Cultural Reflections, Nature 
Expert: The confucian tradition of respecting customs and hierarchy has cast a long shadow over modern China. Authoritarian rule and political conformity in the past decades have hampered the creation of an environment that fosters individual creativity. Deference to authority and to existing paradigms is a major barrier to scientific breakthrough.
Science education in China is extensive and rigorous, (...). But it takes more than this to cultivate scientists; students should be inspired to pursue knowledge itself, and a habit of raising questions needs to be fostered.
Making An Impact, Nature
Expert: Currently, only a small number of universities have adopted teaching methods similar to those in the United States and Britain, where students are encouraged to think critically and creatively. The majority of the universities and graduate schools in China place more emphasis on memorizing and accepting facts than on thinking innovatively and asking questions. (...)
The system for evaluating research proposals and distribution of funds in China also needs substantial improvement. (...)
There is a popular saying: "Small grants, big review; medium grants, small review; big grants, no review."
- Source: Making An Impact, Ray Wu, DOI: 10.1038/428206a, Nature 428, 206 - 207, 04/03/11
An Embryonic Nation, Nature
Expert: China has a cultural environment with fewer moral objections to the use of embryonic stem cells than many Western countries, and, if it can provide a supportive funding and academic environment, it could take a leading role in this field. These technologies offer unprecedented research and commercialization opportunities for China.
(...) offers a fresh approach to agriculture through the cloning of élite bulls or racehorses, as well as to the cloning of endangered species.(...)
China has probably the most liberal environment for embryo research in the world (...).
- Source: An Embryonic Nation, Xiangzhong Yang, DOI: 10.1038/428210a, Nature 428, 210 - 212, 04/03/11
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Abstract: For many years, research and management thinking has focused on understanding business relationships and networks. Now, the focus is shifting to managing business relationships and networks. This new approach focus poses two questions. Since networks are loosely coupled systems, to what extent are business networks manageable? Furthermore, how can a firm's ability to manage a network be characterized and measured? This paper addresses these two questions by synthesizing the current state of knowledge on management issues in networks and the contribution to managerial abilities in complex relationships. The discussion leads to a set of propositions describing the abilities firms will need to successfully manage complex business networks.
- Source: Managing in Complex Business Networks, Thomas Ritter, Ian F. Wilkinson, Wesley J. Johnston, DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2003.10.016, Industrial Marketing Management 33(3):175-183, 2004-04
Altruism May Arise from Individual Selection, arXiv
Abstract: The fact that humans cooperate with non-kin in large groups, or with people they will never meet again, is a long-standing evolutionary puzzle with profound implications. Cooperation is linked to altruism, the capacity to perform costly acts that confer benefits on others. Theoretical approaches had so far disregarded costly acts that do not yield future benefits for the altruist, either directly or indirectly. Recently, strong reciprocity, i.e., the predisposition to cooperate with others and to punish non-cooperators at personal cost, has been proposed as a schema for understanding altruism in humans. While behavioral experiments support the existence of strong reciprocity, its evolutionary origins remain unclear: group and cultural selection are generally invoked to compensate for the negative effects that reciprocity is assumed to have on individuals. Here we show, by means of an agent-based model inspired on the Ultimatum Game, that selection acting on individuals capable of other-regarding behavior can give rise to strong reciprocity. The results, consistent with the existence of neural correlates of fairness, are in good agreement with observations on humans and monkeys.
Three (Marginal?) Questions Regarding Convergence, J. Econ. Studies
Abstract: This paper focuses on three (marginal?) questions (...). Given that the geographical units of analysis are usually quite different in economic size, is the weighting of economic units relevant in convergence analysis? The average per capita income of a given region, or country, is the first moment in the distribution of income, but what about the second moment, inequality, have we converged in inequality? (...) does the adjustment for inequality make important differences in the evolution of average per capita income? The answer to the first two questions is yes, but to the third it is clearly no.
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Abstract: This paper is an attempt to understand how Amartya Sen's thinking on development and freedom has evolved from his critique of welfare economics and his concern with underdevelopment and poverty. Sen's contribution to the human development approach with its emphasis on positive freedom has also helped to provide a valuable counterweight to the dominant free market approach. However, some concerns are expressed that the approach does not give sufficient attention to long-run dynamics and that the conception of capability employed is not helpful for the understanding of development
- Source: Development And Freedom, Prendergast R., DOI: 10.1108/01443580410516251, Journal of Economic Studies, Feb. 2004
- Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01
yahoo.com
Precociousness Has Its Rewards, Science Now
Expert: Telomerase inhibitors, automata theory, and microchip construction inspired this year's winning projects at the Intel Science Talent Search. The top three winners outshined 37 other finalists to win college scholarships, with a first place prize of $100,000.
First place went to Herbert Mason Hedberg of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, for his project on telomerase inhibitors. Hedberg developed a novel method of analyzing the molecules by UV absorbance that takes just 10 minutes, as opposed to the days required for the standard method.
Work on Big Questions Yields Big Bucks, Science Now
Expert: The 64-year-old Ellis is a professor in the mathematics department of the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His work spans many areas of physics and philosophy, including general relativity, cosmology, and epistemology. His research includes such theologically interesting topics as whether the laws of physics had to be fine-tuned by a creator in order for the universe to be able to support life.(...)
"(...) his work about what you can deduce about the universe from what you can see."
Ancient Indians Made 'Rock Music', BBC News
Expert: The boulders which have small, groove-like impressions are called "musical stones" by locals. When struck with small granite rocks, these impressions emit deep, "gong-like notes".
These boulders may have been an important part of formalised rituals by the people who came there.
In some cultures, percussion plays a role in rituals that are intended for shamen to communicate with the supernatural world. The Antiquity work's author, Dr Nicole Boivin, of the University of Cambridge, UK, thinks this could be the purpose of the Kupgal stones.
Edge Vulnerability in Neural and Metabolic Networks, arXiv
Abstract: Biological networks, such as cellular metabolic pathways or networks of corticocortical connections in the brain, are intricately organized, yet remarkably robust toward structural damage. Whereas many studies have investigated specific aspects of robustness, such as molecular mechanisms of repair, this article focuses more generally on how local structural features in networks may give rise to their global stability. In many networks the failure of single connections may be more likely than the extinction of entire nodes, yet no analysis of edge importance (edge vulnerability) has been provided so far for biological networks. We tested several measures for identifying vulnerable edges and compared their prediction performance in biological and artificial networks. Among the tested measures, edge frequency in all shortest paths of a network yielded a particularly high correlation with vulnerability, and identified inter-cluster connections in biological but not in random and scale-free benchmark networks. We discuss different local and global network patterns and the edge vulnerability resulting from them.
Wireless Internet Stumbles Ahead, BBC News
Expert: Hotels are proving the most popular places for hotspots. According to a survey from research firm Jupiter, around 44% of hotspot sessions take part in hotels compared to just 20% in cafes and bars. While cities are getting the wireless bug, some individuals are struggling to understand the technology. (...) The Consumers' Association conducted a survey last month and found that wireless computing is baffling a lot of consumers.
Controlling Synchronization in an Ensemble of Globally Coupled Oscillators, Physical Review Letters
Abstract: We propose a technique to control coherent collective oscillations in ensembles of globally coupled units (self-sustained oscillators or maps). We demonstrate numerically and theoretically that a time delayed feedback in the mean field can, depending on the parameters, enhance or suppress the self-synchronization in the population. We discuss possible applications of the technique.
Seeing the World in the Same Way, Science
Excerpt: As you watch Clint Eastwood in the 1966 movie classic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, what is happening in your brain? Is what happens in your brain the same as what happens in mine? Do we all see the world in the same way? This is the central question posed by Hasson et al. (1) in their brain imaging study reported on page 1634 of this issue.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows scientists to noninvasively investigate the organization of the human brain.
Intersubject Synchronization of Cortical Activity During Natural Vision, Science
Excerpts: To what extent do all brains work alike (...)? We explored this question by letting five subjects freely view half an hour of a popular movie while undergoing functional brain imaging. Applying an unbiased analysis in which spatiotemporal activity patterns in one brain were used to "model" activity in another brain, we found a striking level of voxel-by-voxel synchronization between individuals, not only in primary and secondary visual and auditory areas but also in association cortices. The results reveal a surprising tendency of individual brains to "tick collectively" during natural vision.
Hidden Neuronal Correlations in Cultured Networks, Physical Review Letters
Abstract: Utilization of a clustering algorithm on neuronal spatiotemporal correlation matrices recorded during a spontaneous activity of in vitro networks revealed the existence of hidden correlations: the sequence of synchronized bursting events (SBEs) is composed of statistically distinguishable subgroups each with its own distinct pattern of interneuron spatiotemporal correlations. These findings hint that each of the SBE subgroups can serve as a template for coding, storage, and retrieval of a specific information. c2004 The American Physical Society
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Abstract: Epileptic seizures occur intermittently as a result of complex dynamical interactions among many regions of the brain. By applying signal processing techniques from the theory of nonlinear dynamics (...) we present evidence that epileptic seizures appear to serve as dynamical resetting mechanisms of the brain, that is the dynamically entrained brain areas before seizures disentrain faster and more frequently at epileptic seizures than any other periods. We expect these results to shed light into the mechanisms of epileptogenesis, seizure intervention and control, as well as into (...) spatiotemporal state transitions in other complex biological and physical systems.
Are You Slow In Coordinating Your Thoughts?, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: Many complex systems are composed of a large number of similar units that are connected in a complicated manner. An important example is provided by neural networks where nerve cells in the brain communicate by exchanging pulses via synaptic connections. (...) grow synaptic connections in a highly specific but irregular fashion. In such systems, a particular question is how rapid coordination, e.g. synchronization, between units of a complex network can be achieved. (...) theory of random matrices can also be applied to the dynamic evolution of complex networks. (...) derived mathematical expressions which precisely determined how fast neurons can coordinate their activity (...).
Memories Are Harder To Forget Than Currently Thought, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: While it might not seem so the next time you go searching for your car keys, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that memories are not as fluid as current research suggests. Their findings challenge the prevailing notion on how memories are stored and remembered - or that a recalled memory could be altered (...). "We show that the act of retrieving an old memory and then putting it back into storage is a different process than creating a memory in the first place. Unfortunately, it could mean that 'erasing' traumatic memories is not as simple as one might hope."
Rapid Population Decline In Red Knots: Fitness Consequences, Alphagalileo & Proc. Biol. Sc.
Abstract: Red knots wintering in Tierra del Fuego undertake marathon 30,000 km hemispheric migrations annually. Like commercial aircraft, spring migrants stop and refuel at a few key sites along the route. At the last site in Delaware Bay birds forage on horseshoe crab eggs, doubling their body mass in about two weeks. Catches of banded birds showed that in 1997-2002 an increasing proportion of knots failed to reach optimal departure masses because of food shortage from over-harvesting of crabs and late arrival of many birds in the bay. Consequently, (...) population declined alarmingly from 53,000 to 27,000 in 2000-2002 (...).
- Source: Rapid Population Decline In Red Knots: Fitness Consequences Of Decreased Refuelling Rates And Late Arrival In Delaware Bay, A. Baker, P. M. González, T. Piersma, L. J. Niles, I de L. S. do Nascimento, P. W. Atkinson, N. A. Clark, C. D. T. Minton, M. Peck, G. Aarts, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences, 2004/03/16
- Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
No Moon, No Life On Earth, Suggests Theory, New Scientist
Excerpts: Without the Moon, there would have been no life on Earth.
Four billion years ago, when life began, the Moon orbited much closer to us than it does now, causing massive tides to ebb and flow every few hours. These tides caused dramatic fluctuations in salinity around coastlines which could have driven the evolution of early DNA-like biomolecules.
This hypothesis, which is the work of Richard Lathe, a molecular biologist at Pieta Research in Edinburgh, UK, also suggests that life could not have begun on Mars.
Mobile Elements: Drivers of Genome Evolution, Science News
Abstract: Mobile elements within genomes have driven genome evolution in diverse ways. Particularly in plants and mammals, retrotransposons have accumulated to constitute a large fraction of the genome and have shaped both genes and the entire genome. Although the host can often control their numbers, massive expansions of retrotransposons have been tolerated during evolution. Now mobile elements are becoming useful tools for learning more about genome evolution and gene function.
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Excerpts: Without the moon, there would have been no life on Earth. Four billion years ago, when life began, the moon orbited much closer to us than it does now, causing massive tides to ebb and flow every few hours. These tides caused dramatic fluctuations in salinity around coastlines which could have driven the evolution of early DNA-like biomolecules. This hypothesis (...) also suggests that life could not have begun on Mars. Most researchers agree that the moon formed 5 billion years ago from debris blasted off Earth in a giant impact. That, plus the Earth's much more rapid rotation, led to tidal (...).
- Source: How The Moon Gave Life On Earth, C. Bowles - claire.bowlesrbi.co.uk, Alphagalileo & New Scientist, 2004/03/17
- Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
Planetary Science: Secrets Of The Deep, Nature
Excerpts: For Earth-like planets, convective motions are typically modelled in a thick rotating shell of electrically conducting fluid. (...)
But such models are largely unable to capture the complexities of the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune. The measurements made by Voyager 2 around these planets revealed that their fields are not predominantly dipolar (like a bar magnet), but also have a quadrupole component (as though produced by a combination of two bar magnets, with two north and two south poles).
Cause Of Uranus' And Neptune's Unusual Magnetic Fields, Nature
Excerpt: The discovery of Uranus' and Neptune's non-dipolar, non-axisymmetric magnetic fields destroyed the picture-established by Earth, Jupiter and Saturn-that planetary magnetic fields are dominated by axial dipoles. Although various explanations for these unusual fields have been proposed, the cause of such field morphologies remains unexplained. Planetary magnetic fields are generated by complex fluid motions in electrically conducting regions of the planets (a process known as dynamo action), and so are intimately linked to the structure and evolution of planetary interiors.
Hurricanes And Butterflies
Excerpt: Chaotic systems can be characterized by the swirling patterns of 'strange attractors'. A powerful method to determine their behaviour has been validated for the most famous case, the Lorenz attractor.
(...) developed a powerful new method to determine from experimental observation of a system whether it is chaotic, and, if it is, what the precise quantitative nature of that chaos is. Their method is based on fractal geometry. Fractals are structures or curves that remain rough or heterogeneous on all length scales and are characterized by their 'fractal dimension'.
British Butterflies Are Going, Going ..., Science Now
Expert: A comparison of changes in bird, butterfly, and plant populations (...) suggests that, contrary to current thinking, unglamorous species may be disappearing even more rapidly than other organisms.
For decades, biologists have struggled to determine humans' impact on the flora and fauna around them. Insects and other invertebrates are so plentiful and cryptic that it's been hard to get a handle on their numbers or calculate the toll. Thus these researchers have used birds and mammals to monitor biodiversity, without many data to suggest this was the right approach.
Quantum Information: Flight Of The Qubit, Nature
Excerpts: A trapped ion emits a photon. Ion and photon are entangled, so the photon carries away information on the state of the ion. Now realized, this system could become a communication link in a quantum network.
(...) It could also efficiently model processes that are excessively difficult to model using existing technology. (...) progress has been made in the past few years. It is now widely acknowledged that one of the most promising systems for quantum computation is an array of ions, trapped and controlled inside an electric field.
Characterizing Entanglement via Uncertainty Relations, Phys. Rev. Lett.
Expert: We derive a family of necessary separability criteria for finite-dimensional systems based on inequalities for variances of observables. We show that every pure bipartite entangled state violates some of these inequalities. Furthermore, a family of bound entangled states and true multipartite entangled states can be detected. The inequalities also allow us to distinguish between different classes of true tripartite entanglement for qubits. We formulate an equivalent criterion in terms of covariance matrices. This allows us to apply criteria known from the regime of continuous variables to finite-dimensional systems
Stem Cells: More Like A Man, Nature
Excerpts: Most female mammals experience a reproductive decline with increased age, previously attributed to the instability of ageing oocytes. But could it be due to a previously unrecognized stem-cell well drying up?
Why can't a woman be more like a man? Male mammals generally can reproduce throughout most of their adult lives by continuously generating sperm precursors from germline stem cells maintained within the testis. In contrast, most mammalian females show a reproductive decline as they get older. Females of the few species that remain fertile throughout life, (...).
Adult Mammals May Produce Eggs After All, Science
Excerpts: A baffling inconsistency in a Boston lab is threatening to overturn a dogma of reproductive biology: that female mammals produce no new eggs after birth. A series of studies on mice has prompted a flabbergasted team of biologists to conclude that mouse ovaries harbor a previously undiscovered type of stem cell that can form new eggs through adulthood. The finding has far-flung implications, touching on everything from fertility and aging to the childbearing capacities of young cancer patients.
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Expert:
 T cells swallow up infected or cancerous cells.
c SPL |
cientists have found a way to grow a bountiful supply of disease-fighting cells that might one day boost therapy for cancer and HIV.
The cells, called T cells, normally patrol the body and swallow up infected or cancerous cells. But chemo- or radiotherapy, and the HIV virus, destroy them.
Now a Canadian team have grown potentially limitless T cells in the laboratory. "We're very excited," says immunologist Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker of the University of Toronto.
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Expert:
 Healthy human fibroblast tissue from a mouse.
c PNAS |
Researchers commonly use genetically engineered mice to study cancer, but the animal disease differs slightly from the human one. So researchers have sought to transplant human breast tissue into mice to make a better model.(...)
The cells grow into human-like breast tissues, complete with milk ducts. Unlike human breasts, however, the mice's growths sit flush to the chest. Humans are unusual in this respect, says Daniel Medina who studies breast cancer(...).
He is not sure how it works, but it may provoke an inflammatory response (...).
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Abstract: Natural killer (NK) cells play important roles in immunological processes, including early defense against viral infections. This review provides an overview of the dynamic in vivo life of NK cells from their development in the bone marrow to their mature peripheral responses and their ultimate demise, with particular emphasis on mouse NK cells and viral infections.
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Excerpt: From Sun Tzu to the Fundamentals of Land Warfare (LWD1), warfare and combat have been described as chaos. If war is chaos can we use Chaos Theory to help understand its dynamics? (...) Chaos Theory as a means of describing the underlying order in seemingly disordered dynamic systems. The result of applying Chaos Theory to Systems Theory has been the emergence of Complexity Theory, which describes the workings of dynamic human systems. The insights from these theories have posed challenges to the traditional linear model of Western thought. 1
Killing Iraq With Kindness, NYTimes
Excerpts: (...) troops are not there to impose American values or even Western values, but "universal" ones. The underlying assumption is that the United States itself represents these universal values, (...).
Some might question whether America is as shining an example of these good things as is often claimed. Nonetheless, spreading them around is certainly a more appealing policy than propping up "our" dictators in the name of realpolitik. Still, history shows that the forceful imposition of even decent ideas in the claim of universalism tends to backfire - creating not converts but enemies (...).
Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
Political Impact of Al Qaeda, NPR
Expert: Senior news analyst NPR's Daniel Schorr says that terrorist bombings in Madrid and the surprise outcome of the Spanish election may spur more countries in Europe to re-evaluate their relationship with the United States.
Clinton Aides Plan to Tell Panel of Warning Bush Team on Qaeda, NY Times
Expert: What is at issue, Clinton administration officials say, is whether their Bush administration counterparts acted on the warnings, and how quickly. The Clinton administration witnesses say they will offer details of the policy recommendations they made to the incoming Bush aides, but they would not discuss those details before the hearing.
"Until 9/11, counterterrorism was a very secondary issue at the Bush White House," (...). "Remember those first months? The White House was focused on tax cuts, not terrorism. We saw the budgets for counterterrorism programs being cut."
Experts Fear Terrorists Are Seeking Fuel-Air Bombs, New Scientist
Excerpts: Some experts fear that terrorists are trying to develop thermobaric and fuel-air bombs which can be even more devastating than conventional devices.(...)
The devices use a small charge to generate a cloud of explosive mixed with air. The main explosion is then detonated by a second charge (a fuel-air explosion), or by the explosive reacting spontaneously with air (a thermobaric explosion). The resulting shock wave is not as strong as a conventional blast, but it can do more damage as it is more sustained (...).
Defusing Fertiliser May Make Bomb-Building Harder, New Scientist
Excerpts: Millions of tonnes of ammonium nitrate are produced each year for use as a fertiliser. Mining companies turn small quantities into an explosive by mixing the chemical with fuel oil. While it is not necessarily easy for would-be bombers to do this with fertiliser-grade ammonium nitrate, it is not impossible.
Now Speciality Fertilizer Products, (...), is patenting a water-soluble polymer coating for the fertiliser granules that repels fuel oil. The coating dissolves rapidly in soil, so it would not interfere with ammonium nitrate's main function as fertiliser.
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Abstract: Paul Krugman Op-Ed column scores Pres Bush for his reluctance to focus on terrorists who actually attacked America and their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan; says Bush's reluctance to commit sufficient forces in Afghanistan allowed Osama bin Laden to escape and Al Qaeda to regroup; says focus on Iraq and Pres Saddam Hussein shifted precious resources from terrorism; says actual Bush record is one of indulgence toward regimes that are strongly implicated in terrorism and of focusing on threats only when forced to by events.
Al Qaeda's Wish List, NY Times
Abstract: David Brooks Op-Ed column suggests Spanish electorate's rejection of Popular Party's policies on terrorism and war in Iraq is inexcusable course reversal; says it gives terrorists idea that their methods work, making world more dangerous place for all; says it leads way for more election-eve massacres; predicts rift between US and Europe will now grow wider; calls attack watershed event that will change how Al Qaeda views world and that it will constrain American policy for years to come.
A Leaner, Meaner Jihad, NY Times
Excerpts: (...) [Al Qaeda is] set of largely autonomous groups and cells pursuing their own regional aims and claiming to represent Al Qaeda; says death or capture of Osama bin Laden is unlikely to prove decisive because war in Iraq has energized so many disparate groups that global terrorism will carry on without him; says traditional approaches will not be useful against terrorism and will only add to popular support of jihad movement; suggests mimicking tactics of enemy using missions by smaller, mobile military units that can quickly descend on terrorist groups (...).
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
- Hiding Behind the Constitution, William B. Rubenstein, Instead of asking what kind of society we want, our politicians argue about what our structure of government can permit.
- The first issue of a new international journal, Ecological Complexity was just published
- Small RNAs No One Trick Pony, By binding to proteins, the molecules help neural stem cells grow up
- How Salmon See the World Anew, Maturing fish pump up their vision as they move to the deep
- Sea Cucumber Explosion, The sea floor is crawling with holothurians--but why?
- No Neandertals in the Gene Pool, DNA analysis suggests female Neandertals rarely bred with early humans
- Lightweight Dark Matter?, A controversial paper has ultralight particles beating out WIMPs
- Taken for a Ride, Paul Krugman, In the world according to President Bush's supporters, anyone who demands accountability is on the side of the evildoers.
- The Terrorism Debate, THE RECENT wave of bloody terrorist bombings, from Madrid to Baghdad, underlines the special importance of the war on terrorism as an issue in this year's...
- Book: Bush Mishandled Terror Threat, In the new book Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke -- President Bush's former counter-terrorism coordinator -- says the president disregarded his warnings about the threat posed by al Qaeda prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, and tried to push a link to Iraq immediately after. Senior Bush administration officials vigorously deny the allegations. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and NPR News Analyst Cokie Roberts.
- FOSE Reaches Past Cool Technology, Anitha Reddy, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, March 22, 2004; Page E04, Trade Show's Aim Is to Help Complex Government Systems Work Efficiently
- Measuring Child Well-Being: A New Index", Wednesday, March 24, 10:00am, Falk Auditorium, The Brookings Institution, in cooperation with the Foundation for Child Development and Duke University, will release a new index on the well-being of American children. Based on nearly thirty years of data from national surveys of seven "domains" of child well-being--defined by factors including mortality, poverty, and suicide rates; drug use; educational test scores; health insurance coverage; and crimes committed by children--the index contains valuable information on how children are faring now and how their status has changed in recent years.
- Microbes, Molecules, and Marine Ecosystems, Farooq Azam, Alexandra Z. Worden, Science 12 March 2004: 1622-1624
- Climate Change: All Downhill From Here?, Kevin Krajick, Science 12 March 2004: 1600-1602
- Emerging Infectious Diseases:, Martin Enserink, Science 12 March 2004: 1605
- Global change: An Earth on fire, Helmut Weissert, Stefano M. Bernasconi, 04/03/11, Nature 428, 130 - 132, DOI: 10.1038/428130a
- Astrophysics: The Inconstant Constant?, Lennox L. Cowie, Antoinette Songaila, 04/03/11, Nature 428, 132 - 133, DOI: 10.1038/428132a
- Scrambled Dogma: Stem cells may make new eggs in women, 04/03/13, Science News, Vol. 165, No. 11, Scientists may have come up with a new explanation for how a woman's biological clock works.
- Born to Heal, 04/03/13, Science News, Vol. 165, No. 11, The controversial strategy of screening embryos to produce donors for siblings raises hopes and presents new ethical dilemmas.
- Al Qaeda Involvement in Madrid Bombing, 04/03/16, NPR ATC, NPR's Michele Norris talks with Jessica Stern, a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of Terror in the Name of God, about the bombings in Madrid, the al Qaeda connection, and the current state of al Qaeda.
- Outsourcing: Economic Effect, 04/03/16, NPR ATC, NPR's Michele Norris gets two economists' views on the outsourcing phenomenon: Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute and Claude Barfield of the American Enterprise Institute.
- Iraq Experiments with Direct Voting, 04/03/16, NPR ATC, The U.S.-led occupation authority organizes a series of municipal elections in one of Iraq's southern provinces. Town councils are being selected in 16 localities in the province in the largest attempt at direction elections in the country since the U.S. invasion. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.
- Agencies Urge Internet Wiretaps, 04/03/17, NPR ATC, Law enforcement agencies push to make sure Voice over Internet phone service providers equip themselves to allow for investigative wiretaps. Providers have complained that the technology is too expensive. Privacy advocates worry that customers' privacy will be invaded. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
- Faith-Science Study Nets Templeton Prize, 04/03/17, NPR ATC, Cosmologist George Ellis, a South African academic, wins the Templeton Prize, billed as the world's richest annual award. Ellis won the award for his study of the relationship between faith and science. The prize, presented by the John Templeton Foundation of Radnor, Pa, comes with a cash award of more than $1.4 million. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and Ellis, NPR TOTN, 04/03/19
- Analysis: Politics and the Terror War, Robert Siegel, 04/03/17, NPR ATC, NPR's Robert Siegel talks with E.J. Dionne, a columnist for The Washington Post and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times, in our semi-regular political roundtable. They discuss presidential politics in the aftermath of the Madrid bombing.
- Polish Leader: 'Misled' over Iraq WMD, 04/03/18, NPR ATC, The president of Poland, a key U.S. ally with a large troop commitment in Iraq, says he was misled by the pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs. President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who added that he does not plan to withdraw his country's troops, had not previously criticized the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
- Scalia Defends Cheney Trip, Recusal Decision, 04/03/18, NPR ATC, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia refuses to remove himself from a case involving his friend Vice President Dick Cheney, responding to a request by the Sierra Club. The high court will soon hear a case testing whether Cheney may keep certain records of his energy policy panel secret. Scalia says a hunting trip taken with Cheney did not cloud his impartiality. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.
- A Grand Plan For Brainy Robots, Nick Dermody, 04/03/18, BBC News
- Robolympics Contestants Shoot For Gold, Helen Pearson,,, 04/03/18, Nature Science update, First all-round robotics competition kicks off in San Francisco.
- Tiny 'Elevator' Most Complex Nanomachine Yet, 04/03/18, NewScientist.com
- Cholesterol and Heart Attack Risk, Paul Ridker, Steven Nissen, 04/03/19, NPR TOTN, Confused by cholesterol? Don't know your LDL from your HDL? In this hour, we'll take a look at the latest heart health news -- including two new studies suggesting that ultra-low "bad cholesterol" can prevent heart attacks. What role does inflammation play in heart attack risk?
- The Changing Amazon Rainforest, William Laurance, 04/03/19, NPR TOTN, Deep in the Amazonian rainforests, tree communities are changing and scientists say rising CO2 levels could be the cause.
- Human Origins Update, Svante Paabo, Tim White, 04/03/19, NPR TOTN, A study out this week bolsters the theory that Neanderthals didn't breed with early humans. Another recent study suggests a new branch on the family tree.
- Clinton Diplomat: Libya's WMD Decision Not Linked to Iraq, Robert Siegel, Martin Indyk, 04/03/19, NPR ATC, Martin Indyk, an assistant secretary of state during the Clinton administration, says Libya's decision to give up its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction was not prompted by the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, as claimed by the Bush administration. Libya, he says, offered to give up the weapons five years ago.
- Mystery Of Milky Way's Gamma Rays Solved, 04/03/19, New Scientist
- Robots Battle To Be The Best, Clark Boyd, 04/03/20, BBC News
- Talkative Future For Every Gadget, 04/03/21, BBC News
- What Should a Statistical Mechanics Satisfy to Reflect Nature?, Constantino Tsallis, 2004-02-28, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0403012
- Self Organized Scale-Free Networks from Merging and Regeneration, Beom Jun Kim, Ala Trusina, Petter Minnhagen, Kim Sneppen, 2004-03-05, arXiv, DOI: nlin.AO/0403006
- Mathematical Structure of Evolutionary Theory, P. Ao, 2004-03-15, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.QM/0403020
- Extinction And Biogeography In The Caribbean: New Evidence From A Fossil Riodinid Butterfly In Dominican Amber, J. P. W. Hall, R. K. Robbins, D. J. Harvey, 2004/03/16, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- True Randomness Upon Request, B. Chopard - bastien.chopardcui.unige.ch, 2004/03/17, Alphagalileo
- Scientists Discover Why Not Enough Choline Results In Fewer Brain Cells, Poorer Memory, 2004/03/18, ScienceDaily & University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
- Prototype System Developed By Wright State Computer Engineer Allows Blind To 'See', 2004/03/19, ScienceDaily & Wright State University
- Optimal Defence Theory And Flower Petal Colour Predict Variation In The Secondary Chemistry Of Wild Radish, Strauss S. Y., Irwin R. E., Lambrix V. M., Feb. 2004, Journal of Ecology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2004.00843.x
- Reduced Reproductive Success In Small Populations Of The Self-Incompatible Primula Vulgaris, Brys R., Jacquemyn H., Endels P., van Rossum F., Hermy M., Triest L., De Bruyn L., Blust G. D.E., Feb. 2004, Journal of Ecology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2004.00843.x
- Functional Parcellation Of Attentional Control Regions Of The Brain, Woldorff M. G., Hazlett C. J., Fichtenholtz H. M., Weissman D. H., Dale A. M., Song A. W., Jan. 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1162/089892904322755638
- Separable Routes To Human Memory Formation: Dissociating Task And Material Contributions In The Prefrontal Cortex, Wig G. S., Miller M. B., Kingstone A., Kelley W. M., Jan. 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1162/089892904322755629
- The Less-Volatile U.S. Economy: A Bayesian Investigation Of Timing, Breadth, And Potential Explanations, Kim C.-J., Nelson C. R., Piger J., Jan. 2004, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, DOI: 10.1198/073500103288619412
- Adaptive Software For Head-Operated Computer Controls, LoPresti E. F., Brienza D. M., Mar. 2004, Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, IEEE Transactions
- Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff During Performance Of A Tracking Task Without Visual Feedback, Sribunruangrit N., Marque C., Lenay C., Hanneton S., Gapenne O., Vanhoutte C., Mar. 2004, Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, IEEE Transactions
- State-Dependent Effects Of Na Channel Noise On Neuronal Burst Generation, Rowat P. F. - prowatucsd.edu, Elson R. C., Mar. 2004, Journal of Computational Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1023/B:JCNS.0000014104.08299.8b
- Optimization Of Input Patterns And Neuronal Properties To Evoke Motor Neuron Synchronization, Taylor A. M. - roger.enokacolorado.edu, Enoka R. M., Mar. 2004, Journal of Computational Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1023/B:JCNS.0000014107.16610.2e
- What Biogeography Is: A Place For Process, McDowall R. M., Mar. 2004, Journal of Biogeography, DOI: 10.1046/j.0305-0270.2003.01020.x
- Are Long-Distance Migrant Passerines Faithful To Their Stopover Sites?, Catry P., Encarnação V., Araújo A., Fearon P., Fearon A., Armelin M., Delaloye P., Mar. 2004, Journal of Avian Biology, DOI: 10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03112.x
- Vibration-Induced Granular Segregation: A Phenomenon Driven by Three Mechanisms, D. A. Huerta, J. C. Ruiz-Suarez, Published 18 March 2004
- Random Walks on Complex Networks, Jae Dong Noh, Heiko Rieger, Published 18 March 2004, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 118701 (2004)
Webcast Announcements
- Voices of Public Intellectuals Lecture Series: Democracy's Response to the Terrorist Threat Now in its fifth year, the Radcliffe Institute Voices of Public Intellectuals lecture series brings issues affecting civic life to a public forum. This year's series of three lectures features experts in the study of terrorism and the prosecution of terrorists to explore the effects of terrorism on democracy. These lectures take place in Cambridge on February 26, March 4, and March 11 at 4 p.m.
- World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland
- Riding the Next Democratic Wave, Al-Thani, Khan, Vike-Freiberga, Wade, Soros, Zakaria, World Economic Forum, 04/01/25
- The Future of Global Interdependence, Kharrazi, Held, Owens, Shourie, Annan, Martin, Schwab, World Economic Forum, 04/01/25
- Why Victory Against Terrorism Demands Shared Values
- The Process of Curricular Review: Redefining a World-Class Education, Benedict Gross, Thomas Bender, Harvard@home, 04/01/21, Dean of Harvard College Benedict Gross discusses Harvard's first comprehensive review of the undergraduate curriculum in almost 3 decades. This program introduces the process of curricular review by presenting two segmented lectures. The first, by Dean Gross, outlines the approach and considerations in undertaking the current review. The second lecture, presented by NYU Professor Thomas Bender, presents a historical perspective on academic culture.
- Cancer Biology , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, How the spread of cancer is like wound healing gone awry.
- Tracking Ebola , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, A new study might help scientists predict where Ebola may! strike next.
- Animal Thought and Communication, NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, How do animals think and communicate with each other? And what can studying animals tell us about the evolution of language in humans? In this hour, NPR's Ira Flatow and guests look at thought and communication in apes, gorillas and monkeys. What can non-human primates tell us about communication in humans?
- CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And Intelligent Systems, 2004 Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
- EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
- The Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Po tential and Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
- ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
- New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
- SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
- NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
- 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
- CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
- Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
- Edge Videos
Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
- Fractal 2004,
"Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl
Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 04/04/04-07
- 6th German Workshop on Artificial Life 2004 (GWAL-6), Bamberg, Germany, 04/04/14-16
- The
9th IEEE Intl Conf on Engineering of Complex Computer
Systems, Florence, Italy, 04/04/14-16
- Complexity Science and the Exploration of the Emerging World, Austin, TX, 04/04/17
- 2004
Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC'04),
Arlington, VA., USA, 04/04/18-22
- NKS
(New Kind of Science) 2004 Conference and Minicourse,
Boston, Massachusetts, 04/04/22-25
- IDS'04 - Intentional Dynamic Systems Symposium, Memphis, TN, USA, 04/04/24-26
-
New Horizons In Search Theory
, Newport, RI, 04/04/26-28
-
Human Systems Dynamics at Work: Complexity Tools for Today, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 04/04/27-28
- Urban
Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences
of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse, Manchester, UK,
04/04/29-30
-
What Really Matters ?The Global Forum 2004, Santa Fe, NM, 04/05/02-04
- International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 04/05/11-14
- 5th
International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004),
Boston, MA, USA, 04/05/16-21
- 3rd Intl Conf on
Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming
Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success",
Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 04/05/19-21
- 4th Intl Conf on
Fractals And Dynamic Systems In Geoscience, München, Germany, 04/05/19-22
- 9th
Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction Agents
(WEHIA04), Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29
- 13th
International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious
Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05
!
- ECC8
Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
04/06/14-17
- An Intl Tribute to Francisco Varela, Paris,04/06/18-20
- 7th
Intl Conf on Linking Systems Thinking, Innovation,Quality, Entrepreneurship and Environment (STIQE),
MARIBOR, SLOVENIA, 04/06/24-26
-
NAACSOS 2004, North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science, Pittsburgh PA, 04/06/27-29
-
Statphys - Kolkata V An International Conference on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes , Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
-
ICAD 2004
10th International Conference on Auditory Display, Sydney, Australia, 04/07/06-09
-
3rd Intl School Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics Discrete Dynamical Systems and Applications , Urbino (Italy), 04/07/07-09
- `Perspectives on Nonlinear Dynamics 2004 (PNLD-2004), Chennai, India, 04/07/12-15
- From Animals To Animats
8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior
(SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17
- 14th Annual International Conference The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences , Milwaukee, WI, USA, 04/07/15-18
-
Facing Complexity, Wellington, NZ, 04/07/15-17
-
Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Security Bytes, Security/Life/Terror
, Lancaster, 04/07/17-19
- Gordon Research Conference on "Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities In Chemical Systems", Lewiston, ME, 04/07/18-23
- 3rd
Intl Conf Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2004), New York City, 04/07/19-23
- 7th
Intl Workshop on: Trust in Agent Societies , New York City, 04/07/19-20
- 8th
World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21
- 2004
Summer Simulation MultiConference (SummerSim'04), San Jose
Hyatt, San Jose, California, 04/07/25-29
- SME 2004 Symposium on Modeling
and Control of Economic Systems , University in Redlands, CA, 04/01/28-31
- 6th
International Mathematica Symposium (IMS 2004), Banff,
Canada, 04/08/02-06
- Fractals and Natural Hazards at
32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28
-
ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, ,
Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01
- ANTS
2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony
Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium,
04/09/05-08
- Dynamic
Ontology,
An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of Reality,
and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy,
04/09/08-11
- 9th
Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems
(ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15
- The
Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18
- The
8th Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature
(PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22
- XVII Brazilian
Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao -
Brazil, 04/09/22-24
- TEDMED Conference ,
Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15
- Wolfram
Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois,
04/10/21-23
- 6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce
ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape, Delft, The Netherlands, 04/10/25-27
- Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference , Rio de Janeiro, 04/11
-
Expert:
 Recognizing the world as one vast interconnected system is essential to understanding the level of complexity in today's global environment. |
This course is designed to give you a working knowledge of complexity science, and to show how to apply insights from the new science to your life and work, and to world events.
