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| Gregory Chaitin. "Irreducible Complexity in Pure Mathematics". Talk Summary, 2:30 Video [asf: 3.0 Mb]. Audio [mp3: 0.4 Mb]. By using ideas on complexity and randomness originally suggested by the mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in 1686, the modern theory of algorithmic information is able to show that there can never be a "theory of everything" for all of mathematics. Read the paper. Read the book . |  |
| Peter Schuster. " How Natures Circumvents Low Probabilities: The Molecular Basis of Information and Complexity". Talk Summary, 3:09 Video [asf: 3.7 Mb]. Audio [mp3: 0.5 Mb]. |  |
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Note: Audio files are in downloadable mp3 format for portable mp3 players or mp3 software players. Video files are in asf format and can be played e.g. with windows media player. If you have problems, suggestions, or comments with the file formats, please contact Carlos Gershenson.
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Abstract: Interest in prediction markets has increased in the last decade, driven in part by the hope that these markets will prove to be valuable tools in forecasting, decisionmaking and risk management - in both the public and private sectors. This paper outlines five open questions in the literature, and we argue that resolving these questions is crucial to determining whether current optimism about prediction markets will be realized.
The Power of a Good Idea: Quantitative Modeling of the Spread of Ideas from Epidemiological Models, SFI Working Papers 
Excerpts: The population dynamics underlying the diffusion of ideas hold many qualitative similarities to those involved in the spread of infections. In spite of much suggestive evidence this analogy is hardly ever quantified in useful ways. (...) Here we apply several paradigmatic models of epidemics to empirical data on the advent and spread of Feynman diagrams through the theoretical physics communities of the USA, Japan, and the USSR in the period immediately after World War II. (...) These features are probably general characteristics of the spread of ideas, but not of common epidemics.
Metropolitan Patenting, Inventor Agglomeration and Social Networks: A Tale of Two Effects, SFI Working Papers
Abstract: We investigate the separate effects on metropolitan patenting in the United States of inventor agglomeration and the structure of social networks linking inventors within and across metropolitan areas. Using patent data we have been able to assign a metropolitan location to individual inventors, link inventors who have co-authored patents, and characterize the structural features of the network of connections linking inventors. We find that inventors are disproportionately agglomerated in the larger metropolitan areas.
Our findings also indicate that while agglomeration of inventors and agglomeration of co-patenting relationships both have a positive effect on metropolitan patenting output, inventor agglomeration is a much stronger determinant. Once important socio-economic characteristics of metropolitan areas are controlled for, structure features of inventor networks have small effects on metropolitan patenting.
Elite Transformation and Organizational Invention in Renaissance Florence, SFI Working Papers
Abstract: In any form of life, 'flow' among units carries transpositions, of either the inventive or the reproductive sorts. In biological applications, this is metabolic flow of chemicals among species within generations, and it is genetic flow of DNA across generations within species. In our Florentine case study, 'flow' was operationalized primarily as biography---the lifecourse transitions of people through sequences of roles. Biographies usually act like energic food to the organizations and institutions of the city, transforming people flowing through them into reproducing the roles and self-interests contained within those institutions. But occasionally, when catalyzed to do so, biographies and the people flowing through them tip their own regulation and transform themselves. In our case, the Ciompi revolt, whose origins were only thinly analyzed in this article, was the catalytic event in question that triggered this tipping. The Ciompi revolt transformed the sequencing, composition and content of political, economic and kinship roles, especially within the elite, thereby reorganizing the coordinated biographies of many. We focused especially on the popolani domestic bankers, who transformed themselves in order to maintain themselves. In this article we showed how the economic invention of the partnership system was the unintended consequence of the institutional reorganization of the republican state, which cascaded into banking through political mobilization and social embedding in marriage. Evolution in Florentine international finance was the corollary of Florentine elite transformation.
Is Equality Of Opportunity Politically Feasible?, Econ. & Politics
Abstract: We develop a political-economy model where the amount of education subsidies is determined in a majority vote and spending is financed by revenues from taxation. Our analysis demonstrates that limiting the extent of subsidization and thus excluding the poor from gaining enough education can be a political equilibrium. Despite being the main beneficiaries of subsidies, the politically decisive middle class hesitates to extend monetary benefits, since improved access to higher education diminishes the return to education. Moreover, a non-monotone relation between inequality and the extent of redistribution through tax-financed educational subsidies obtains.
Can Papers End the Free Ride Online?, NY Times
Abstract: Newspaper Web sites have grown so popular that publishers would like to charge for access, but those who do face risky economics; only one national paper, The Wall Street Journal, and about 45 small dailies charge readers to use their Web sites; New York Times on the Web, which as more unique daily visitors than New York Times newspaper has readers, has been considering charging for years and is expected to make announcement soon about its plans; big part of motivation for newspapers to charge for their online content is not revenue it will generate, but revenue it will save by slowing erosion of print subscriptions; difficulty comes in determining what readers will pay for on Web after being conditioned to expect free online news; photo; graph (M)
Accountability And Corruption: Political Institutions Matter, Econ. & Politics
Abstract: This study uses a cross-country panel to examine the determinants of corruption, paying particular attention to political institutions that increase accountability. Even though the theoretical literature has stressed the importance of political institutions in determining corruption, the empirical literature is relatively scarce. Our results confirm the role of political institutions in determining the prevalence of corruption. Democracies, parliamentary systems, political stability, and freedom of press are all associated with lower corruption. Additionally, common results of the previous empirical literature, related to openness and legal tradition, do not hold once political variables are taken into account.
Failing the Wrong Grades, NY Times
Abstract: Diane Ravitch Op-Ed article calls for slowdown in latest crusade blaming American high schools for failings of American students, whose test performance is admittedly appalling; says it makes no sense to blame high schools for ill-prepared incoming students and calls for real stress on importance of academic achievement, not fun, creativity or fuzzy math in earlier grades; points out that high schools are actually where students are most likely to have teachers with degree in subject they are teaching (M)
Testing Scandal in Texas Schools, NPR ME
Excerpts: Houston schools have been implicated in a cheating scandal after test scores in some Texas school districts made suspicious leaps. An inspector general is investigating at least 23 schools. Questions arose in 2004 after The Dallas Morning News found strong evidence that educators were helping students cheat at nearly 400 schools statewide.
Student Scientists To Watch: With Diverse Ideas, Young Talents Win Big In Annual Competition, Science News
Excerpts: The first prize of $100,000 went to the 17-year-old designer of a novel biosensor. Recognizing the need to rapidly sense nerve-damaging chemicals that could be released into public places, David Lawrence Vigliarolo Bauer of Hunter College High School in New York City designed a device that detects compounds that stop the enzyme acetylcholinesterase from working. This chemical disruption is a trait common to many neurotoxins.
American Youngsters Yawning Through Class, Discovery.com
Excerpts: Many American fifth graders suffer jet lag-like symptoms and are too tired to learn because they're not getting enough sleep, new research concludes. (...) Amschler said computers and televisions in children's bedrooms may be an important factor in this lack of sleep and daytime fatigue. "Because of the adverse effects of sleep deprivation on children's health and learning potential, healthy sleep environments should be created at home. Parents need to monitor their children's sleep behaviors, including talking with their youngsters about their sleep attitude and experiences," she said.
Editor's Note: Maybe classes start too early in the morning?
13 Things That Do Not Make Sense, New Scientist
Excerpts: Benedetti has since shown that a saline placebo can also reduce tremors and muscle stiffness in people with Parkinson's disease (...). We have a lot to learn about what is happening here, Benedetti says, but one thing is clear: the mind can affect the body's biochemistry. "The relationship between expectation and therapeutic outcome is a wonderful model to understand mind-body interaction," he says. Researchers now need to identify when and where placebo works. There may be diseases in which it has no effect. There may be a common mechanism in different illnesses. As yet, we just don't know.
Self-Organized Origami, Science
Excerpts: The controlled folding and unfolding of maps, space structures, wings, leaves, petals, and other foldable laminae is potentially complicated by the independence of individual folds; as their number increases, there is a combinatorial explosion in the number of folded possibilities. (...)
Our observations and analysis provide a mechanism for naturally occurring Miura-ori. Stresses induced by the relative growth of stiff skins on soft supports will spontaneously fold into structures (...); stress-mediated apoptosis may then separate the skin from the tissue to form deployable laminae such as leaves and insect wings.
New Photofit 'Evolves' A Suspect's Face, New Scientist
Excerpts: Half an hour after being mugged, the victim is again staring her attacker in the face. But the assailant has not returned. What the victim is looking at is an image on a police laptop running software that can "evolve" a realistic likeness within minutes, while her memory is still fresh.
This novel photofit system was unveiled in London, UK, last week at a conference on crime-fighting technology. The computerised photofit systems police now use store hundreds of variations of facial features, such as eyes, noses and chins, in a database.
Pay Up, You Are Being Watched, New Scientist
Excerpts: Would you donate more to charity if you were being watched, even by a bug-eyed robot called Kismet? Surprisingly perhaps, Kismet's quirky visage is enough to bring out the best in us, a discovery which could help us understand human generosity's roots.
Altruisim is a puzzle for Darwinian evolution. How could we have evolved to be selfless when it is clearly a costly business? Many experimental games between volunteers who have to decide how much to donate to other players have shown that people do not behave in their immediate self-interest.
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Excerpts:
 WILD WEST WASPS. Saxon wasps, like tree wasps, are far less law-abiding than honeybees. The wasps lay illicit eggs, but this worker has found one and is about to kill it. Foster |
This selfish worker stays still for a minute or two in a suspiciously crouched position. She's laying her own egg in an empty cell.
Such rogue egg laying is a crime against insect society. The wheels of justice, however, don't require a special caste of investigators and prosecutors. Punishment among insects is meted out by ordinary workers-and sometimes the queen herself-says biologist Tom Wenseleers, who has watched dozens of hours of black-and-white videos from infrared security cameras that he's trained on nests of tree wasps
Global Warming Could Trigger Ant Invasions, New Scientist
Excerpts:  The bullet ant (Paraponera clavata) has one of the largest worker ants in the world - shown on its left antenna is a tiny Carebara reina worker ant. Both live in the forests of Central America (Image: C Richart) |
As temperatures around the world rise, individual ants may shrink while ant colonies boom in size - perfect for successful rampages
Insects, Viruses Could Hold Key For Better Human Teamwork In Disasters, ScienceDaily
Excerpt: In a new and novel study, scientists are looking to nature - specifically, to ants, bees and viruses - for ways to improve human collaboration during disaster relief efforts. At the center of the scientists' sights are a sub-group of their own species - specifically, civil engineers, who historically have had a limited role in such efforts, especially those involving critical physical infrastructures. (...) the research team at Illinois is attempting to draw inspiration from the collaboration patterns that honeybees and ants use, and the spread patterns viruses typically take.
Pioneer In Artificial-Intelligence Software Devises New Theory Of Cognition, PhysOrg.com
Excerpts: A leading expert in artificial intelligence and neural networks argues that cognition in humans and many animals occurs in a very different, non-algorithmic and less complex way than has been widely assumed until now.
Artificial Intelligence Marches Forward
Rodney Brooks has what seems like modest career goals: to achieve the manual dexterity of a 6-year-old and the object-recognition skills of a toddler. But for the moment, his field of robotics remains in its infancy. "Over the past 20 years we've gotten pretty good at navigation," says Brooks, who heads Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. "But none of the robots manipulates the environment. None of them really understands the objects they encounter outside of the lab."
A toddler, by contrast, can recognize a cup as a cup, even if its shape or size changes, while a six-year-old can tie her own shoelaces. For robotics, what it will take to reach those goals is a tremendous advance in artificial intelligence. (...)
Tracking the Uncertain Science of Growing Heart Cells, NY Times
Excerpts: (...) stem cells from bone marrow, injected into the damaged hearts of mice, had morphed into the special cardiac muscle cells that the body cannot replace after a heart attack.
The researchers held out the hope that the procedure could be applied to people, too. The findings underlined a basic premise of stem cell therapy, that it will work before the cells and their elaborate control systems are fully understood - just put stem cells in the right place in the body, and they will do the rest.
Gene-Silencing Technique Could Fight ALS, Forbes
Excerpts: A technique that effectively silences a mutated gene responsible for some cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) shows promise as a treatment (...).
In research with mice, the gene technique -- called RNA interference -- greatly delayed the onset and progression of ALS, (...). At the same time, the researchers were able to deliver a normal, healthy version of the gene to motor neuron cells.
"(...) you can silence the gene and at the same time produce another normal form of the protein," (...).
Fasting Every Other Day, While Cutting Few Calories, May Reduce Cancer Risk, UC Berkeley News
Excerpts: It shows that healthy mice given only 5 percent fewer calories than mice allowed to eat freely experienced a significant reduction in cell proliferation in several tissues, considered an indicator for cancer risk. The key was that the mice eating 5 percent fewer calories were fed intermittently, or three days a week.
What is encouraging about the findings is that the reduction in cell proliferation from that intermittent feeding regimen was only slightly less than that of a more severe 33 percent reduction in calories.
DNA With Three Base Pairs - A Step Towards Expanding The Genetic Code, EurekAlert
Excerpts: DNA with three or more base pairs could find broad applications in a number of fields, including biotechnology, medicine, data storage, and security. Instead of just the canonical base pairs "G-C" or guanine-cytosine, and "A-T" or adenine-thymine, the Scripps Research scientists' DNA has a third pairing: "3FB-3FB" between two unnatural bases called 3-fluorobenzene (or 3FB). Unlike other unnatural base pairs, DNA polymerases are able to replicate this base pair, albeit with reduced fidelity.
While the polymerase does not replicate the unnatural DNA with the same fidelity observed in nature, (roughly one mistake for every 10 million bases of DNA copied), its fidelity is reasonable (typically making only one mistake for every1000 base pairs).
Human Genomics: Disclosure Of Variation, Nature
Excerpts: Now that the sequence of the human genome is almost complete, the human genomics community is turning its attention towards what, genetically speaking, makes people different.
(...) have quantified the variation at more than 1.5 million DNA positions in 71 individuals of European American, African American and Chinese ancestry.studies is now being turned towards identifying and describing this variation, one goal being to develop new treatment options for many diseases.In the process,we are learning much about our evolutionary and demographic history, through statistical analyses (...).
Genome Biology: She Moves In Mysterious Ways, Nature
Excertps: The human X chromosome is a study in contradictions. The detailed sequence of the X, and a survey of inactivated genes in females, help to illuminate this unique 'evolutionary space'.
Language: Syntax For Free?, Nature
Excerpts: Human language is based on syntax, a complex set of rules about how words can be combined. In theory, the emergence of syntactic communication might have been a comparatively straightforward process.
(...), a simple word-object association matrix can provide the basis for syntax almost for free.
The authors use a simple model in which signals (words) are associated with objects. Such association can be referential (such as meat referring to 'edible organic matter') or non-referential (eat is associated with 'action of eating').
Neanderthals Spoke In A High-Pitched Sing-Song Voices, New Kerala
Excerpts: (...) Neanderthals had strong, but high-pitched, voices, they used for both singing and speaking. (...)
The findings, which were made after determining the skeletal remains of the Neanderthals, (...) also coincides with last week's release of the first complete, articulated Neanderthal skeleton.
Mithen also compared related skeletal Neanderthal data with that of monkeys and other members of the ape family, including modern humans, for his study and came to the conclusion that early hominins had the physical ability to communicate with pitch and melody, in a form of communication that was half spoken and half sung.
Music, The Food Of Neuroscience?, Nature
Excerpts: Playing, listening to and creating music involves practically every cognitive function. Robert Zatorre explains how music can teach us about speech, brain plasticity and even the origins of emotion.
A Review Of Automatic Rhythm Description Systems, Comp. Music J.
Excerpts: Rhythm belongs with harmony, melody, and timbre as one of the most fundamental aspects of music. (...) To build a computer system capable of intelligently processing music, it is essential to design representation formats and processing algorithms for the rhythmic content of music. (...) Although some rhythmic concepts are consensual, no single representation of rhythm has been devised that would be suitable for all applications. In this article, we propose a unifying framework for automatic rhythm description systems and review existing systems with respect to the functional units of the proposed framework.
Zipf's Law, Music Classification, And Aesthetics, Comp. Music J.
Excerpts: The connection between aesthetics and numbers dates back to pre-Socratic times. Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle worked on quantitative expressions of proportion and beauty such as the golden ratio. Pythagoreans, for instance, quantified "harmonious" musical intervals in terms of proportions (ratios) of the first few whole numbers: a unison is 1:1, octave is 2:1, (...). Some musicologists dissect the aesthetic experience in terms of separable, discrete sounds. Others attempt to group stimuli into patterns and study their hierarchical organization and proportions (...). Zipf refined a statistical technique known as Zipf's Law for capturing the scaling properties of human and natural phenomena (...).
- Source: Zipf's Law, Music Classification, And Aesthetics, B. Manaris, J. Romero, P. Machado, D. Krehbiel, T. Hirzel, W. Pharr, R. B. Davis, Computer Music Journal, Spring 2005
- Contributed by Atin Das - dasatin
yahoo.co.in
The Evolution Of Sensibility, Nature
Excerpts: Understanding the science behind aesthetic perception could guide and restrain the 'shock of the new' approach to music. Composer Roger Reynolds explains how.
Poetry And Science: Greatness In Little
Excerpts: We are not going to learn any science from a poem but it is good to sometimes talk about science in elevated language. Otherwise, to paraphrase an almost forgotten poet, John Wain, we "grow yellow on a diet of prose". Ancient writing brings the added pleasure of seeing something eerily half-alive before its time.
Lucretius affords the same enjoyment as Leigh but in greater abundance. His poem De Rerum Natura is an epic that sets out, with great passion and fine reasoning, the atomic theory of Democritus and Leucippus.
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Abstract: Several versions of a hard disc microscopic ratchet are introduced and studied with molecular dynamics. While, at equilibrium, no rectification of the fluctuations takes place, a systematic motion appears when a temperature difference is applied to different units of the motor. In the limit of dilute gases, an exact analytic calculation of its properties is found to be in excellent agreement with molecular dynamics simulations.
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Excerpts: This column introduces the concept of Brownian motion, which has a long history in the physical sciences and a surprisingly long history in the field of finance. (...)
Let us start with the assumption that the prices of assets evolve in a random manner. I do not care what the technical analysts who waste the time and money of investors say, stock prices, currency rates and interest rates are largely unpredictable. But unpredictable does not mean one should not attempt to understand the probability process driving the numbers.
Biomechanics: Independent Evolution Of Running In Vampire Bats, Nature
Excerpts: Most tetrapods have retained terrestrial locomotion since it evolved in the Palaeozoic era, but bats have become so specialized for flight that they have almost lost the ability to manoeuvre on land at all. Vampire bats, which sneak up on their prey along the ground, are an important exception. Here we show that common vampire bats can also run by using a unique bounding gait, in which the forelimbs instead of the hindlimbs are recruited for force production as the wings are much more powerful than the legs.
Fossil Horses--Evidence for Evolution, Science News
Excerpts: These include caballines (domesticated horse, E. caballus); zebras (...); and asses, donkeys, and related species. (...) These deep clades split ~3 million years ago (Ma) in North America and subsequently dispersed into the Old World. Equusbecame extinct in the New World ~10,000 years ago, probably as a result of multiple factors including climate change and hunting by early humans. In the Old World, although its range contracted, Equus persisted and was then domesticated in central Asia about 6000 years ago from a stock similar to Przewalski's wild horse, (...).
Introduced Species As Evolutionary Traps, Ecol. Lett.
Excerpt: Invasive species can alter environments in such a way that normal behavioural decision-making rules of native species are no longer adaptive. The evolutionary trap concept provides a useful framework for predicting and managing the impact of harmful invasive species. We discuss how native species can respond to changes in their selective regime via evolution or learning. We also propose novel management strategies to promote the long-term co-existence of native and introduced species in cases where the eradication of the latter is either economically or biologically unrealistic.
- Source: Introduced Species As Evolutionary Traps, M. A. Schlaepfer, P. W. Sherman, B. Blossey, M. C. Runge - mas50mail.utexas.edu, DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00730.x, Ecology Letters, Mar. 2005, Online 2005/02/25
- Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com
Optimal Eye Movement Strategies In Visual Search, Nature
Excerpts: To perform visual search, humans, like many mammals, encode a large field of view with retinas having variable spatial resolution, and then use high-speed eye movements to direct the highest-resolution region, the fovea, towards potential target locations. (...) to make eye movements that gain the most information about target location. We find that humans achieve nearly optimal search performance, even though humans integrate information poorly across fixations. (...) Apparently, evolution has exploited this fact to achieve efficient eye movement strategies with minimal neural resources devoted to memory.
Study Shows Faces Are Processed Like Words, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: Although they are dramatically different, words and faces are both recognized by parts, according to a study (...). It has been suggested that faces and words are recognized differently, that faces are identified by wholes, whereas words and other objects are identified by parts. However, (...) conducted a study that finds individuals use letters to recognize words and facial features to recognize faces. To reach this finding, experiments were performed in which observers were asked to focus on a black dot, to the right of which was a letter. (...)
Giant Space-Time Ripples May Cause Cosmic Expansion, New Scientist
Excerpts: (...) can account for the cosmic speed-up using "inflation" (...).
During inflation, space itself expanded faster than the speed of light. As it did so, random quantum fluctuations that popped into being produced ripples in space-time. These swelled to fill the entire "global" universe, which is about 10100 times as large as the universe we can see. (...)
But about a billion years ago, they say(...) that the effect of the ripples began to be felt - as cosmic acceleration.
Planetary Science: Picturing A Recently Active Mars, Nature
Excerpts: Discoveries made with the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the Mars Express orbiter show that, as recently as a few million years ago, the surface of Mars was being shaped by flowing water, lava and ice.
Is the Empire Striking Back?, NY Times
Abstract: Prof Yong Xue Op-Ed article criticizes statement issued by US and Japan in February asserting that resolution of hostilities between China and Taiwan is among 'common strategic objectives' of US and Japan; says US is right to encourage Japan to take more assertive role in world affairs, but says there are parts of world, especially East Asia, where Japan's history is too much of a burden, where it may not be in America's interest to align itself with Japan too closely (M)
Bush Defends Offering Video News Releases, NY Times
Excerpts: President Bush defended his administration's practice of providing television stations with video news releases that resemble actual news reports.
And Now, the Counterfeit News, NY Times
Excerpts: News organizations deceive the public when they pass off segments produced by the White House's public relations machine as real news.
Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
Government Report on U.S. Aviation Warns of Security Holes, NY Times
Excerpts: Noncommercial planes and helicopters offer terrorists tempting targets, a confidential government report concludes.
U.S. Report Lists Possibilities for Terrorist Attacks and Likely Toll, NY Times
Excerpts: The Department of Homeland Security has identified a dozen possible strikes it views as most plausible or devastating.
Homeland Insecurity, NY Times
Excerpts: The Bush team has been steadily eroding America's leverage over our biggest long-term competitor: China.
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
- Special Scale-Invariant Occupancy of Phase Space Makes the Entropy Sq Additive, Constantino Tsallis, Murray Gell-Mann, Yuzuru Sato, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-03-005
- Resolving Identities: Successive Crises in a Trading Room after 9/11, Daniel Beunza, David Stark, SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 05-02-003
- Brownian Motion, Dynamical Randomness And Irreversibility, Pierre Gaspard, New Journal of Physics 7 (2005) 77
- A Family Tree in Every Gene, Armand Marie Leroi, The idea that human races are only social constructs has been the consensus for at least 30 years. But now, perhaps, that is about to change.
- Reshaping Nuclear Pact: Bush Seeks to Close Loopholes, David E. Sanger, One goal behind President Bush's shift in dealing with Iran is to rewrite the main treaty governing the spread of nuclear technology.
- Tiny Bubbles Implode With the Heat of a Star, Kenneth Chang, When sound waves implode tiny bubbles, the surface of the bubble can reach temperatures more than twice as hot as the surface of the sun.
- The $600 Billion Man, Paul Krugman, At issue in the Social Security debate is what kind of society America should be.
- Anthrax Scare Is Attributed to a Testing Error, Scott Shane, Health officials believe that a mix-up of samples in a Defense Department contractor's laboratory was behind an anthrax scare Monday and Tuesday.
- OPEC Weighing Oil Production Increases, Jad Mouawad, Bowing to pressure from consuming nations, the president of OPEC said that the oil exporting group was considering an increase in its production ceiling.
- Wolfowitz Nod Follows Spread of Conservative Philosophy, Todd S. Purdum, By sending Paul D. Wolfowitz to the World Bank, President Bush all but announced his belief that it could benefit from discipline.
- A Wink and a Fraud, Maureen Dowd, George W. Bush started his presidency with a chip on his shoulder. Now he's a barrel of laughs.
- C.I.A. Says Approved Methods of Questioning Are All Legal, Douglas Jehl, The C.I.A. said that all interrogation techniques approved for use in questioning terrorism suspects were permissible under laws prohibiting torture.
- False Data for Yucca Mountain?, The Energy Department needs to move quickly to determine whether the falsifications surrounding Nevada's proposed nuclear waste facility endanger the site's viability.
- Theory of Mitotic Spindle Oscillations, Stephan W. Grill, Karsten Kruse, Frank J?licher, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 108104
- Earthquakes Descaled: On Waiting Time Distributions and Scaling Laws, Mattias Lindman, Kristin Jonsdottir, Roland Roberts, Bj?rn Lund, Reynir B?dvarsson, 05/03/15, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 108501
- Plasmonic Computer Chips Move Closer, Celeste Biever, 05/03/17, New Scientist
- Just for fun??, 05/03/18, Nature, Bernd?Heinrich reviews The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits by Gordon M. Burkhardt Working out why animals play is no easy task.
- To Infinity And Beyond!, 05/03/18, Nature, David?Lindley reviews Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos by Michio Kaku
- Geometric Quantum Computation and Multiqubit Entanglement with Superconducting Qubits inside a Cavity, Shi-Liang Zhu, Z. D. Wang, Paolo Zanardi, 05/03/18, Physical Review Letters
- Generation of Entangled States of Qudits using Twin Photons, Leonardo Neves, G. Lima, J. G. Aguirre G?mez, C. H. Monken, C. Saavedra, S. P?dua, 05/03/18, Physical Review Letters
- Preference of Sensory Neural Coding for 1/f Signals, Yuguo Yu, Richard Romero, Tai Sing Lee, 05/03/18, Physical Review Letters
- Nano Hazards: Exposure To Minute Particles Harms Lungs, Circulatory System, Janet Raloff, 05/03/19, Science News, Inhaling microscopic nanospheres and nanotubes, as might occur during their manufacture or commercial use, could trigger damage well beyond the lungs.
- Schizophrenia Syncs Fast: Disconnected Brain May Lie At Heart Of Disorder, 05/03/19, Science News, A misalignment of electrical outbursts by large numbers of neurons may play a major role in schizophrenia.
- Vitamin E Loses Luster: Nutrient Tests Show Disappointing Results, Nathan Seppa, 05/03/19, Science News
- Light's Hidden Holdup: Reflected Laser Beams Loiter A Little, 05/03/19, Science News, Using an ultrashort pulse laser, physicists have measured a minuscule time delay that affects light reflecting off many surfaces.
- A Whiff of Danger, 05/03/19, Science News, Synthetic fragrance chemicals can inhibit the activity of molecules that cells depend on to eject harmful substances.
- Puzzling Radio Blasts, 05/03/19, Science News, Astronomers are stumped by powerful radio waves emanating from the center of our galaxy.
- New Largest Prime Discovered, 05/03/19, Science News, Computers have discovered a new largest prime number with a whopping 7,816,230 digits.
- Picky-Eater Termites Choose Good Vibes, 05/03/19, Science News, Good vibrations may have a lot to do with which pieces of wood a termite attacks.
- Julius Ruis Fractal Science Gallery?, 05/03/21, On a very systematic way nearly 200 images (all types of Mandebrot/Julia sets) are presented
- Classic Maths Puzzle Cracked At Last, Maggie McKee, 05/03/21, New Scientist
- Employees With Diabetes Are Not More Tired, 2005/03/01, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
- Long-term Evolution of an Ecosystem with Spontaneous Periodicity of Mass Extinctions, Adam Lipowski, Dorota Lipowska, 2005/03/13, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0503020
- What Properties Make a Chaotic System a Good Pseudo Random Number Generator?, Massimo Falcioni, Luigi Palatella, Simone Pigolotti, Angelo Vulpiani, 2005/03/14, arXiv, DOI: nlin.CD/0503035
- A Rewarding Discovery Shows How Dopamine Activates Brain Circuitry, 2005/03/14, ScienceDaily & Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Laughter Helps Blood Vessels Function Better, 2005/03/16, ScienceDaily & University Of Maryland Medical Center
- Two Brain Systems Regulate How We Call For Help, 2005/03/17, ScienceDaily & University Of Wisconsin-Madison
- Dropping Nano-Anchor, 2005/03/18, Innovations-Report & DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Language And Nation-Building In Israel: Hebrew And Its Rivals, W. safran, Jan. 2005, Online 2005/01/10, Nations and Nationalism, DOI: 10.1111/j.1354-5078.2005.00191.x
- Overlap In The Functional Neural Systems Involved In Semantic And Episodic Memory Retrieval, M. N. Rajah, A. R. McIntosh, Mar. 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Right Hemisphere Activation Of Joke-Related Information: An Event-Related Brain Potential Study, S. Coulson, Y. C. Wu, Mar. 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- The Neurophysiology Of Response Competition: Motor Cortex Activation And Inhibition Following Subliminal Response Priming, P. Praamstra, E. Seiss, Mar. 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Interaction Of Face And Voice Areas During Speaker Recognition, K. von Kriegstein, A. Kleinschmidt, P. Sterzer, A.- L. Giraud, Mar. 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Teachers, Schools, And Academic Achievement, S. G. Rivkin - sgrivkinamherst.edu, E. A. Hanushek - hanushekstanford.edu, J. F. Kain, Mar. 2005, Online 2005/02/04, Econometrica, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0262.2005.00584.x
- Inside The 'Black Box' Of Market Discipline, D. T. Llewellyn, Mar. 2005, Online 2005/03/09, Economic Affairs, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2005.00538.x
- Educational Expansion: The Worms In The Apple, A. Wolf, Mar. 2005, Online 2005/03/09, Economic Affairs, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2005.00540.x
- A New Undo Function For Web-Based Management Information Systems, Serrano, N., Alonso, F., Sarriegi, J.M., Santos, J., Ciordia, I., Mar.-Apr. 2005, IEEE Internet Computing
- Self organized scale-free networks from merging and regeneration, B.J. Kim, A. Trusina, P. Minnhagen, and K. Sneppen, Published online 15 March 2005, Eur. Phys. J. B 43, 369-372 (2005)
, DOI: DOI: 10.1140/epjb/e2005-00065-y
- Space Complexity Of Estimation Of Distribution Algorithms, Y. Gao, J. C. Culberson, Spring 2005, Evolutionary Computation
Webcast Announcements
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Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
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From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
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ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
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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
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Online Course on Genetic Programming, with Lee Altenberg, University of Hawaii Outreach College 2005/01/10 to 2005/05/13.
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5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15
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2005 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show
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Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 05/05/16-19
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IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium
Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10
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10th Annual Workshop on Economic Heterogeneous Interacting Agents (WEHIA 2005) , University of Essex, United Kingdom, 05/06/13-15
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NKS Summer School,
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2005 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), Washington, DC, USA, 05/06/25-29
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6th Intl Summer School/Conference "Let's Face Chaos Through Nonlinear Dynamics"Dedicated to the 75th Birthday of Professor Siegfried Grossmann, Maribor, Slovenia, 05/06/26-07/10
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The Potential Impacts Of Systemics On Society, 49th Annual Meeting of the Intl Soc for the System Sciences, Cancun, Mexico, 05/07/01-05
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WOSC 13th International Congress Of Cybernetics And Systems, Maribor, Slovenia, 05/07/06-10
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Summer Graduate Workshop In Computational Social Science Modeling And
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4th International Workshop on Computational Intelligence in Economics and Finance (CIEF'2005), Salt Lake City, 05/07/21-26
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5th Gathering on Biosemiotics, Urbino, Italy, 05/07/22-24
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2005 Intl Conf on Natural Computation (ICNC'05), Intl Conf on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD'05), Changsha, China, 05/08/27-29
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Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14
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18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23
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Genomics in Context,
University of Exeter, UK, 05/09/28-30
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CSDS-2005 Intl Conf on CONTROL AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS , Leon, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 05/10/04-07
- European Conference on Complex Systems, Paris, France, 05/11/14-18
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3rd International Complexity Science and Educational Research Conference, Robert, Louisiana, 05/11/20-22, see also: Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, Inaugural issue - Free Online Access
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The Second International Workshop on Biologically Inspired
Approaches to Advanced Information Technology , Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, 06/01/26-27
- FRACTAL 2006 Complexity and Fractals in Nature, 9th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vienna, Austria, 06/02/12-15
