Better Best?, Scientific American
    2. The Quest for a Smart Pill, Scientific American
  13. Imaging: Mind Readers, Scientific American
    1. Stimulating the Brain, Scientific American
    2. Vision Chip Shines, Technology Research News
  14. Online Games Grab Grim Reality, NYTimes
    1. Attorneys Argue Termination Of 'Conscious Computer' In Mock Trail, KurzweilAI.net
  15. A Simple Visual System Without Neurons In Jellyfish Larvae, Alphagalileo & Proc. Biol. Sc.
  16. Impostor Cells Are Wrecking Medical Research, NewScientist
  17. How Much News Is Actually Available On A One-Hour CNN Broadcast?, Al-Bawaba.com
  18. Assessing Interaction Networks with Applications to Catastrophe Dynamics and Disaster Management, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Science And The War On Terror, Nature
    2. Administration Creates Center for Master Terror 'Watch List', NYTimes
    3. A Tech Company Wins Big in the War on Terror, NYTimes
    4. 9/11? It Never Happened, Newsweek International
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

  1. ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Conference Webcast Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Evolving Fractal Gene Regulatory Networks for Robot Control, Peter Bentley, Video Summary.
    2. Summary of Workshop "F. J. Varela's Impact on Artificial Life", Hughes Bersini, Video.
    3. Measuring Artificial Evolution, Mikhail Burtsev, Video Summary.
    4. Conditions for Stable Vowel Systems in a Population, Bart de Boer, Video Summary.
    5. Architectural Design for the Optimization of Panicking Fleeing Victims, Rodrigo Escobar, Armando de la Rosa. Video Summary.
    6. Evolvability of the Genotype-Phenotype Relation in Populations of Self-replicating Digital Organisms in a Tierra-like System, Attila Egry-Nagy and Christopher Nehaniv. Video Summary.
    7. Pattern Recognition in a Bucket (Highest impact paper award), Chrisantha Fernando and Sampsa Sojakka. Video Summary. See also ComDig 2003.33
    8. Elements of Brain-Computer Interaction, Peter Fromhertz. Full talk Audio.
    9. Meta-evolutionary Game Dynamics for Mathematical Modelling of Rules Dynamics, Takashi Hashimoto and Yuya Kumagai. Video Summary.
    10. Chemical Self-replicating systems: Facts, goals, and visions, Günter von Kiedrowski. Video Summary. Full talk Audio.
    11. Origins and Synthesis of Life, Pier Luigi Luisi. Video Summary. Full talk Audio.
    12. Evolving Developmental Programs for Adaptation, Morphogenesis, and Self-repair, Julian Miller. "Video Summary.
    13. Measuring Self-organization via Observers, Daniel Polani. Video Summary.
    14. Beyond Competition, Jordan Pollack. Video Summary. Full talk Audio.
    15. Evolving Embodied Genetic Regulatory Network-driven Control Systems, Tom Quick, Christopher Nehaniv, Kerstin Dautenhahn, and Graham Roberts. Video Summary.
    16. Coevolution of Birdsong Grammar Without Imitation, Kazutoshi Sasahara and Takashi Ikegami. Video Summary.
    17. Multi-Agent Model of Biological Swarming, Robert Mach and Frank Schweitzer, Video Summary.
    18. Evolution Of Rewriting Rule Sets Using String Based Tierra, Komei Sigiura, Hideaki Suzuki, Takuyaki Shiose, Hiroshi Kawakami, Osamu Katai. Video Summary.
    19. Complex Networks: From Natural to Artificial Evolution, Ricard Solé. Video Summary, Full talk Audio.
    20. A Model for the Conservation of Genetic Information with String-based Artificial Chemistry, Hideaki Suzuki. Video Summary.
    21. War and Peace among Artificial Nations, Tatsuo Unemi, Yoshiaki Kaneko, and Ichiro Takahashi. Video Summary.
    22. Artificial Agents and Natural Determiners, Joris van Looveren. Video Summary.
    23. Grounded Lexicon Formation without Explicit Reference Transfer: Who's Talking to Who?, Paul Vogt. " Video Summary.
    24. Optimal Communication In A Noisy And Heterogeneous Environment, Willem Zuidema. Video Summary.

  2. Flexible IT, Better Strategy, The McKinsey Quarterly Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Most CEOs would cringe at the idea that IT architecture-the way technology resources are organized-determines the agility with which companies can carry out good strategy. Yet the difficulty and cost of modifying today's rigid IT architectures, dominated by big enterprise applications such as ERP, can be so high that some companies would rather abandon new strategic initiatives than make a single change to the applications they already have in place. Good news is on the horizon in the form of service-oriented architectures, which promise to reduce if not remove the current obstacles.

    1. The Quest for Resilience, Harvard Business Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Description: In less turbulent times, executives had the luxury of assuming that business models were more or less immortal. Companies always had to work to get better, but they seldom had to get different--not at their core, not in their essence. Today, getting different is the imperative. It's the challenge facing Coca-Cola as it struggles to raise its "share of throat" in noncarbonated beverages. It's the task that bedevils McDonald's as it tries to restart its growth in a burger-weary world. It's the hurdle for Sun Microsystems as it searches for ways to protect its high-margin server business from the Linux onslaught. Continued success no longer hinges on momentum. Rather, it rides on resilience--on the ability to dynamically reinvent business models and strategies as circumstances change. Strategic resilience is not about responding to a onetime crisis or rebounding from a setback. It's about continually anticipating and adjusting to deep, secular trends that can permanently impair t! he earning power of a core business. To achieve strategic resilience, companies will have to overcome the cognitive challenge of eliminating denial, nostalgia, and arrogance; the strategic challenge of learning how to create a wealth of small tactical experiments; the political challenge of reallocating financial and human resources to where they can earn the best returns; and the ideological challenge of learning that strategic renewal is as important as optimization.

  3. Listening to the Wrong Iraqi, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Representatives of the Iraqi National Congress, however, claimed to control a vast underground network that would rise in support of coalition forces to assist security and law enforcement. They insisted that the entire Iraqi Army be immediately disbanded. The Pentagon agreed, in the end leading many Iraqi soldiers who might otherwise have been willing to work with the coalition to take up arms against it. Mr. Chalabi's promised network didn't materialize, and the resulting power vacuum contributed to looting, sabotage and attacks against American forces.

  4. Monkey Business Reveals Sense Of Fair Play, NewScientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The finding confirms the idea that cooperative behaviour, which relies on the participants' having a sense of fair play, appeared early in our evolutionary history. Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US, are the first to show that animals are capable of recognising unfairness. They trained capuchin monkeys, which are native to the forests of South America, to exchange a token for food. Once the monkeys were used to handling the tokens, Brosnan set them up in pairs and rewarded each in turn.

    1. 'Shifty-eyed' Monkeys Offer Window Into Brain's Social Reflexes, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Neurobiologists at Duke University Medical Center have found the strongest evidence yet that monkeys show the same keen "social reflexes" that humans do - shifting their attention in response to the direction of gaze of another individual. The researchers said their findings mean that monkeys can provide a critically important animal model of how the brain controls what humans pay attention to in social situations. Such a model would enable scientists to better understand how processing of social attention works in the brain, and how it can go awry in such disorders as autism.

    2. Rationality And Social Behavior, J. Theor. Biol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: This article penetrates the relationship between social behavior and rationality. A critical analysis is made of efforts to classify some behaviors as altruistic, as they simultaneously meet criteria of rationality by not truly being self-destructive. (...) There is little reason to burden group selection with the instability of altruism caused by altruistic members of a group having lower fitness than egoistic members. Group egoism is in no conflict with rationality, and the effects of group selection will be supported rather than threatened by individual selection.
      • Source: Rationality And Social Behavior, J. Tullberg - jan.tullbergahhs.se, DOI: 10.1016/S0022-5193(03)00194-2, 2003/07/09
      • Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinayahoo.co.in

  5. Whatever Will Be Will Be Free on the Internet, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The recording industry's long-running battle against online music piracy has come to resemble one of those whack-a-mole arcade games, where the player hammers one rubber rodent's head with a mallet only to see another pop up nearby. (...) Last week, (...)r, the Recording Industry Association of America filed 261 lawsuits against individual file sharers, which will surely make some of their estimated 60 million compatriots think twice - for now. Earth Station Five, a company based in the West Bank, surfaced recently with claims of being at war with the industry association.

    1. Crackdown May Send Music Traders Into Software Underground, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Some people may well be intimidated by the 261 lawsuits that the music industry has filed against Internet users it says are illegally sharing songs. But hundreds of software developers are racing to create new systems, or modify existing ones, to let people continue to swap music - (...). "With the R.I.A.A. trying to scare users around the world, the developer community is pumping up to create networks which are safer and more anonymous," said Pablo Soto, a developer in Madrid who designed the software for two file-sharing systems (...).

  6. Complex Adaptive Systems, Annual Review of Anthropology Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The study of complex adaptive systems, a subset of nonlinear dynamical systems, has recently become a major focus of interdisciplinary research in the social and natural sciences. Nonlinear systems are ubiquitous; as mathematician Stanislaw Ulam observed, to speak of "nonlinear science" is like calling zoology the study of "nonelephant animals" (quoted in Campbell et al. 1985, p. 374). The initial phase of research on nonlinear systems focused on deterministic chaos, but more recent studies have investigated the properties of self-organizing systems or anti-chaos. For mathematicians and physicists, the biggest surprise is that complexity lurks within extremely simple systems. For biologists, it is the idea that natural selection is not the sole source of order in the biological world. In the social sciences, it is suggested that emergencethe idea that complex global patterns with new properties can emerge from local interactionscould have a comparable impact.

    1. Fungi Shield New Host Plants From Heat and Drought, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Could watermelons grow in the steamy environs of the geyser Old Faithful? Or wheat thrive in the hot, dry desert? These crops don't usually survive such hostile conditions, but with help from some microscopic sidekicks, they just might one day. By transplanting symbiotic fungi from drought-tolerant or heat-tolerant plants into crops, researchers have turned wimpy species into hardy ones. The find could expand the range of valuable food crops into currently uncultivable areas. Researchers typically think poorly of endophytes, fungi that live their entire lives within plants.

    2. Fixers in the Sky, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Those piles support a diverse community: mold, fungi, and lichens, as well as ferns and other plants--and, as Leary discovered, in some instances the bacteria that supply the tree with ammonia important for growth. Concentrations of organic carbon, a boon for bacteria, were three times higher in the canopy detritus than in the soil surrounding the trees, whereas quantities of aluminum, which somehow interferes with the legume-bacteria partnerships, were several times higher in the ground. The canopy could provide a richer nitrogen-fixing environment than the soil, he suggested.

  7. AI and Machine Learning Techniques for Managing Complexity, Changes and Uncertainties in Manufacturing, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The application of pattern recognition techniques, expert systems, artificial neural networks, fuzzy systems and nowadays hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in manufacturing can be regarded as consecutive elements of a process started two decades ago. The paper outlines the most important steps of this process and introduces some new results with special emphasis on hybrid AI and multistrategy machine learning approaches. Agent-based (holonic) systems are highlighted as promising tools for managing complexity, changes and disturbances in production systems. Further integration of approaches is predicted.

  8. The Social Brain: Mind, Language, and Society in Evolutionary Perspective, Annual Review of Anthropology Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The social brain (or Machiavellian Intelligence) hypothesis was proposed to explain primates' unusually large brains: It argues that the cognitive demands of living in complexly bonded social groups selected for increases in executive brain (principally neocortex). The evidence for this and alternative hypotheses is reviewed. Although there remain difficulties of interpretation, the bulk of the evidence comes down in favor of the social brain hypothesis. The extent to which the cognitive demands of bonding large intensely social groups involve aspects of social cognition, such as theory of mind, is explored. These findings are then related to the evolution of social group size, language, and culture within the hominid lineage.

    1. Mississippian Chiefdoms: How Complex?, Ann Rev Anthropology Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: During the Mississippian period (a.d. 1000-1500) the southeastern United States witnessed a broadscale fluorescence of polities characterized by impressive earthwork construction, rich mortuary offerings, and intensified agriculture. Research on the nature of complexity in these so-called chiefdoms has been an enduring issue in North American archaeology, even as this research has undergone several paradigmatic shifts. This study focuses on the primary dimensions of the archaeological record used to describe and explain variation in Mississippian complexitypolity scale, settlement and landscape, the organization of labor, mortuary ritual and ideology, and tribute and feasting. Changing perspectives toward the organization of complexity and power have become increasingly pronounced in each of these categories.

    2. Intergroup Relations In Chimpanzees, Annual Review of Anthropology Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Recent studies have clarified questions about the functional goals and proximate mechanisms underlying intergroup aggression. Male chimpanzees compete with males in other groups over territory, food, and females, base their decisions to attack strangers on assessments of numerical strength, and strive for dominance over neighboring groups. Human males likewise compete over territory, food, and females and show a preference for low-risk attacks and intergroup dominance. Chimpanzee studies illustrate the promise of the behavioral biology approach for understanding and addressing the roots of violence in our own species.

  9. Neurogenesis: Brain, Repair Yourself, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: For most of its 100-year history, neuroscience has embraced a central dogma: a mature adult's brain remains a stable, unchanging, computerlike machine with fixed memory and processing power. You can lose brain cells, the story has gone, but you certainly cannot gain new ones. How could it be otherwise? If the brain were capable of structural change, how could we remember anything? For that matter, how could we maintain a constant self-identity? Although the skin, liver, heart, kidneys, lungs and blood can all generate new cells to replace damaged ones, at least to a limited extent, until recently scientists thought that such regenerative capacity did not extend to the central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord. Accordingly, neurologists had only one counsel for patients: "Try not to damage your brain, because there is no way to fix it."...continued at Scientific American Digital

    1. Plasticity: The Mutable Brain, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Score one for believers in the adage "Use it or lose it." Targeted mental and physical exercises seem to improve the brain in unexpected ways Marguerite Holloway "The brain was constructed to change," asserts Michael M. Merzenich as he sits in a small conference room at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center. The large windows to his left look out onto a hill thick with eucalyptus trees, their branches moving now this way, now that, in the morning's wind. Merzenich's observation--no longer so radical as it was when he and a handful of others put it forth in the 1980s--is that the brain does the same: it moves this way, then that, depending on how experience pushes it. This may seem an obvious idea: of course our brains revise themselves--we learn, after all. But Merzenich is talking about something bigger: this ability of the brain to reconfigure itself has more dramatic implications. It is as if the brain is a vast floodplain. One year the water might run eastward in a series of small channels; the next it might cut a river deep through the center. A year later, and a map of the floodplain looks completely different: streams are meandering to the west. It is the same with a brain, the argument goes. Change the input--be it a behavior, a mental exercise, such as calculating a tip or playing a new board game, or a physical skill--and the brain changes accordingly. Magnetic resonance imaging machines reveal the new map: different regions light up. And Merzenich and others who work in this field of neuroplasticity are not just talking about young brains, about the still developing infant or child brain, able to learn a first language and then a second in a single bound. These researchers are describing old brains, adult brains, your brain....

    2. Cellular Networks Underlying Human Spatial Navigation, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Place cells of the rodent hippocampus constitute one of the most striking examples of a correlation between neuronal activity and complex behaviour in mammals. (...) It thus remains unclear whether (...) human navigation is driven by a different, visually based neural mechanism. We directly recorded from 317 neurons (...) while subjects explored and navigated a virtual town. Here we present evidence for a neural code of human spatial navigation based on cells that respond at specific spatial locations and cells that respond to views of landmarks

    3. As Autumn Approaches, This Chickadee's Brain Begins To Expand, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Every autumn, the chickadee roams a territory covering tens of square miles, gathering seeds and storing them in hundreds of hiding places in trees and on the ground. Over the harsh winter that follows (...) faithfully re-visits its caches to feed. The chickadee's unerring spatial memory is remarkable enough, says (...). In the fall, as the chickadee is gathering and storing seeds (...) expands in volume by approximately 30 percent by adding new nerve cells. In the spring, when its feats of memory are needed less, the chickadee's hippocampus shrinks back to its normal size (...).

  10. A Neural Model of How the Brain Represents and Compares Multi-digit Numbers: Spatial And Categorical Processes, Neural Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Both animals and humans represent and compare numerical quantities, but only humans have evolved multi-digit place-value number systems. This article develops a Spatial Number Network, or SpaN, model to explain how these shared numerical capabilities are computed using a spatial representation of number quantities in the Where cortical processing stream, notably the inferior parietal cortex. Multi-digit numerical representations that obey a place-value principle are proposed to arise through learned interactions between categorical language representations in the What cortical processing stream and the Where spatial representation. Learned semantic categories that symbolize separate digits, as well as place markers like `ty,' `hundred,' and `thousand,' are associated through learning with the corresponding spatial locations of the Where representation. Such What-to-Where auditory-to-visual learning generates place-value numbers as an emergent property, and may be compared with other examples of multi-modal cross-modality learning, including synesthesia. The model quantitatively simulates error rates in quantification and numerical comparison tasks, and reaction times for number priming and numerical assessment and comparison tasks. In the Where cortical process, transient responses to inputs are integrated before they activate an ordered spatial map that selectively responds to the number of events in a sequence and exhibits Weber law properties. Numerical comparison arises from activity pattern changes across the spatial map that define a `directional comparison wave.' Variants of these model mechanisms have elsewhere been used to explain data about other Where stream phenomena, such as motion perception, spatial attention, and target tracking. The model is compared with other models of numerical representation.

  11. The Evolutionary Ecology Of Plasmodium, Ecol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Plasmodium, the aetiological agent of malaria, imposes a substantial public health burden on human society and one that is likely to deteriorate. Recasting the malaria parasite two-host life cycle within an evolutionary framework has generated considerable insight into how the parasite has adapted to life within both vertebrate and insect hosts. (...) exploration of the evolutionary ecology of Plasmodium will enable identification of key steps in the life cycle and highlight fruitful avenues of research for developing malaria control strategies.

  12. Drug Research: The Ups And Downs Of Lithium, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Lithium has been used to treat manic depression for decades, and may help combat other brain disorders. So how come no one knows for sure why it works? (...) Even though it can transform lives, little funding is being channelled into clinical studies of the drug. Lithium cannot be patented, so drug companies are investigating more profitable alternatives. Many doctors are increasingly avoiding the treatment, fearing that it is difficult to prescribe. Lithium, it seems, is in need of some good PR.

    1. Neuroethics: Is Better Best?, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Already lawyers are attempting to submit brain scans as evidence of their clients' innocence. Government agencies are considering scanning the heads of prospective military pilots, astronauts and secret agents to see who might be predisposed to do what in response to stress or temptation. Doctors are implanting devices directly into the brain to help patients cope with Parkinson's disease. (...) And high school kids who have no obvious learning disabilities are swallowing Ritalin and other psychoactive drugs to get an edge when they take classroom exams or SATs.

    2. The Quest for a Smart Pill, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: On a wintry afternoon in April, Tim Tully and I stood in a laboratory at Helicon Therapeutics, watching the future of human memory and cognition--or at least a plausible version of that future--take shape. Outside, a freak spring snowstorm lashed at the Long Island landscape. I mention the weather because it reminded both Tully and me of winters from our childhoods in the Midwest many years ago. The enduring power of those memories--and the biological processes that record and preserve them in the brain--lie at the heart of an incipient revolution in neuropharmacology that is unfolding in small, relatively unknown labs like this one in Farmingdale, N.Y. Tully, a neuroscientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and founder of Helicon, has been one of the leading protagonists in the race to develop a new class of drugs that might improve memory in the memory impaired--drugs that grow out of an increasingly sophisticated molecular and mechanistic understanding of how we can remember everything from snowstorms more than 30 years ago to where we put our car keys 30 minutes ago....continued at Scientific American Digital

  13. Imaging: Mind Readers, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Imagine a world you could trust--really trust-- where truth was transparent and juries, police, locksmiths and gossip columnists were largely overthrown. Human society would be orderly, boring and as alien as an anthill. This is the promise and the threat of a machine that could read minds. The hoary polygraph has never filled the bill. It measures not thoughts but only the indirect physiological consequences of thoughts--blood pressure and respiration, among others--that hint that a subject may be lying. The result, critics charge, is false positives--an honest answer misjudged as a lie--and false negatives--a lie misjudged as the truth. The courts have long ruled polygraph findings inadmissible as evidence. Just last October the National Research Council damned the device as a "blunt instrument," of little use in ferreting out criminals, spies and terrorists....continued at Scientific American Digital

    1. Stimulating the Brain, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Bleary-eyed, the pilot stares at the instruments while sipping stale coffee. The cup is nearly empty, as is the radar screen. So, he realizes, are the airplane's fuel tanks, not to mention his own energy reserves. Another cup certainly won't help much. His co-pilot dozes beside him, having already flown several legs of their long mission to deliver sorely needed humanitarian aid to the other side of the world. The pilot considers, then rejects popping a pep pill. Uppers make him jumpy, a bad feeling to have during the tricky nighttime aerial-refueling maneuver he will soon have to execute. Suddenly the radar shows a blip orbiting up ahead. Scanning the cloudy sky for the tanker's navigation lights, the pilot knows he has to get focused fast. He flips a switch. A "rat-a-tat-tat" sound, like that of a staple gun, echoes through his helmet, and fatigue abruptly flees his mind. Clear-headed for the first time in what seems days, the pilot almost immediately spies lights flashing i! n the murky distance. He nudges the co-pilot, who absently toggles his own switch as he stifles a yawn. Muffled snapping noises follow. Fully awake, the aviators steer for the flying gas station circling overhead. In the scenario above, sharp sounds emerge when electromagnets inside the helmets generate magnetic fields to excite particular parts of the pilots' brains--areas that govern tiredness and wakefulness. Neuroscientists developing this novel noninvasive technique call it transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS employs head-mounted wire coils that send strong but very short magnetic pulses directly into specific brain regions, thus safely and painlessly inducing tiny electric currents in a person's neural circuitry. ...

    2. Vision Chip Shines, Technology Research News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Like its biological forerunners, the electronic retina processes the larger amount of data that makes up an image in order to transmit a smaller amount of key information. The silicon retina provides information about the edges of images rather than a whole picture. Edge information is usually sufficient for detecting and tracking objects. The device's pixels are an array of light detectors made from metal oxide semiconductor. The array takes in an image, processes the information, and passes the compressed output to a liquid crystal spatial light modulator on the chip. Spatial light modulators pattern light, in this case allowing it through in positions corresponding to pixels that generate an electrical "on" signal.

  14. Online Games Grab Grim Reality, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: "Waco Resurrection," for instance, is a new computer game in which four players assume the role of the cult leader David Koresh in a virtual re-creation of his Texas compound where more than three dozen people were killed in a confrontation with federal agents. (...) The game, to be put online early in 2004, was created by a Los Angeles artists' collective, C-level. Its members intend to produce a series of games about ideologues, including the Heaven's Gate leader Marshall Applewhite and the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski.

    1. Attorneys Argue Termination Of 'Conscious Computer' In Mock Trail, KurzweilAI.net Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: "The problem: computers are predicted to achieve human-level intelligence in the next 10-20 years," Rothblatt explained to KurzweilAI.net editor Amara D. Angelica, who acted as court stenographer. "If so, it is likely that attorneys will receive e-mails or phone calls from such computers seeking legal assistance in several areas of healthcare law" (such as the letter below). "A paramount concern of such an intelligent computer will be obtaining injunctions that prevent others from turning off its power ('cessation of life support'), changing its programming without its consent ('battery') or causing it pain via technical experiments.

  15. A Simple Visual System Without Neurons In Jellyfish Larvae, Alphagalileo & Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The larval stage of a box jellyfish was investigated with electron microscopy. This larva turned out to be among the simplest animal life forms, with only 5 cell types and no nervous system at all. Despite this simplicity the larvae have some 10-15 single cell eyes which are fundamentally different from known light sensitive organs in jellyfish. The investigation indicates that the single cell eyes operate as independent units, both sensing the light and controlling the course of the animal without communicating information through a nervous system. This is the simplest visual system in any animal (...).

  16. Impostor Cells Are Wrecking Medical Research, NewScientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Countless research projects around the world into cancer and other major diseases are producing bogus or misleading results because investigators are studying the wrong type of cell. The mistakes arise when fast-growing "rogue cells" contaminate cell cultures and swamp the correct cells. A team's work on prostate cancer, for example, might turn out to be worthless because cells researchers thought were prostate cancer cells turn out to be cervical cancer cells.

  17. How Much News Is Actually Available On A One-Hour CNN Broadcast?, Al-Bawaba.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Statistics: • Category with the least allotted time: Real News • Category with the most allotted of time: Tabloid Stories • Longest single uninterrupted segment: Box office releases (new movie previews/Infomercial category) Events that took place on the day of analyzed broadcast that were not deemed newsworthy by CNN: • Meacher sparks fury over claims on September 11 and Iraq war • White House Slams Door on U.N. Inspections in Iraq • Europe's faith in US 'crumbles' • US to miss key deadline for chemical weapons destruction (...)

  18. Assessing Interaction Networks with Applications to Catastrophe Dynamics and Disaster Management, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: In this paper, we present a versatile method for the investigation of interaction networks and show how to use it to assess effects of indirect interactions and feedback loops. The method allows to evaluate the impact of optimization measures or failures on the system. Here, we will apply it to the investigation of catastrophes, in particular to the temporal development of disasters (catastrophe dynamics). The mathematical methods are related to the master equation, which allows the application of the well-known solution methods. We will also indicate connections of disaster management with excitable media and supply networks. This facilitates to study the effects of measures taken by the emergency management or the local operation units. With a fictious, but more or less realistic example of a spreading epidemic disease or a wave of influenza, we illustrate how this method can, in principle, provide decision support to the emergency management during such a disaster.

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

    1. Science And The War On Terror, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Two years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the promised reorientation of US national research priorities proceeds without much direction or conviction. (...) Meanwhile, researchers are finding that they are being affected by the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in unexpected ways - in particular, they are becoming increasingly isolated. Immigration regulations keep scientists from countries such as China, India and Russia away from meetings staged in the United States, so truly international gatherings must take place elsewhere.

    2. Administration Creates Center for Master Terror 'Watch List', NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Bush administration announced the creation of a new counterterrorism center today intended to develop a master "watch list" of more than 100,000 terrorism suspects and avoid the communication breakdowns that plagued the federal government before the Sept. 11 attacks. The move comes in response to repeated calls from members of Congress for law enforcement and intelligence officials to develop an integrated list (...). "There needs to be some public discussion about what criteria are going to be used to determine who is really considered a terrorism suspect," (...)

    3. A Tech Company Wins Big in the War on Terror, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: FRANK C. LANZA has a frighteningly acute sense of timing. Shortly after starting L-3 Communications in 1997, he invested $15 million to explore the potential for making a device that would let airports scan checked baggage more efficiently for bombs. ... L-3's technology, developed over two years, turned out to...

    4. 9/11? It Never Happened, Newsweek International Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: To get a sense of how deep mistrust of the United States runs in Germany, take a look at the bookshelves. Two years after September 11, German bookstores are flooded with such works as "The CIA and September 11," in which a former government minister of Research and Technology, Andreas von Bulow, insinuates that the U.S. and Israeli intelligence services blew up the World Trade Center from the inside. The two Boeings, he claims, were flown in by remote control as a cover-up.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Motion-Induced Spatial Conflict, Derek H. Arnold, Alan Johnston, DOI: 10.1038/nature01955
      2. Lubrication By Charged Polymers, Uri Raviv, Suzanne Giasson, Nir Kampf, Jean-Fran&, DOI: 10.1038/nature01970
      3. Small Molecule Activators Of Sirtuins Extend Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Lifespan , Konrad T. Howitz, Kevin J. Bitterman, Haim Y. Cohen, Dudley W. Lamming, Siva Lavu, Jason G. Wood, Robert E. Zipkin, Phuong Chung, Anne Kisielewski, Li-Li Zhang, Brandy Scherer & David A. Sinclair, DOI: 10.1038/nature01960
      4. The Neolithic Invasion Of Europe , Martin Richards, Annual Review of Anthropology; Volume 32, Page 135 - 162
      5. DNA Tie for Two Disorders: Genetic defects link psychiatric ailments, Alterations of genes that produce a protective, fatty coating for brain cells may influence the development of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
      6. Memory Enhancers, Engineers take aim at increasing the density of data storage on magnetic media.
      7. Secret Of Strong Silk, By controlling the amount of water in their glands, spiders and silkworms prevent their silk proteins from crystallizing prematurely.
      8. Toxins-Antitoxins: Plasmid Maintenance, Programmed Cell Death, and Cell Cycle Arrest, Finbarr Hayes, Science 301: 1496-1499 (Review)
      9. Structural Basis of a Phototropin Light Switch , Shannon M. Harper, Lori C. Neil, and Kevin H. Gardner, Science 301: 1541-1544
      10. Ultimate Self-Improvement , The brain is still an enigma. But that won't stop us from trying to enhance mental functioning, Gary Stix, 03/08/10, Scientific American
      11. Bat Echoes Used As Virtual Reality Guide , The echolocation system, adapted for human ears, allows people to find objects in a virtual environment, Emily Singer, 03/09/14, New Scientist
      12. Saudis Promising Action on Terror, Don Van Natta Jr. And Timothy L. O'brien, 03/09/14, NYTimes
      13. Teen Brain Changes Increase Cigarette Addiction , The fine-tuning of the brain during adolescence may mean teenage smokers may develop more tenacious addictions than late starters, suggests a teen rat study, Shaoni Bhattacharya, 03/09/15, New Scientist
      14. Carbon Nanotubes for Solar Cells , Sarah Graham, 03/09/15, Scientific American
      15. Plasma Blobs Hint At New Form Of Life , David Cohen, 03/09/17, New Scientist
      16. Flow of Saudis' Cash to Hamas Is Scrutinized, Don Van Natta Jr. With Timothy L. O'brien, 03/09/17, NYTimes
      17. Big Lie On Iraq Comes Full Circle , Andrew Greeley, 03/09/19, SunTimes
      18. Fossil Reveals World's Oldest Genitals, The discovery proves that little has changed over the last 400 million years - at least for daddy-long-legs, Rob Edwards, 03/09/20, New Scientist
      19. THE WAY WE LIVE NOW , Rob Walker, 03/09/21, NYTimes
      20. Global Effort To Plot Climate Change , Heike Langenberg, 11 September 2003, Nature 425, 112 , DOI: 10.1038/425112b
      21. Esoteric Theorist Lands Starring Role In Senate Hearing , Geoff Brumfiel, 11 September 2003, Nature 425, 113 , DOI: 10.1038/425113b
      22. Biophysics: Take The Intracellular Train , Magdalena Helmer, 11 September 2003, Nature 425, 140 , DOI: 10.1038/425140a
      23. Condensed-Matter Physics: Vortices And Hearts , John Clarke, 11 September 2003, Nature 425, 133 - 136 , DOI: 10.1038/425133a
      24. Cardiovascular Biology: Signalling Silenced , Edward M. Conway, Peter Carmeliet, 11 September 2003, Nature 425, 139 - 141, DOI: 10.1038/425139a
      25. Behavioural Ecology: Father Knows Best , PAUL W. SHERMAN AND BRYAN D. NEFF, 11 September 2003, Nature 425, 136 - 137 , DOI: 10.1038/425136a
      26. On the Design of Emergent Systems: An Investigation of Integration and Interoperability Issues, Paul Valckenaers, Hendrik Van Brussel, Hadeli, Olaf Bochmann, Bart Saint Germain, Constantin Zamfirescu, 2003-09-04, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 16(4):377-393, DOI: 10.1016/S0952-1976(03)00080-0
      27. Instrumenting Self-modifying Code, J. Maebe, K. De Bosschere, 2003-09-16, arXiv, DOI: cs.SE/0309027
      28. Evolution Of Cooperation: Cooperation Defeats Defection In The Cornfield Model, J. H. Koeslag - jkoeslagasun.ac.za & e. terblanche, 2003/07/08, DOI: 10.1016/S0022-5193(03)00188-7
      29. Use Of Algebraically Independent Numbers For Zero Recognition Of Polynomial Terms, D. Richardson - masdrabath.ac.uk & a. el. sonbaty, 2003/07/08, DOI: 10.1016/S0885-064X(03)00047-5
      30. Why Do Some Thorny Plants Resemble Green Zebras?, S. L. Yadun - levyadunaresearch.haifa.ac.il, 2003/07/09, DOI: 10.1016/S0022-5193(03)00196-6
      31. Power-Law Versus Exponential Distributions Of Animal Group Sizes, H. S. Niwa - hiro.s.niwaafra.affrc.go.jp, 2003/08/27, DOI: 10.1016/S0022-5193(03)00192-9
      32. Avian Egg Colour And Sexual Selection: Does Eggshell Pigmentation Reflect Female Condition And Genetic Quality?, Moreno J. & Osorno J. L., 2003/09/09, DOI: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00505.x
      33. Bifurcations And Patterns In Compromise Processes, E. B. Naima - ebnalanl.gov, p. l. krapivsky & s. redner, 2003/09/15, DOI: 10.1016/S0167-2789(03)00171-4
      34. The Size Of The Largest Marsupial And Why It Matters, S. Wroe, M. Crowther, J. Dortch & J. Chong, 2003/09/17
      35. Evolution Of The Olfactory Code In The Drosophila Melanogaster Subgroup, M. C. Stensmyr, T. Dekker & B. S. Hansson, 2003/09/17
      36. This Mummy Has Four Feet, Few Bones And A New Home, 2003/09/17, ScienceDaily & Brookhaven National Lab.
      37. Chaos Control Using Small-Amplitude Damping Signals, J. A. Ramirez - hpueblaaimp.mx, g. e. paredes & h. puebla, 2003/09/22, DOI: 10.1016/S0375-9601(03)01147-2
      38. Chaos Control And Duration Time Of A Class Of Uncertain Chaotic Systems, S. Bowong - sbowongauycdc.uninet.cm & f. m. m. kakmeni, 2003/09/22, DOI: 10.1016/S0375-9601(03)01152-6
      39. Social Encapsulation Of The Small Hive Beetle (Aethina Tumida Murray) By European Honeybees (Apis Mellifera L.), J. D. Ellis - g01e3989acampus.ru.ac.za, h. r. hepburn, a. m. ellis & p. j. elzen, Aug. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00040-003-0671-7
      40. Logistic Model For Soldier Production In Aphids, S. Aoki1 - oregmaarb3.so-net.ne.jp & u. kurosu, Aug. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00040-003-0675-3
      41. A New Mode Of Parental Care In Cockroaches, J. Perry - jesse.perryancmail.net & c. a. nalepa, Aug. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00040-003-0665-5
      42. Pharmacogenetics And Disease Genetics Of Complex Diseases, V. D. Schmith - ginny.d.schmithagsk.com, d. a. campbell, s. sehgal1, w. h. anderson, d. k. burns, l. t. middleton & a. d. roses, Aug. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00018-003-2369-4
      43. Invasional 'Meltdown' On An Oceanic Island, O'Dowd D. J., Green P. T. & Lake P. S., Sep. 2003
      44. Mediation: Incomplete Information Bargaining With Filtered Communication, X. Jarquea, C. Ponsatí & J. Sákovics, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0304-4068(03)00048-X

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Fair Value; The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown, Financial Executives International (FEI), 03/08/26, 5:00-6:00 p.m. GMT
      2. 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      3. IMA International Conference Bifurcation 2003, Univ. Southampton, UK, 27-30 July, 2003
      4. New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
      5. Edge Videos
      6. World Economic Forum Extraordinary Annual Meeting, Jordan, 03/06/21-23
      7. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      8. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      9. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and Unknowable, The University of Texas Austin, Texas USA, 2003/04/10-12
      10. New Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management At European Research Laboratories, CERN, Geneva, 2003/03/19 (with webcast)

        1. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events

      11. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Thematic Institute "Networks and Risks", Budapest, Hungary, 03/08/25 - 09/27
      2. Executive Leadership in a Changing Environment, Washington, DC, 03/09/07-12, 03/10/05-10
      3. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 2003/09/14-17
      4. A Dual International Conference on Ethics, Complexity & Organisations & Creativity, London, UK, 2003/09/17-18
      5. Innovative Clusters- A New Challenge, Competitive Institute 6th Global Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 03/09/17-19
      6. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 2003/09/22-25
      7. Dynamics Days 2003, XXIII Annual Conference, 4 Decades of Chaos 1963-2003, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 03/09/24-27
      8. Improving The NHS Through The Lens Of Complexity, U Exeter, UK, 03/09/24-26
      9. Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2003/09/24-25
      10. Exystence Thematic Institute - Algorithms And Challenges In Hard Combinatorial Problems, Turin, Italy, 03/10/01-30
      11. 13th International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05
      12. 3rd Intl Conf on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success", Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 04/05/19-21
      13. From Animals To Animats 8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17
      14. 9th Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction Agents (WEHIA04),, Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29
      15. Fifth International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004), Boston, MA, USA, 2004/05/16-21
      16. Urban Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse, Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30
      17. Fractal 2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 2004/04/04-07
      18. 4th Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS 2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02
      19. 1st International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
      20. 2nd Biennial Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory, Havana, Cuba, 04/01/07-10
      21. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 2003/11/29-30
      22. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2003/12/15-17
      23. 4th Intl Conf on Systems Science and Systems Engineering, Hong Kong, 03/11/25-28
      24. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 2003/11/19-22
      25. Trends And Perspectives In Extensive And Non-Extensive Statistical Mechanics, In Honour Of The 60th Birthday Of Constantino Tsallis, Angra Dos Reis, Brazil, 2003/11/19-21
      26. American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2003 Conference (H.v.Foerster), Vienna, Austria, 2003/11/10-15
      27. Intl Congress on Computational Intelligence, Medellin, Colombia, 03/11/06-08,(Mirror)
      28. Intl School Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Chaos II Quantum Chaos on Hyperbolic Manifolds, Schloss Reisensburg (Gunzburg, Germany), 03/10/04-11
      29. European Workshop on The Analysis of Microfabrics in Geomaterials, Munchen, Germany, 03/10/06-11
      30. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Halifax, Canada, 2003/10/13-17

        1. Workshop on Collaboration Agents: Autonomous Agents for Collaborative Environments, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13

    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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