Universe Started With Hiss, Not Bang, NewScientist 
Excerpts: The Universe began not with a bang but with a low moan, building into a roar that gave way to a deafening hiss. (...).
Cosmologists do not usually think in terms of sound, but this aural picture is a good way to think about the Universe's beginnings, (...). Whittle has reconstructed the cosmic cacophony from data teased out over the past couple of years from the high-resolution mapping by NASA's WMAP spacecraft of the cosmic microwave background radiation, the afterglow of the hot early Universe.
The sound of the big bang
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How Google Took the Work Out of Selling Advertising, NY Times
Excerpts: Google's original way of making money, and still its largest source of revenue, was search-driven ads. You enter, say, "vacation homes in France," and with its usual list of sites Google shows a list of "sponsored links" from advertisers, who have paid to be associated with those terms.
"AdSense was really a very natural outgrowth" of this search-dependent system, (...). (...) "Google had this great database of advertisers, and the keywords they were interested in," he said. "But they had to wait for the searches to happen."
Social Networks And Loss Of Capital, Social Networks
Abstract: Do social networks lower, raise, or have no effect on the probability of loss of capital, given that an investment has been made? The probability of loss of capital depends on due diligence and type of social tie. Investors who fail to conduct due diligence and do not use social ties have a 79% probability of loss of capital, (...) who conduct due diligence (and do not use social ties) have a 49% probability. Investors with preexisting social ties to the principals, sales representatives, or employees of the company (and do not conduct due diligence) have a 39% probability of loss(...).
- Source: Social Networks And Loss Of Capital, W. E. Baker - wayneb
umich.edu, R. R. Faulkner, DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2004.01.004, Social Networks, May 2004, online 2004/03/10 - Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
Robotic Rock-Climber Takes Its First Steps, NewScientist
Excerpts: A robotic mountaineer, which could one day help rescue people trapped by earthquakes or even explore rock faces on Mars, has taken its first steps. The spider-like robot, called Lemur, has a central body and four triple-jointed limbs. Its gait bears a spooky resemblance to that of a human rock-climber. Lemur can already pull itself up an irregular surface without any guidance from a controller, although it needs to be told where the holds are first. The ultimate goal is for Lemur to determine the best path up a cliff all by itself.
Lemur's ascent
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Dog's Verbal Tricks Probe Origin Of Language, NewScientist
Excerpts: With a "vocabulary" of 200 words, Rico showed exceptional ability in retrieving specific toys when asked to fetch them.
The researchers decided to test whether Rico's ability was based on understanding and if he could learn and remember new words. They placed a new toy among his favourites and asked Rico to fetch it, using the unfamiliar name. The dog nearly always did. This suggests that Rico is using a system called "fast-mapping", which young children use to learn new words by matching new words to new objects.
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Excerpts: Word learning starts with understanding the relationship between a word and the object it stands for. Children learn words by show-and-tell, or infer them by the process of elimination. For example, if a child is told to fetch a fruit with an unfamiliar name from a bowl containing well-known apples and bananas plus a novel object, chances are he or she will figure out that the novel fruit corresponds to the new word and will remember that in the future. This kind of learning is called fast mapping, and until now it has only been demonstrated in children.
Collie Dog's Word Power Impresses, BBC News
Excerpts: Border collie Rico understands 200 words and can even guess what new words could mean, say researchers.
A very smart collie dog named Rico has stunned German researchers by learning words with the apparent flair of a young child, Science magazine reports.
Rico understands more than 200 words and can work out the meaning of new ones, by a process of elimination.
What is more, Rico can often remember new words after a whole month - even though he has only heard them once before, the scientists claim.
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Excerpts: A German border collie has surprised scientists with his 200-word vocabulary and uncanny knack for learning new words, shedding light on the evolution of language.
Nine-year-old Rico knows the names of each toy in his hundred-strong collection and can retrieve items called out to him with over 90% accuracy. He can also learn and remember the names of unfamiliar toys after just one encounter, putting him on a par with a three-year-old child.
Rico has a 200-word vocabulary and a knack for learning new words.
Image courtesy of Susanne Baus
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Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping", Science
Excerpts: During speech acquisition, children form quick and rough hypotheses about the meaning of a new word after only a single exposure-a process dubbed "fast mapping." Here we provide evidence that a border collie, Rico, is able to fast map. (...) He inferred the names of novel items by exclusion learning and correctly retrieved those items right away as well as 4 weeks after the initial exposure. Fast mapping thus appears to be mediated by general learning and memory mechanisms also found in other animals and not by a language acquisition device that is special to humans.
Animal Behavior: Eavesdropping On Bats, Nature
Excerpts: Two investigations into bat echolocation provide striking examples of the sophistication and the possible evolutionary and ecological consequences of variability in call design.(...)
Today, we know that there is variation between bat species in the design of echolocation calls, which often coincides with differences in their behaviour and ecology.(...)
They showed how echolocation signals can diverge within a species and how this divergence might promote sympatric speciation - the division of one species into two or more without a geographical barrier. This is a hot and contentious topic in evolutionary biology.
Locust Swarms May Spiral Into Plague, NewScientist
Excerpts:
Just a tonne of locusts can eat as much food as 2500 people (Image: FAO)
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A much greater worry is that the insects could breed to plague proportions and ruin the livelihoods of poor African farmers and affect food security. The last African locust plague lasted from 1986 to 1989 and struck 40 countries.
In 2003, exceptionally wet rainy seasons in the Sahel and northern Africa meant that the desert locust species (Schistocerca gregaria (Forskal)) was able to breed more generations of offspring than usual, leading to a population boom.
Breaking the Sod: Humankind, History, and Soil, Science
Ecology in the Underworld, Science
Excerpts: In many ways the ground beneath our feet is as alien as a distant planet. The processes occurring in the top few centimeters of Earth's surface are the basis of all life on dry land, but the opacity of soil has severely limited our understanding of how it functions. As creatures of the aerial world, we have a decidedly distorted view of this nurturing underworld. For ecologists, soil fascinates and flummoxes in equal measure. The techniques and approaches of many branches of aboveground ecology don't translate well to the soil environment.
Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security, Science
Excerpts: The carbon sink capacity of the world's agricultural and degraded soils is 50 to 66% of the historic carbon loss of 42 to 78 gigatons of carbon. (...). Strategies to increase the soil carbon pool include soil restoration and woodland regeneration, no-till farming, cover crops, nutrient management, (...). As well as enhancing food security, carbon sequestration has the potential to offset fossilfuel emissions by 0.4 to 1.2 gigatons of carbon per year, or 5 to 15% of the global fossil-fuel emissions.
Interactions and Self-Organization in the Soil-Microbe Complex, Science
Excerpts: Soil is the most complicated biomaterial on the planet. As with any material, the physical habitat is of prime importance in determining and regulating biological activity. However, until recently the opaque nature of soil has meant that any interrogation of its interior architecture has been relatively rudimentary, restricted to simple qualitative expressions of the physical heterogeneity that fail to relate to any specific function. (...) We introduce the concept that the soil-microbe system is self-organized and suggest new priorities for research based on an integrative approach that combines biochemistry and biophysics.
Multi-agent Simulations and Ecosystem Management: A Review, Ecological Modelling
Experpt: This paper proposes a review of the development and use of multi-agent simulations (MAS) for ecosystem management. The use of this methodology and the associated tools accompanies the shifts in various paradigms on the study of ecological complexity. Behavior and interactions are now key issues for understanding and modeling ecosystem organization, and models are used in a constructivist way. MAS are introduced conceptually and are compared with individual-based modeling approaches.
Ecology Drives The Worldwide Distribution Of Human Diseases, Alphagalileo
Excerpts: Mounting evidence suggests that ecological and climatic conditions influence the emergence, spread, and recurrence of infectious diseases. Global climate change is likely to aggravate climate-sensitive diseases in unpredictable ways. (...) address the influence of ecological factors on the biological diversity and distribution of parasitic and infectious diseases. After compiling epidemiological data on 332 different human pathogens across 224 countries, Guernier et al. used sophisticated statistical modeling methods to identify and characterize the influence of a number of potential contributing factors on species richness. They found that climatic factors are the most important determinant of the global distribution of human pathogens.
Universal Mortality Law and Immortality, arXiv
Abstract:: Well protected human and laboratory animal populations with abundant resources are evolutionary unprecedented. Physical approach, which takes advantage of their extensively quantified mortality, establishes that its dominant fraction yields the exact law, which is universal for all animals from yeast to humans. Singularities of the law demonstrate new kind of stepwise adaptation. The law proves that universal mortality is an evolutionary byproduct, which at any given age is reversible, independent of previous life history, and disposable. Life expectancy may be extended, arguably to immortality, by minor biological amendments in the animals. Indeed, in nematodes with a small number of perturbed genes and tissues it increased 6-fold (to 430 years in human terms), with no apparent loss in health and vitality. The law relates universal mortality to specific processes in cells and their genetic regulation.
Brain Learns Like A Robot, Nature
Excerpts: After a few trials, subjects were subconsciously able to predict the arrangements that spelled trouble. As they learned, key regions of their brain lit up. The research is published in this week's Nature.
One illuminated area, the insula cortex, helps to process emotions. Another, known as the ventral striatum, is well known as the brain's motivation centre. But this is the first time they have been implicated in the ability to learn good from bad.
The trials mimic our ability to use conflicting experiences to form value judgments.
The Wholes That Are Greater Than The Sum Of Their Parts In Mathematics Education, J. Math. Behav.
Abstract: This paper presents a study on employing different types of cooperative learning (CL) settings in mathematics teacher education based on multiple research data. The study analyzes mechanisms in which CL contributes to the development of teacher knowledge of three kinds: subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular content knowledge. Two wholes, which are greater than the sum of their parts, are analyzed in this paper. The first is a course whose design combines different CL settings, hence enhances different mechanisms for teachers' professional development. The second whole, teachers' "collaborative mind," is presented as an outcome of the first.
Why Do U.S. And Chinese Students Think Differently In Mathematical Problem Solving?, J. Math. Behav.
Abstract: (...) examined the impact of early algebra learning and teachers' beliefs on U.S. and Chinese students' thinking. The first study examined the extent to which U.S. and Chinese students' selection of solution strategies and representations is related to their opportunity to learn algebra. The second study examined the impact of teachers' beliefs on their students' thinking through analyzing U.S. and Chinese teachers' scoring of student responses. For the Chinese sample, students rarely used visual representations whether or not they had formally learned algebraic concepts. (...) Chinese teachers expect 6th graders to use the generalized strategies to solve problems while U.S. teachers do not.
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Excerpts:
WUSTL researchers have shown it possible to play video games with your brain, not your hands
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(...) placed an electronic grid atop patients' brains to gather motor signals that enable patients to play a computer game using only the signals from their brains.
The use of a grid atop the brain to record brain surface signals is a brain-machine interface technique that uses electrocorticographic (ECoG) activity-data taken invasively right from the brain surface. It is an alternative to the status quo, used frequently studying humans, called electroencephalographic activity (EEG) - data taken non-invasively by electrodes outside the brain on the skull.
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Excerpts: Sitting blindfolded with a device equipped with 144 pixels in his mouth (...) recognize that the system developed (...) to allow blind people to "see with their tongue" appears strangely effective. In just the first few minutes, the subject is able to build up a fairly clear picture of the letter "T" placed in various positions and transmitted by electrical impulses to the device on his tongue. "But for people born blind, the cerebral cortex, which is normally used for vision, is reactivated by this device. The electrical activity, recorded by a scan, is very clear about this.
- Source: An Eye On The Tongue, ScienceDaily & University Of Montreal, 2004/06/03
- Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
Some Brain Areas May Doze More Deeply Than Others, Science Now
Excerpts:
Zzzzzz. Deep sleep in part of the brain (white dots) seems to enhance performance on a test of hand-eye coordination.
>
CREDIT: HUBER ET AL., NATURE
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In the compensating group, slow waves emanating from the brain area exercised by the test were an average of 25% stronger (...). And the compensating group scored an average of 11% better the next morning when tested on performance on the original task. This improvement vanished, however, when the researchers repeated the experiment in another group of subjects who didn't sleep between the training and testing periods, (...).
The research demonstrates (...) that slow wave strength increases in localized areas of the brain after training and helps consolidate memory (...).
The Sleeping Brain, NPR TOTN
Excerpts: Do different parts of the brain sleep at different times?
Memory Fails You After Severe Stress, NewScientist
Excerpts: People are woefully bad at recalling details of their own traumatic experiences. When military personnel were subjected to threatening behaviour during mock interrogations, most failed to identify the questioner a day or so later, and many even got the gender wrong.
The finding casts serious doubt on the reliability of victim testimonies in cases involving psychological trauma.
Numerous studies have questioned the accuracy of recall of traumatic events, (...). Other studies have suggested that intense, personal experiences might produce near photographic recollection, (...).
Loss Of Circadian Genes Results In Epilepsy, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: A meticulous series of experiments - and the fortuitous use of a vacuum cleaner - lead to breakthrough new insight on the genetic basis of epilepsy. Circadian rhythms - the normal ups and downs of body rhythms - help organize physiological processes into a 24 hour cycle (...). Scientists have now discovered that the combined deletion of three circadian genes (...), results in accelerated aging and severe epilepsy in mice. Owing to the roughly 95% identity of PAR bZip proteins between mice and humans, it is anticipated that PAR bZip mutations may also underlie some forms of human epilepsy.
Complex Machine Carved Ancient Rings, Nature
Excerpts:
The ring's spiral carvings were made by a complex machine.
Image © Science
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Craftsmen would have run a sharp implement over a jade disc thousands of times to create the grooves, then cut out the centre to create the ring.
The device combines the rotational movement of the turntable with the linear motion of the needle. But historical references to compound machines that feature two types of movement do not appear until writings from the first century AD. Historians had thought that the jade rings were decorated by hand or by simple machines that use a single movement, like a potter's wheel.
China Had First Complex Machines, BBC News
Excerpts:
Consisted of two or more machines working together
Contained a stylus suspended over a rotating turntable
Created evenly spaced grooves on a jade ring
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Craftsmen in ancient China were using complex machines to work jewellery long before such devices are traditionally thought to have been invented.(...)
The machine that carved the grooves would have linked rotational and linear motion, perhaps using a stylus suspended over a rotating turntable, says Dr Lu.
"The complex machine that created these spiral grooves may also be among the ancestors of the crank in China... sculptures to have mechanised a variety of agricultural processes such as milling and winnowing," (...).
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Excerpts: "Giving people permission to experiment and learn from experience is essential to innovation. This de-emphasizes predicting financial outcomes in favor of forecasting and monitoring more qualitative trends and revisiting the assumptions underlying those forecasts.(...)
The challenge is to balance a culture of accountability in established businesses with a culture of learning in experimental businesses. (...)
To allow new ventures to benefit from the assets and experience available within a large corporation - (...) - leaders must nourish interaction between established and experimental businesses while letting the conflicting cultures maintain their identities.
Self-Assembly Made Easy, Physics Web
Excerpts: Physicists in Ireland have developed a novel technique that allows "hands-free" manipulation of mesoscale device components for the first time. The method employs electric fields to direct the assembly of the components into integrated systems and could be an alternative to conventional techniques for making electronic devices (...).
Light emitting diodes and other systems that contain mesoscale components are assembled by micro-robotic "tweezers" that pick up individual devices and place them on pre-selected positions on a chip surface.
Nanophysics: A Step Up To Self-Assembly, Nature
Excerpts: From the beautiful snowflakes that form from a random aggregation of water molecules, to the creation of a living organism, nature has found such efficient means of self-assembly that, in contrast, human techniques often seem crude. (...) By better understanding nature's methods for assembly on solid surfaces, involving diffusion, nucleation and growth, it might be possible to orchestrate these phenomena such that a complete computer chip consisting of several billion transistors could assemble itself, like a complex biological organism. (...) normal manufacturing methods will be useless.
Molecular Medicine: The Writing Is On The Vessel Wall, Nature
Excerpts: Watching blood cells move through the blood vessels of living tissues under the microscope, researchers have learned that most of the time the cells move rapidly with the blood flow without stopping. Sometimes, however, they contact the walls of the vessel, slow down and roll along - perhaps even stopping and sticking in specific areas. (...) These proteins constitute the writing on the vessel walls - molecular 'addresses' that could tell circulating blood cells where they are and what to do in specific circumstances.
Venezuelan Recall Is in Dispute Even Before the Vote, NY Times
Excerpts: Touch-screen voting machines, which have been plagued by security and reliability concerns in the United States, will be used in the recall vote on President Hugo Chávez, prompting his foes and foreign diplomats to contend that the left-leaning government may use the equipment to manipulate the vote.
A new touch-screen system here, bought earlier this year by Mr. Chávez's government, uses voting machines made by the Smartmatic Corporation (...)., and software produced by a related company, the Bizta Corporation(...). Neither company has experience in an actual election.
Gambling on Voting, NY Times
Excerpts: If election officials want to convince voters that electronic voting can be trusted, they should be willing to make it at least as secure as slot machines. (...) Electronic voting, by comparison, is rife with lax procedures, security risks and conflicts of interest.
On a trip last week to the Nevada Gaming Control Board laboratory, in a state office building off the Las Vegas Strip, we found testing and enforcement mechanisms that go far beyond what is required for electronic voting.
Gambling on Voting, NY Times
Excerpts: If election officials want to convince voters that electronic voting can be trusted, they should be willing to make it at least as secure as slot machines. (...) Electronic voting, by comparison, is rife with lax procedures, security risks and conflicts of interest.
On a trip last week to the Nevada Gaming Control Board laboratory, in a state office building off the Las Vegas Strip, we found testing and enforcement mechanisms that go far beyond what is required for electronic voting.
Appealing a Death Sentence Based on Future Danger, NY Times
Excerpts: A Texas death row inmate is claiming that jurors were wrong in believing he would probably commit more violent acts, pointing out his peaceful 18 years spent in prison.(...)
Texas juries in capital cases must make a prediction. They may impose a death sentence only if they find that the defendant will probably commit more violent acts.
Other states look backward, asking juries to consider the moral blameworthiness of the crime. Texas, which leads the nation in executions, wants to know the future: Will the killer kill again?
Meager Evaluations Make It Hard to Find Out What Works, Science
Excerpts: The Education Department even funds a "What Works Clearinghouse" on programs ranging from teaching math to reducing schoolyard violence. This heightened interest in assessment stems from the massive 2001 education reform bill--known as the No Child Left Behind Act-(...). But there's a dirty little secret behind that requirement: No program has yet met that rigorous standard, because none has been scientifically evaluated and shown to be effective. (A related secret is that there's no consensus on the type of evaluation studies that are needed.)
Ruined Moments In Your Life: How Good Are The Approximations?, Insurance: Math.& Econ.
Abstract: In this paper we (...) compute the probability of lifetime ruin which is the probability that a fixed retirement consumption strategy will lead to financial insolvency under stochastic investment returns and lifetime distribution. This problem is a variant of the classical and illustrious ruin problem in insurance, but adapted to individual circumstances. Using equity market parameters derived from US-based financial data we conclude that a 65-year-old retiree requires 30 times their desired annual (real) consumption to generate a 95% probability of sustainability, which is equivalent to a 5% probability of lifetime ruin, if the funds are invested in a well-diversified portfolio.
Choice, Consent, And The Legitimacy Of Market Transactions, Econ. & Phil.
Abstract: According to an often repeated definition, economics is the science of individual choices and their consequences. The emphasis on choice is often used - implicitly or explicitly - to mark a contrast between markets and the state (...). The emphasis in economic theory on freedom of choice in the market sphere suggests that legitimization in the market sphere is "automatic" (...). In this paper, I shall question the alleged dichotomy between legitimization in the market and in the state. I shall argue that it is the result of a conflation of choice and consent in economics (...).
An Oil Enigma: Production Falls Even as Reserves Rise, NY Times
Excerpts: For six consecutive years, ChevronTexaco has had good news (...): the company has found more oil and natural gas than it has produced. Over that time, ChevronTexaco's proven oil and gas reserves have risen 14 percent, more than one billion barrels.
(...)
For each of those years, ChevronTexaco's wells have produced less oil and gas than the year before. Even as reserves have risen, the company's annual output has fallen by almost 15 percent, and the declines have continued recently despite a company promise to increase production in 2002.
This Spy for Rent, NY Times
Excerpts: Assessing, cultivating and recruiting spies has long been a key job of Central Intelligence Agency officers. But now it is the C.I.A. officers themselves who are being assessed, cultivated and recruited - sometimes right out of the agency's cafeteria. In what is leading to a critical spy drain, private companies are aggressively seeking highly trained employees of our espionage agencies to fill government contracts.
(...) the privatization of our spies has been largely overlooked.
(...) So for now it is building up its staff by turning to the "intelligence-industrial complex."
Memos on Torture Conflict with Bush Legal Policies, NPR
Excerpts: Bush administration memos from the departments of Justice and Defense reportedly contradict other administration policies on torture and interrogation -- especially the administration's arguments made at the Supreme Court. The memos have been revealed by media outlets this week amid congressional calls for making them public. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.
Iraq Abuse 'Came From US Policy', BBC News
Excerpts: HRW says the abuses came out of the Bush administration's decision to ignore domestic and international laws after the 11 September terror attacks.
Human Rights Watch says this led to the United States creating offshore, off-limits prisons like Guantanamo Bay and also sending prisoners to other countries where information was beaten out of them.
The report says the US also decided to ignore its own laws and international human rights law by inflicting pain and humiliation on detainees to soften them up for interrogation.
Use of Dogs to Scare Prisoners Was Approved, Washington Post
Excerpts: Dog handlers say the intimidation tactic was approved by the highest-ranking military intelligence officer at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
A Look Behind the 'Wire' At Guantanamo, Washington Post
Excerpts: Extraordinarily long interrogation sessions were having a "cumulative effect" on the mental health of the captives. And the reliance upon open-air cages instead of enclosed cells constituted inhumane treatment under the international laws of war.
Nearly two years after the camp opened, Red Cross officials sharply criticized the U.S. government for continuing to use the cages (...) and for failing to establish due process or a stepped-up release schedule, according to the memos.
"There was no improvement in any of the four major areas of concern," (...).
Iraq Tactics Have Long History With U.S. Interrogators, Washington Post
Excerpts: A CIA handbook on coercive interrogation methods, (...) based on research and field experience.(...)
And among the manual's conclusions: The threat of pain is a far more effective interrogation tool than actually inflicting pain, but threats of death do not help.(...)
"Results produced only after weeks or months of imprisonment in an ordinary cell can be duplicated in hours or days in a cell which has no light or weak artificial light which never varies, which is sound-proofed, and in which odors are eliminated," the manual said.
Guantanamo List Details Approved Interrogation Methods, Washington Post
Excerpts: A still-classified list of 24 interrogation methods approved for use on Guantanamo Bay detainees includes placing prisoners in uncomfortable interrogation cells and deceiving them into thinking they are in the hands of Middle East interrogators who knew all about their culture, a U.S. government official said. (...)
The existence of the Guantanamo list was previously known, and a few of its methods have been cited in The Washington Post, including allowing interrogators to subject detainees to irritatingly hot or cold temperatures and to reverse their normal sleep patterns.
Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
The War on Terrorism: The Big Picture, Parameters
Excerpts: (...) Secretary Rumsfeld's internal memo disclosed his frank assessment that we appear little closer to resolving the actual challenge that drives us, eradicating the group that carried out the 9/11 attacks and preventing any repeats. While the United States and its allies have seized a portion of al Qaeda lieutenants and assets, the organization remains vibrant, its senior leadership largely intact, its popularity greater than ever, its ability to recruit unbroken, and its ideology and funds spreading across a global network (...) .
U.S. Wrongly Reported Drop in World Terrorism in 2003, NY Times
Excerpts: The State Department acknowledged Thursday that it was wrong in reporting that terrorism declined worldwide last year, a finding the Bush administration had pointed to as evidence of its success in countering terror.
Instead, the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department said. Statements by senior administration officials claiming success were based "on the facts as we had them at the time; the facts that we had were wrong," Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said.
Editor's Note: It seems to be a signature of a democratic systems that government declared reality can be corrected by factual evidence.
Isolation Is Not The Answer, Nature
Excerpts: International scientific collaboration is the best defence against bioterror.
The fear of bioterrorism is increasing scientific isolationism in the United States. New restrictions on the publication of sensitive information relevant to biological weapons, on access to 'select' biological agents for research, and on the training of scientists from specified countries are some examples. Although restrictions on scientific activities might make sense in the context of nuclear-weapons proliferation, they may end up being counter-productive for the United States' defence against bioterror.
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
- DNA Damage Piles Up in the Aging Brain, By age 40, some genes in the human brain stop working at peak capacity
- When Speciation Calls, Bat vocalizations can create new species
- Blind Date, Brush Turkey Style, How does a bird who's never seen one of its own kind find a mate?
- Rats Might Redraw Polynesian Immigration Route, Ancient colonists' favorite rodent may upset a theory about their origins
- RNA Fights Brain Disease in Mice, First viral RNAi therapy for inherited disease raises hopes of clinical
trial
- Unit Says It Gave Earlier Warning of Abuse in Iraq, Andrea Elliott, Starting in November, a small unit of interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison began reporting allegations of prisoner abuse.
- World Faces Seeping Flood Crisis , The number of people exposed to major flooding will double to two billion within 50 years, a UN study warns.
- US U-Turn On Upbeat Terror Report, Global terror attacks are on the rise, says the US State Department admitting an earlier report claiming a fall was wrong.
- Nutrient Regulation Of Cell Cycle Progression , Brenda L. Bohnsack, Karen K. Hirschi, Annual Review of Nutrition; Volume 24, Page 433 - 453
- Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Raises Hope, Experts say the results look promising, but caution that with just 16 people treated so far, it is too early to draw any conclusions
- Virtual Fences To Herd Wi-Fi Cattle, A farmer could control multiple herds from a single server at home, as if he were playing a video game
- Higher-Ranking Officer Is Sought to Lead the Abu Ghraib Inquiry, Eric Schmitt, The step would allow the inquiry into abuses at Abu Ghraib prison to reach into the military's highest ranks in Iraq.
- Study Finds Senior Exams Are Too Basic, Diana Jean Schemo, A study of high school graduation exams shows that they largely test material taught in the 9th and 10th grades.
- Fight Fire With Compassion, Donald P. Gregg, I learned from my experiences in Vietnam that by treating prisoners humanely we frequently gained valuable intelligence from them.
- An American in The Hague?, Jonathan D. Tepperman, The United States will find it difficult to prosecute foreign war criminals if it refuses to accept for itself legal standards it accuses them of breaking.
- Molecular Mechanisms Of Mammalian Dna Repair And The DNA Damage Checkpoints , Aziz Sancar, Laura A. Lindsey-Boltz, Keziban Unsal-Kaccmaz, Stuart Linn, Annual Review of Biochemistry; Volume 73, Page 39 - 85
- Incorporation Of Nonnatural Amino Acids Into Proteins , Tamara L. Hendrickson, Valerie de Crecy-Lagard, Paul Schimmel, Annual Review of Biochemistry; Volume 73, Page 147 - 176
- Crawling Toward A Unified Model Of Cell Mobility: Spatial And Temporal Regulation of Actin Dynamics , Susanne M. Rafelski, Julie A. Theriot, Annual Review of Biochemistry; Volume 73, Page 209 - 239
- Intermediate Filaments: Molecular Structure, Assembly Mechanism, And Integration Into Functionally Distinct Intracellular Scaffolds , Harald Herrmann, Ueli Aebi, Annual Review of Biochemistry; Volume 73, Page 749 - 789
- Analyzing Cellular Biochemistry In Terms Of Molecular Networks , Yu Xia, Haiyuan Yu, Ronald Jansen, Michael Seringhaus, Sarah Baxter, Dov
Greenbaum, Hongyu Zhao, Mark Gerstein, Annual Review of Biochemistry; Volume 73, Page 1051 - 1087
- Memo Says Torture 'May Be Justified' , The Aug. 1, 2002, memorandum from the Justice Department was written at the request of the CIA, and was the focus of a recent article in The Washington Post.
(By Dana Priest, The Washington Post)
- Contractor Immunity a Divisive Issue , Iraq's new government has been resisting a U.S. demand that thousands of foreign contractors in Baghdad be granted immunity from Iraqi law, Iraqi sources say.
(By Edward Cody, The Washington Post)
- Free Kicks Under The Microscope, New technology is designed to monitor the flight of swerving footballs.
- Skylarks Helped By 'Crop Circles', Leaving fallow patches in cereal fields could help boost skylark breeding, a survey shows.
- Emergence in Complex Cognitive, Social and Biological Systems , Gianfranco Minati,Eliano Pessa, 02/07, ISBN 0-306-47358-5, Hardbound
Price: 144.00 EUR/125.00 USD/87.50 GBP. proceedings of the second Conference of the Italian Systems Society www.airs.it .
- Experiences With Iraqi Insurgents, Patrick Graham, Contributor to Harper's Magazine discusses his experiences with Iraqi insurgents and his opinions of their motivations., 04/06/08, c-span
- Memos on Torture Conflict with Bush Legal Policies , 04/06/09, NPR, Bush administration memos from the departments of Justice and Defense reportedly contradict other administration policies on torture and interrogation -- especially the administration's arguments made at the Supreme Court. The memos have been revealed by media outlets this week amid congressional calls for making them public. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.
- Ice Cores Unlock Climate Secrets, Julianna Kettlewell, 04/06/09, BBC News Online,
- Nanotech Guru Turns Back On 'Goo', Paul Rincon, 04/06/09, BBC News Online,
- Scientists 'See New Species Born', David Whitehouse, 04/06/09, BBC News Online.
- Locust Swarms May Spiral Into Plague, Shaoni Bhattacharya, 04/06/09, New Scientist, A population boom in locusts in north Africa may lead to a plague, warns the UN, as Spain sends planes to spray the pests
- Web Site Lets Students Rate their Teachers , 04/06/11, NPR, ATC, Jennifer Wing of member station KPLU in Seattle, Wash., reports on a Web site for school children across the country -- RateMyTeachers.com -- that allows them to "grade" their teachers.
- A Computer That Has an Eye for Van Gogh Douglas Heingartner, 04/06/13, Van Gogh's "Olive Grove, 1889" was X-rayed for the project.
- Speculation About Behavior, Brain Damage, And Self-Organization: The Other Way To Herd A Cat, A. Colangelo - buchananuwindsor.ca, J. G. Holden, L. Buchanan, G. C. Van Ordenc, 14:4, 2004, Brain and Language, DOI: 10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00428-0
- Civil Society Iraq: Ethnic, Religious, and Location Influences on Outgroup Perception, JN Gresham, 2004-05-24, CogPrints
- The Ensemble Approach to Understand Genetic Regulatory Networks, Stuart Kauffman, 2004-05-31, Physica A, Article in Press, Uncorrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.05.018
- Self-organized Critical Pinball Machine, Henrik Flyvbjerg, 2004-06-02, Physica A, Article in Press, Uncorrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.05.005
- Implementation of Logical Functions in the Game of Life, J.-P. Rennard, 2004-06-04, arXiv, DOI: cs.CC/0406009
- How We Might be Able to Understand the Brain, Josephson, Brian D., 2004-06-05, CogPrints (Proc. ICCS2004)
- Blind Construction of Optimal Nonlinear Recursive Predictors for Discrete Sequences, Cosma Rohilla Shalizi, Kristina Lisa Shalizi, 2004-06-06, arXiv, DOI: cs.LG/0406011
- Zipf's Law and the Creation of Musical Context, Damian H. Zanette, 2004-06-07, arXiv, DOI: cs.CL/0406015
- Can two Chaotic Systems Make an Order?, J. Almeida, D. Peralta-Salas, M. Romera, 2004-06-07, arXiv, DOI: nlin.CD/0406010
- The Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy, Pauoo R. A. Campos, Viviane M. de Oliveira, R. Giro, Douglas S. Galvao, 2004-06-07, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0406017
- Males Don't Listen - Even When They're Seabirds, V. Bridge - v.bridgeleeds.ac.uk, 2004/06/08, Alphagalileo
- Social Networks In The Guppy (Poecilia Reticulata), D. P. Croft, J. Krause, R. James, 2004/06/08, Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
- Cranial Mechanics And Feeding In Tyrannosaurus Rex, E. J. Rayfield, 2004/06/08, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- Can Too Strong Female Choice Deteriorate Male Ornamentation?, L. J. Morrell, H. Kokko, 2004/06/08, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- Individual Recognition, Dominance Hierarchies And Winner And Loser Effects, L. A. Dugatkin, R. L. Earley, 2004/06/08, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- Purdue Mathematician Claims Proof For Riemann Hypothesis, 2004/06/09, ScienceDaily & Purdue University
- How Brain Gives Special Resonance To Emotional Memories, 2004/06/10, ScienceDaily & Duke University
- Neural Correlates Of Working Memory For Sign Language, J. Rönnberg - jribv.liu.se, M. Rudner, M. Ingvar, Jul. 2004, online 2004/04/14, Cognitive Brain Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.02.002
- The Where And How Of Attention-Based Rehearsal In Spatial Working Memory, B. R. Postle - postlewisc.edu, E. Awh, J. Jonides, E. E. Smith, M. D'Esposito, Jul. 2004, online 2004/04/23, Cognitive Brain Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.02.008
- Intelligence And Working Memory Systems: Evidence Of Neural Efficiency In Alpha Band ERD, R. H. Grabner, A. Fink, A. Stipacek, C. Neuper, A. C. Neubauer - aljoscha.neubaueruni-graz.at, Jul. 2004, online 2004/04/27, Cognitive Brain Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.02.010
- Changes In Job Security And Their Causes: An Empirical Analysis For France, 1982-2002, P. Givord - pauline.givordinsee.fr, E. Maurin - maurinensae.fr, Jun. 2004, European Economic Review, DOI: 10.1016/S0014-2921(03)00043-6
- Residential Electricity Demand In Taiwan, P. Holtedahl, F. L. Joutz - bmarkgwu.edu, Mar. 2004, Energy Economics, DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2003.11.001
- Temporal Order Of Nonlinear Dynamics In Human Brain, W. S. Tirsch - tirschgsf.de, H. Scher, M. Keidel, May 2004, online 2004/03/05, Brain Research Reviews, DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresrev.2004.01.002
Webcast Announcements
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Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
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International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
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Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28
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Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27
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Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, , Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01
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Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
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Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
- 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
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- Why Victory Against Terrorism Demands Shared Values
- 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
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- 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
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Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
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Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
04/06/14-17
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Intl Conf on Linking Systems Thinking, Innovation,Quality, Entrepreneurship and Environment (STIQE),
MARIBOR, SLOVENIA, 04/06/24-26
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Biannual Meeting Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, Whistler, BC, 04/06/24-26
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NAACSOS 2004, North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science, Pittsburgh PA, 04/06/27-29
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Statphys - Kolkata V An International Conference on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes , Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
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ICAD 2004 10th International Conference on Auditory Display, Sydney, Australia, 04/07/06-09
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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), Chen!
nai, 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
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Facing Complexity, Wellington, NZ, 04/07/15-17
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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
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Intl Conf Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2004), New York City, 04/07/19-23
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Intl Workshop on: Trust in Agent Societies , New York City, 04/07/19-20
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World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21
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The 4 th International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex Systems
(MCS'2004) , Beijing, 04/07/22-23
- 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, 04/07/28-31
- 6th
International Mathematica Symposium (IMS 2004), Banff,
Canada, 04/08/02-06
- 4th
intl seminar on Collective Intelligence
, U of Ottawa, Canada, 04/08/08-10
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Real-Life Complex Adaptive Systems: Modelling And Control, session in Intl Conf on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT'04, Austin, Texas, 04/08/14-17
- Fractals and Natural Hazards at
32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28
Intl Conf on Science of Complex Networks: from Biology
to the Internet and WWW (CNET2004), Aveiro
(Portugal), 04/08/29-09/02 -
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
- Neuroeconomics 2004, Charleston, SC, 04/09/16-19
- TNew Economic Windows 2004: Complexity Hints for Economic Policy, Salerno, Italy, 04/09/16-18
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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
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Nonlinear Waves in Fluids: Recent Advances and Modern Applications, Udine, Italy, 04/09/18-22
- XVII Brazilian
Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao -
Brazil, 04/09/22-24
- 3rd Natll Conf on Systems Science ,
Trento (Italy), 04/10/07-09
- TEDMED Conference ,
Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15
- Intl Workshop On Bifurcations In Nonsmooth And Hybrid Dynamical Systems ,
Milano (Italy), 04/10/21-22
- 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
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ICDM '04: The Fourth IEEE Intl Conf on Data Mining, Brighton, UK, 04/11/01-04
- The 7th Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
- 17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
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18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23
