Complexity Digest 2007.44

15-Nov-2007

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Content

  1. From Ants to People, an Instinct to Swarm, NY Times
    1. For Migrating Sparrows, Kids Have A Compass, But Adults Have The Map, ScienceDaily
  2. This Is Your Brain on Politics, NY Times
  3. A Home for Maori Science, Science
    1. Top-Achieving Nations Beat U.S. States in Math and Science, Education Week
  4. Computer Science: Is There Progress on Talking Sensibly to Machines?, Science
    1. Brain2Robot, PhysOrg.com
    2. Smart Phone Suggests Things to Do, Technology Review
  5. Synthetic Molecule Makes Cancer Cells Commit Suicide, Science Daily
  6. What Goes Wrong in the ADHD Brain, Times
    1. Brain Matures A Few Years Late In ADHD, But Follows Normal Pattern, PhysOrg.com
  7. Neuroscience: Spying On New Neurons In The Human Brain, Science
    1. Neuroscience: Hippocampal Cells Help Rats Think Ahead, Science
  8. Time To Pick The Fly's Brain, Nature
    1. Into The Mind Of A Fly, Nature
  9. Excessive Fat Intake Can Throw Out The Body Clock, Nature
    1. Developmental Biology: The Power Of Blood, Nature
  10. Genetics: Who's the Queen? Ask the Genes, Science
    1. The Honeybee Queen Influences The Regulation Of Colony Drone Production, Behav. Ecol.
  11. Signaling By Decorating Webs: Luring Prey Or Deterring Predators?, Behav. Ecol.
  12. Evolution: When Are Genes 'Adventurous' And When Are They Conservative?, ScienceDaily
    1. Fisheries: Nets Versus Nature, Nature
  13. Computational Biology: Protein Predictions, Nature
    1. Unlocking The Function Of Enzymes, ScienceDaily
  14. Making Models Match: Replicating an Agent-Based Model, JASSS
    1. Spatial Dynamics of Pandemic Influenza in a Massive Artificial Society, JASSS
    2. The Impact of HIV/AIDS in the Context of Socioeconomic Stressors: an Evidence-Driven Approach, JASSS
  15. The Immune System: Look Who's Talking, arXiv
  16. Multiscale Vulnerability Of Complex Networks, Chaos
  17. New Evidence For Extragalactic Life-Forming Matter, New Scientist
    1. Planetary System That Looks Familiar, NY Times
  18. Engineering Students Use Smart Materials To Design A Smart Wing, PhysOrg.com
    1. Atomic-level Microscopy At Least 100 Times Faster With New Technique, Science Daily
    2. Focusing Light on Silicon Beads, MIT Technology Review
    3. Hydrogen Brewing Gets An Electrical Boost, NewScientist
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Understanding Al-Qaeda's Pakistan PSYOP (Psychological Operations, Ed.) and Insurgency, Threats Watch
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. From Ants to People, an Instinct to Swarm, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Ashley Cooper/Corbis A flock of European starlings in England.
    By studying army ants - as well as birds, fish, locusts and other swarming animals - Dr. Couzin and his colleagues are starting to discover simple rules that allow swarms to work so well. Those rules allow thousands of relatively simple animals to form a collective brain able to make decisions and move like a single organism.

    Deciphering those rules is a big challenge, however, because the behavior of swarms emerges unpredictably from the actions of thousands or millions of individuals.


    Editor's Note: See also our webcast with Iain Couzin

    1. For Migrating Sparrows, Kids Have A Compass, But Adults Have The Map, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Even bird brains can get to know an entire continent -- but it takes them a year of migration to do so, suggests a Princeton research team. The scientists have shown that migrating adult sparrows can find their way to their winter nesting grounds even after being thrown off course by thousands of miles, adjusting their flight plan to compensate for the displacement. However, similarly displaced juvenile birds, which have not yet made the complete round trip, are only able to orient themselves southward, indicating that songbirds' innate sense of direction must be augmented with experience if they are to find their way home. (...)

  2. This Is Your Brain on Politics, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Photos of Hillary Clinton elicited increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain that processes conflicting impulses, in swing voters who reported having an unfavorable opinion of her. Icons by Jennifer Daniel
    This article was written by Marco Iacoboni, Joshua Freedman and Jonas Kaplan of the University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience; Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania; and Tom Freedman, Bill Knapp and Kathryn Fitzgerald of FKF Applied Research.

    IN anticipation of the 2008 presidential election, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to watch the brains of a group of swing voters as they responded to the leading presidential candidates. Our results reveal some voter impressions on which this election may well turn.

    • Source: This Is Your Brain on Politics, Marco Iacoboni, Joshua Freedman Jonas Kaplan, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Tom Freedman, Bill Knapp, Kathryn Fitzgerald, NYTimes, 07/11/11

  3. A Home for Maori Science, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Then Maori custom intervened. To grow neurons, she must extract cells from the brains of cadavers. But in Maori culture, she says, "the head and brain are tapu," a sacred body part that must not be tampered with.

    (...) She discussed the problem with her family, then with the elders of her tribe, the Ngati Rangitihi. (...)

    Although the elders could not change the brain's status as tapu, they created rituals that are now part of her daily lab routine.

    • Source: A Home for Maori Science, John Bohannon, DOI: 10.1126/science.318.5852.907, Science : Vol. 318. no. 5852, p. 907, 07/11/09

    1. Top-Achieving Nations Beat U.S. States in Math and Science, Education Week Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The study's comparison uses a statistical model to link U.S. students' science results from 2005 and math scores from 2007 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress with the country-by-country results on the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, a prominent international exam known as TIMSS. (...)

      One of the states that fare well in the study is Massachusetts, which in 8th grade math is shown to rank ahead, by a statistically significant margin, of all but four countries: Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan.
      Editor's Note: It is not mentioned what exactly is measured in these tests. Having been in Taiwan for several years it seems that rote learning for tests in cram schools is very popular, but there is a saying that in an exam the students "give back" to the teacher what they have learned because they don't need it anymore.

  4. Computer Science: Is There Progress on Talking Sensibly to Machines?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The crux of the current research issue is this: Will a successful technology end up recreating by means of automated learning much of the linguistic and logical content that was abandoned in the 1990s? That might be closer to what our own cognitive structures seem to be. In any case, language data will remain central, and the World Wide Web has, as an unexpected benefit through chat rooms, provided researchers with potentially infinite resources of data on human conversations.

    1. Brain2Robot, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      A robot arm controlled by the user's thoughts could one day make life easier for people with paralysis. ? Fraunhofer FIRST
      Electrodes attached to the patient's scalp measure the brain's electrical signals, which are amplified and transmitted to a computer. Highly efficient algorithms analyze these signals using a self-learning technique.

      The software is capable of detecting changes in brain activity that take place even before a movement is carried out. It can recognize and distinguish between the patterns of signals that correspond to an intention to raise the left or right hand, and extract them from the pulses being fired by millions of other neurons in the brain. These neural signal patterns are then converted into control instructions for the computer.
      Editor's Note: An example of a feeding robot is seen action in Charlie Chaplin's, "Modern Times"

    2. Smart Phone Suggests Things to Do, Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Handheld guidance: Magitti software learns a user's behaviors and suggests activities based on location and past experiences. Credit: Technology Review
      New software uses artificial intelligence to infer your behavior and serve up appropriate lists of restaurants, stores, and events. (...)

      Over time, these recommendations will change as Magitti learns more about the user's behaviors and preferences. The software employs artificial-intelligence algorithms that have traditionally been used in research to make tailored recommendations. If, for instance, a person prefers to eat inexpensive lunches and more-expensive dinners, Magitti will pick up on this (by comparing the GPS location of the restaurant with a database of establishments) and offer up corresponding recommendations.

  5. Synthetic Molecule Makes Cancer Cells Commit Suicide, Science Daily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Triggering cancer cells' own suicide bomb. (Credit: Illustration by Sean Petersen, Courtesy of Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have developed a small molecule that can turn the survival signal for a variety of cancer cells into a death signal. The molecule mimics the activity of Smac, a protein that triggers the suicide of some types of cancer cells. (...)

    The researchers' studies revealed that the sensitive cell lines produced their own TNFa, so they were already "primed" for apoptosis. The paradox, said Wang, is that TNFa signaling is also part of a complex pathway that gives cancer cells a "survival" signal, offering them a growth advantage. (...)


  6. What Goes Wrong in the ADHD Brain, Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientists have found that the brain development of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is delayed but otherwise typical(...)

    On average, in children with ADHD, the age at which 50% of the 40,000 points on the cortex ¡X the brain's outer mantle ¡X achieved peak thickness was 10 1/2, three years behind the typically developing kids whose cortex matured at age 7 1/2. The lag was most obvious in the prefrontal cortex, (...).
    Editor's Note: This delayed peak in cortical thickness is similar to that of highly intelligent children. See "Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents", P. Shaw, D. Greenstein, J. Lerch, L. Clasen, R. Lenroot, N. Gogtay, A. Evans, J. Rapoport & J. Giedd, Nature, Vol 440, 30 March 2006

    1. Brain Matures A Few Years Late In ADHD, But Follows Normal Pattern, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Maturation of the brain, as reflected in the age at which a cortex area attains peak thickness, in ADHD (above) and normal development (below). Lighter areas are thinner, darker areas thicker. Light blue in the ADHD sequence corresponds to the same thickness as light purple in the normal development sequence. The darkest areas in the lower part of the brain, which are not associated with ADHD, had either already peaked in thickness by the start of the study, or, for statistical reasons, were not amenable to defining an age of peak cortex thickness. Credit: NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch
      The delay in ADHD was most prominent in regions at the front of the brain's outer mantle (cortex), important for the ability to control thinking, attention and planning. Otherwise, both groups showed a similar back-to-front wave of brain maturation with different areas peaking in thickness at different times.

      "Finding a normal pattern of cortex maturation, albeit delayed, in children with ADHD should be reassuring to families and could help to explain why many youth eventually seem to grow out of the disorder," explained Philip Shaw, M.D., NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch, who led research team.

  7. Neuroscience: Spying On New Neurons In The Human Brain, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The realization more than a decade ago that the mammalian brain produces new neurons well into adulthood was a revolution in neurobiology. It also raised a slew of questions about the function of these new cells. In recent years, for example, scientists have debated whether newborn neurons aid learning and memory and whether aberrations in adult neurogenesis contribute to disorders such as depression (...).

    1. Neuroscience: Hippocampal Cells Help Rats Think Ahead, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: One view of the hippocampus, based on human brain-imaging studies and other data, is that it is essential for remembering the past, as well as for imagining the future (Science, 19 January, p. 312). The relatively new idea that this part of the brain helps plan the future gets support from a paper in the 7 November issue of The Journal of Neuroscience by A. David Redish and Adam Johnson of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. With electrodes implanted into the brains of rats, they've captured, on the scale of single neurons, rodents thinking ahead about their routes in a maze.

  8. Time To Pick The Fly's Brain, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Drosophila transformed developmental genetics and cell biology. Now the fruitfly is poised to help biologists decipher how the brain works. (...)

    Flies have a relatively simple brain that controls sophisticated behaviours and can be analysed with machines as bizarre as a fly flight simulator. Drosophila research promises to solve how complex neural circuits in the brain mediate behaviour (...), now that researchers can manipulate single neurons and use sophisticated imaging of the working brain and electrophysiological techniques.

    1. Into The Mind Of A Fly, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Where do animal behaviours come from and are they controlled by genes? This is the fundamental question posed by the field of neurogenetics. Pioneering work from the 1960s in Seymour Benzer's laboratory demonstrated for the first time that Drosophila melanogaster fruitflies could be mutated to obtain animals with insomnia, learning disabilities and homosexual courtship behaviours.

  9. Excessive Fat Intake Can Throw Out The Body Clock, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Dietary factors shown to influence sleep pattern.

    The body's circadian rhythm - the internal 'clock' that regulates physiological processes - can be shifted by eating more fat, say researchers. This surprising finding suggests that a more complex interplay exists between the body clock and metabolism, with implications for disorders such as diabetes and obesity.

    1. Developmental Biology: The Power Of Blood, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Compared with the masterpiece crafted by nature, even Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings of the cardiovascular system seem primitive. In creating this system, nature seems to use blood flow as its paintbrush.

      More than a century ago, Thoma noted that blood vessels carrying a high volume enlarge, whereas those with low flow regress. Since then, significant evidence has accumulated to suggest that the mechanical force created by blood flow affects gene expression in the developing embryo.

  10. Genetics: Who's the Queen? Ask the Genes, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In 1712, the English scholar Joseph Warder dedicated his treatise, The True Amazons: Or, The Monarchy of Bees, to Queen Anne, citing the caste divisions of the hive--the queen built for breeding and the workers tending her and her brood, foraging, and dying to defend their home--as evidence that nature adored royalty. But much of what entomologists have learned since then has made the lives of bees and other social insects seem closer to the American dream: Given the right nurturing--a diet of royal jelly in honeybees, or being reared at a certain temperature in some ants--any female grub in a beehive or in an ant's nest can grow up to be queen.

    1. The Honeybee Queen Influences The Regulation Of Colony Drone Production, Behav. Ecol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Social insect colonies invest in reproduction and growth, but how colonies achieve an adaptive allocation to these life-history characters remains an open question in social insect biology. Attempts to understand how a colony's investment in reproduction is shaped by the queen and the workers have proved complicated because of the potential for queen-worker conflict over the colony's investment in males versus females. Honeybees, in which this conflict is expected to be minimal or absent, provide an opportunity to more clearly study how the actions and interactions of individuals influence the colony's production and regulation of males (drones). (...)

  11. Signaling By Decorating Webs: Luring Prey Or Deterring Predators?, Behav. Ecol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Many organisms convey false signals to mislead their prey or predators. Some orb-weaving spiders build conspicuous structures on webs called decorations. Web decorations and spider colorations are both suggested to be important signals involved in interactions between spiders and other organisms. There are several hypotheses about the functions of signaling by decorations, among which prey attraction had received much support, but empirical evidence regarding predator defense is controversial. In this study, we conducted field experiments to investigate the effects of spider decoration and coloration on insect interception rates of webs (...).

  12. Evolution: When Are Genes 'Adventurous' And When Are They Conservative?, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Taking a chance on an experiment - this is one of the impulses that drive evolution. Living cells are, from this angle, great subjects for experimentation: Changes in one molecule can have all sorts of interesting consequences for many other molecules in the cell. Such experiments on genes and proteins have led the cell, and indeed all life, (...). (...) recently took a look at gene expression - the process in which the encoded instructions are translated into proteins - and the evolution of mechanisms in the cell for controlling that expression. Changes in genes, and thus in protein structure, are a double-edged sword (...).

    1. Fisheries: Nets Versus Nature, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The life-histories of pike adjust quickly to shifts in the opposing forces of fishing and natural selection. Such rapid changes suggest that evolutionary dynamics must be incorporated into fisheries management.

      People like to catch big fish, sometimes so much so that fish sizes overall become greatly diminished. According to one view, the continual removal of large fish from a population sets the stage for rapid, undesirable evolutionary changes, including slower growth, earlier adult maturation and permanently smaller size.

  13. Computational Biology: Protein Predictions, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Predicting the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its amino-acid sequence is a dauntingly complex task. But with colossal computer power and knowledge of other structures, it can be done.

    Fifty years have passed since the Nobel-prizewinning discovery that the amino-acid sequence of a protein determines its three-dimensional structure - yet computational biologists are still unable to predict the shape of a protein from its sequence. Given that there are many more protein sequences available than structures, and that protein shape is crucial for understanding cellular and physiological processes, a method for predicting such structures is vital.

    1. Unlocking The Function Of Enzymes, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Fitting a key into a lock may seem like a simple task, but researchers at Texas A&M University are using a method that involves testing thousands of keys to unlock the functions of enzymes, and their findings could open the door for new targets for drug designs. (...) modified a technique called "molecular docking" to predict which molecule, called a substrate, triggers an enzyme into action, enabling them to decipher an enzyme's function based on its structure alone. Most biological processes depend on enzymes, which are proteins that speed up chemical reactions, but the function of many enzymes remains a mystery. (...)

  14. Making Models Match: Replicating an Agent-Based Model, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Scientists have increasingly employed computer models in their work. Recent years have seen a proliferation of agent-based models in the natural and social sciences. But with the exception of a few "classic" models, most of these models have never been replicated by anyone but the original developer. As replication is a critical component of the scientific method and a core practice of scientists, we argue herein for an increased practice of replication in the agent-based modeling community, and for widespread discussion of the issues surrounding replication. (...)

    1. Spatial Dynamics of Pandemic Influenza in a Massive Artificial Society, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: EpiSimS is a massive simulation of the movements, activities, and social interactions of individuals in realistic synthetic populations, and of the dynamics of contagious disease spread on the resulting social contact network. This paper describes the assumptions and methodology in the EpiSimS model. It also describes and presents a simulation of the spatial dynamics of pandemic influenza in an artificial society constructed to match the demographics of southern California. As an example of the utility of the massive simulation approach, we demonstrate a strong correlation between local demographic characteristics and pandemic severity, which gives rise to previously unanticipated spatial pandemic hotspots. In particular, the average household size in a census tract is strongly correlated with the clinical attack rate computed by the simulation. Public heath agencies with responsibility for communities having relatively high population per household should expect to be more severely hit by a pandemic.

    2. The Impact of HIV/AIDS in the Context of Socioeconomic Stressors: an Evidence-Driven Approach, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: In this paper, we present an agent-based simulation model of the social impacts of HIV/AIDS in villages in the Sekhukhune district of the Limpopo province in South Africa. AIDS is a major concern in South Africa, not just in terms of disease spread but also in term of its impact on society and economic development. The impact of the disease cannot however be considered in isolation from other stresses, such as food insecurity, high climate variability, market fluctuations and variations in support from government and non-government sources. The model described in this paper focuses on decisions made at the individual and household level, based upon evidence from detailed case studies, and the different types of networks between these players that influence their decision making. Key to the model is that these networks are dynamic and co-evolving, something that has rarely been considered in social network analysis. The results presented here demonstrate how this type of simulation can aid better understanding of this complex interplay of issues. In turn, we hope that this will prove to be a powerful tool for policy development.

  15. The Immune System: Look Who's Talking, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Human language and its governing rules present a number of analogies with the organization and structure of communication and information management in living organisms. This chapter will provide a short general introduction about grammar, as well as a brief explanation on how linguistic approaches effectively contaminate scientific practice, and, finally, how they can also provide systems biology with further tools and paradigms to analyse emergent behaviours and interactions among the components of a biological system.

  16. Multiscale Vulnerability Of Complex Networks, Chaos Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We present a novel approach to quantify the vulnerability of a complex network, i.e., the capacity of a graph to maintain its functional performance under random damages or malicious attacks. The proposed measure represents a multiscale evaluation of vulnerability, and makes use of combined powers of the links' betweenness. We show that the proposed approach is able to properly describe some cases for which earlier measures of vulnerability fail. The relevant applications of our method for technological network design are outlined.
    • Source: Multiscale Vulnerability Of Complex Networks, S. Boccaletti, J. Buldú, R. Criado, J. Flores, V. Latora, J. Pello, M. Romance, DOI: 10.1063/1.2801687, Chaos, Dec. 2007, online 2007/10/26
    • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

  17. New Evidence For Extragalactic Life-Forming Matter, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Carbon-based molecules that once floated in interstellar space are thought to have been later incorporated into Earth, providing the raw materials for life (Illustration: NASA/JPL/Caltech/T Pyle/SSC)
    Tantalising traces of the building blocks of life have been spotted in nearby galaxies. However, working out the identity of these carbon-containing molecules, and when they became abundant, is proving tricky, say astronomers.

    Astrophysicists believe that organic molecules were present in the cloud of dust and gas from which our solar system formed, providing the raw materials for life on Earth. Astronomers can see these molecules throughout our galaxy, which is one reason why many believe conditions may also be ripe for life in other parts of the Milky Way, and perhaps further afield.

    1. Planetary System That Looks Familiar, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Astronomers reported Tuesday that there were at least five planets circling a star there known as 55 Cancri, where only four had been known before, making it the most extensive planetary system yet found outside our own. It is also the one that most resembles our solar system, with a giant planet orbiting far out from the star and four smaller ones circling closer in.

      The new addition to the system circles 55 Cancri at roughly the distance of Venus in our own solar system, in the so-called habitable zone where it is warm enough for liquid water.

  18. Engineering Students Use Smart Materials To Design A Smart Wing, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    A prototype of the "smart wing" which uses smart alloys and heat from electrical current to position the flaps on an aircraft's wing. Photo courtesy Jinho Kim
    "A conventional aircraft wing uses hydraulics and an electronic motor to move the flaps into their proper positions for ascent and descent, so it is very heavy and noisy," said Kim, who is now a graduate student in Temple's engineering program. "We replaced those with these 'smart materials' that we can manipulate through applied heat using electrical current."

    1. Atomic-level Microscopy At Least 100 Times Faster With New Technique, Science Daily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Using an existing technique in a novel way, Cornell physicist Keith Schwab and colleagues at Cornell and Boston University have made the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) -- which can image individual atoms on a surface -- at least 100 times faster.

    2. Focusing Light on Silicon Beads, MIT Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Silicon spheres: Making solar cells out of tiny spheres of silicon (top image, black) can reduce the amount of the material used to just one-fifth. Hexagonal reflectors (middle image) ensure that most of the light hits the spheres. A flexible foil base means that the solar cells can be shaped for different applications (bottom image). Credit: Clean Venture 21
      A company in Japan has developed a novel way of making solar cells that cuts production costs by as much as 50 percent. The photovoltaic (PV) cells are made up of arrays of thousands of tiny silicon spheres surrounded by hexagonal reflectors. The key advantage of the system is that it reduces the total amount of silicon required, says Mikio Murozono, president of Clean Venture 21 (CV21), based in Kyoto, Japan. "We use one-fifth of the raw silicon material compared with traditional PV cells," he says.

    3. Hydrogen Brewing Gets An Electrical Boost, NewScientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A new microbe-powered device can extract up to 99% of the available hydrogen from biological compounds that have stumped previous attempts to ferment fuel from plant waste. The secret is to give the bugs a helping hand with a kick of electric charge.

      Hydrogen is an attractive environmentally friendly fuel because burning it creates only water as a waste product. But finding an efficient, clean way to produce hydrogen in the first place is difficult.

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

    1. Understanding Al-Qaeda's Pakistan PSYOP (Psychological Operations, Ed.) and Insurgency, Threats Watch Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Troubling Effectiveness of al-Qaeda's PSYOP On The Pakistani Army

      Going forward in the global conflict before us, it is important to acknowledge and understand that al-Qaeda is currently engaged in an Information Operation (IO) campaign inside Pakistan. This is in addition to its efforts to gain influence outside of Pakistan, particularly with Muslims in Europe, the Middle East and in the US. The primary target of the Pakistan campaign is the Pakistani military and it is driven by al-Qaeda's accelerating insurgency inside Pakistan.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Partnership Paves Way For Global Carbon Market, Nature 450, 149 (2007), DOI: 10.1038/450149b
      2. Energy: To Catch A Wave, Ewen Callaway, Nature 450, 156-159 (2007) Ocean wave energy is trying to break into the renewable-energy market, but many challenges remain., DOI: 10.1038/450156a
      3. Astrophysics: Universe's Highest-Energy Particles Traced Back to Other Galaxies, Adrian Cho, 07/11/09, Science : 896-897.
      4. Tuberculosis: Few Mutations Divide Some Drug-Resistant TB Strains, Robert Koenig, 07/11/09, Science: 901-902.
      5. The Simplest Double Slit: Interference and Entanglement in Double Photoionization of H2, D. Akoury, K. Kreidi, T. Jahnke, Th. Weber, A. Staudte, M. Sch?ffler, N. Neumann, J. Titze, L. Ph. H. Schmidt, A. Czasch, O. Jagutzki, R. A. Costa Fraga, R. E. Grisenti, R. D?ez Mui?o, N. A. Cherepkov, S. K. Semenov, P. Ranitovic, C. L. Cocke, T. Osipov, H. Adaniya, J. C. Thompson, M. H. Prior, A. Belkacem, A. L. Landers, H. Schmidt-B?cking, R. D?rner, 07/11/09, Science : 949-952. The angular pattern resulting when both electrons are ejected from H2 implies that, as their energies become comparable, their behavior changes from wavelike to particle-like.
      6. Facultative Mate Choice Drives Adaptive Hybridization, Karin S. Pfennig, 07/11/09, Science : 965-967. Female spadefoot toads are more likely to choose mates of another species when such behavior may increase offspring survival.
      7. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Identifies Neural Progenitor Cells in the Live Human Brain, Louis N. Manganas, Xueying Zhang, Yao Li, Raphael D. Hazel, S. David Smith, Mark E. Wagshul, Fritz Henn, Helene Benveniste, Petar M. Djuric, Grigori Enikolopov, Mirjana Maletic-Savatic, 07/11/09, Science : 980-985. A fatty acid found only in neural progenitor cells can be monitored by NMR spectroscopy in living humans to show that neurogenesis in the hippocampus decreases with age.
      8. Sex-Linked Genetic Influence on Caste Determination in a Termite, Yoshinobu Hayashi, Nathan Lo, Hitoshi Miyata, Osamu Kitade, 07/11/09, Science : 985-987. Assignment of termites to sterile worker or reproductive castes, previously thought to be determined solely by environmental conditions, has a critical genetic component.
      9. Groups of Agents with a Leader, Onofrio Gigliotta, Orazio Miglino and Domenico Parisi, 2007/10/31, JASSS 10(4)
      10. The Island Rule: Made To Be Broken?, S. Meiri, N. Cooper, A. Purvis, 2007/11/06, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1056
      11. Evidence For Adaptive Design In Human Gaze Preference, C. A. Conway, B. C. Jones, L. M. DeBruine, A. C. Little, 2007/11/06, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1073
      12. Contraceptive Risks, Heidi Ledford, 2007/11/09, News@Nature, DOI: 10.1038/news.2007.234
      13. Online Translator Sparks Diplomatic Row: Babelfish Causes 'Mother' Of All Errors, M. Chapman, 2007/11/09, vnunet.com
      14. Are There Rearrangement Hotspots In The Human Genome?, 2007/11/09, Innovations-report
      15. How The Brain Sends Eyeballs Bouncing, 2007/11/09, ScienceDaily
      16. How Well Do Dogs See At Night?, 2007/11/09, ScienceDaily
      17. Quickly Seeing Medicines Work In The Brain, 2007/11/10, ScienceDaily
      18. Dodgy Toys Could Ruin Christmas: Counterfeit And Recalled Goods Pose Seasonal Threat, I. Williams, 2007/11/12, vnunet.com
      19. How Global Is The Global Biodiversity Information Facility?, 2007/11/12, Innovations-report
      20. On The Complexity Of Periodic And Nonperiodic Behaviors Of A Hysteresis-Based Electronic Oscillator, D. Stellardo, F. Bizzarri, M. Storace, O. De Feo, Dec. 2007, online 2007/10/26, Chaos, DOI: 10.1063/1.2778552

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. 7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02
      2. Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007
      3. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 07/01/24-28
      4. TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006
      5. Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03
      6. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05
      7. 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30
      8. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      9. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      10. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      11. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      12. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      13. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      14. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      15. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      16. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      17. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      18. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      19. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      20. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      21. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      22. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      23. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      24. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      25. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      26. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      27. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Australia New Zealand Systems Conference 2007 "Systemic development: Local solutions in a global environment", Auckland, New Zealand, 07/12/02-05
      2. Expanding Secondary Use of Health Data: An NSF Biomedical Informatics Workshop, Corbett, Oregon, 07/12/04-05
      3. The 3rd Indian Intl Conf on Artificial Intelligence (IICAI-07), Pune, INDIA, 07/12/17-19
      4. The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 08/03/01-03
      5. The 3rd International Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15
      6. 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28
      7. 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28
      8. 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12
      9. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      10. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      11. Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. " Wolfram Research is Now the Official Math Brain Trust for the Hit CBS Series NUMB3RS. 07/10/05
      2. A short notice from Dean LeBaron

        Dear ComDig Readers,

        Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you -- as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that, in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them.

        Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist. With Gottfried's permission, I am posting this note with information, below, about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude.

        I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his progress with great interest and hope.

        Dean LeBaron
        Publisher, Complexity Digest

        Bank Information:

        If your contribution is made by check:
        Please mail the check, payable to "Gottfried Mayer", to:
        Manufacturers & Traders Trust
        2080 Western Avenue
        20 Mall
        Guilderland, NY 12084 USA
        (on the back of the check, please write: "For Deposit Only: Account # 983 338 3814")

        If your contribution is made by wire:
        Manufacturers & Traders Trust
        2080 Western Avenue
        20 Mall

        Guilderland, NY 12084 USA
        SWIFT Code# MANTUS33
        UID: 209 791
        ABA routing # 022 00 00 46 [for US wire transfers]
        Account # 983 338 3814
        Ref. Gottfried Mayer

      3. Intl Master of Science in Methods For Management Of Complex Systems - Academic Year 2007-2008, Institute for Advanced Study, Pavia, Italy, 08/01/01
      4. News notes on Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) for July 2007 are now available on-line, 07/08/04
      5. National Humanities Center Launches Humanities/Sciences Website, 07/04, As part of its ongoing "Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity: The Human & The Humanities" project (ASC), the National Humanities Center makes public a new website for the initiative which significantly expands the potential pool of humanists and scientists engaged in the exploration and examination of topics surrounding the question of human being.

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