Complexity Digest 2008.08

21-Feb-2008

PDF files of our annual editions are available at www.comdig.de/AnnualEditions.html

Aletter from Gottfried Mayer to our readers and friends is at http://www.comdig.de/GMLetter.html

For individual e-mail subscriptions go to Subscriptions.
Previous issue 2008.07 | Next issue 2008.09

Content

  1. Economics: Homo Economicus Evolves, Science
    1. Economic Stimulus Package: Will It Work, and for Whom?, Knowledge@Wharton
  2. Choosing A Place To Live - Why It's As Important As Picking A Spouse., US News & World Report
    1. Love: You Have 4 Minutes To Choose Your Perfect Mate, Nature
  3. The Downside Of A Good Idea, IU News Room
    1. Sheep In Human Clothing: Scientists Reveal Our Flock Mentality, ScienceDaily
  4. Weighty Evidence - The Link Between Obesity, Metabolic Hormones, And Tumors, Science News
    1. Scientists Show Stem Cells Don't Cause Cancer, U.S. News & World Report
  5. Medicine: Sidestepping Mutational Meltdown, Science
  6. Researchers Unveil Landscape Of Human-Pathogen Protein Interactions, EurekAlert
    1. Gene Therapy 'Trains' Immune System To Destroy Brain Cancer Cells And Reverses Behavioral Deficits, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center EurekAlert
  7. Sex Differences In The Brain's Serotonin System, Innovations-report
    1. Instructing Neuronal Connections, Innovations-report
  8. How Believing Can Be Seeing: Study Shows How Context Dictates What We Believe We See, Innovations-report
  9. Ecology: Green With Complexity, Science
    1. Key Issues For Attention From Ecological Economists, Env. & Dev. Econ.
  10. 'Junk' RNA May Have Played Role in Vertebrate Evolution, ScientificAmerican.com
  11. Evolutionary Biology: Darwin In The Fossils, Nature
  12. Flying Deaf? Earliest Bats Probably Didn't Echolocate, Science News
  13. Chaos In A Long-Term Experiment With A Plankton Community, Nature
  14. Global Warming: Another Side to the Climate-Cloud Conundrum Finally Revealed, Science
  15. Going The Distance: Galaxies May Hail From Early Universe, Science News
  16. Catalysis: The Art Of Splitting Water, Nature
    1. Solar Cell Speeds Hydrogen Production, New Scientist
  17. Materials Science: On Mixing And Demixing, Science
    1. Granular Matter: Static In Motion, Nature
    2. Why Anyone Can Make A Sandcastle: A High Level Of Understanding Of The Complex Structure Of Moist Granule, Innovations-report
  18. U.S. Struggles to Tutor Iraqis in Rule of Law, NY Times
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. The Next Generation of Terror, Foreign Policy
    2. German Intelligence Describes a ¡§New Quality¡¨ in Jihadi Threats, The Jamestown Foundation
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Economics: Homo Economicus Evolves, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Economic models can benefit from incorporating insights from psychology, but behavior in the lab might be a poor guide to real-world behavior. (...)

    Behavioral economics stands today at a crossroads. On the modeling side, researchers should integrate the existing behavioral models and empirical results into a unified theory rather than a collection of interesting insights, allowing the enterprise to fulfill its enormous potential. To be empirically relevant, the anomalies that arise so frequently and powerfully in the laboratory must also manifest themselves in naturally occurring settings of interest.

    1. Economic Stimulus Package: Will It Work, and for Whom?, Knowledge@Wharton Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Congress and the White House recently settled on an economic stimulus package with unusual speed, pushing the throttle to pull the economy out of a nosedive. Is this just election-year grandstanding, or does economic stimulus really work? While some experts argue that priming the economy now is unnecessary or even counter-productive, others support the $168 billion package and its emphasis on low and moderate-income recipients. As for the health of the economy overall, experts agree that no economic boom is in the near-term forecast.


      Editor's Note:

      See also the Dean LeBaron, video commentary "Stimulus Package... for the Chinese" , 08/02/09

  2. Choosing A Place To Live - Why It's As Important As Picking A Spouse., US News & World Report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A Q&A with Richard Florida

    If we can fly anywhere, call anywhere, videoconference anywhere, why is place so important?

    Innovative people cluster together. When we do that we increase each other's productivity. A group of researchers at the Santa Fe Institute call it an "urban metabolism." As our cities grow they get faster and faster, better and better, more and more innovative. Some don't, and they die. That's why economic activity spikes, because of these conglomerations of energy and talent.

    1. Love: You Have 4 Minutes To Choose Your Perfect Mate, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: What is the secret to finding the right partner? Two researchers are using unconventional techniques to find out.

      (...) have watched hundreds of videos of single people as they participate in a curious, but not unpopular, trend known as speed dating. Two participants spill their souls to each other for a set time, say four minutes, and try to decide whether they might have a future together. When the time is up, they move on to a new partner, sometimes talking to a dozen or more people in a night. (...)


  3. The Downside Of A Good Idea, IU News Room Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Good ideas can have drawbacks. When information is freely shared, good ideas can stunt innovation by distracting others from pursuing even better ideas, according to Indiana University cognitive scientist Robert Goldstone.

    The findings speak to innovation and the bandwagon effect as it influences decision-making within groups. The Internet and new technologies are increasingly offering opportunities for interconnectedness, for cutting-edge scientists to the "average Joe" posting or reading book reviews on Amazon.com or entries in Wikipedia.

    1. Sheep In Human Clothing: Scientists Reveal Our Flock Mentality, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Have you ever arrived somewhere and wondered how you got there? Scientists (...) believe they may have found the answer, with research that shows that humans flock like sheep and birds, subconsciously following a minority of individuals. Results (...) show that it takes a minority of just five per cent to influence a crowd's direction - and that the other 95 per cent follow without realising it. The findings could have major implications for directing the flow of large crowds, in particular in disaster scenarios, where verbal communication may be difficult. (...)

  4. Weighty Evidence - The Link Between Obesity, Metabolic Hormones, And Tumors, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    INSULIN HIGH TIDE. The observed link between obesity and cancer may be explained by the growth-promoting activities of insulin and IGF-1. One theory posits that excess weight sets off a biochemical cascade that increases insulin and, in turn, IGF-1 levels. Both hormones may activate IGF-1 receptors on cells, which can spur cell growth and inhibit cell death pathways that usually protect against tumor development. E. Roell/Source: Nature Reviews Cancer, 2004
    The link between obesity, metabolic hormones, and tumors brings the promise of new targets for cancer therapies. (...)

    (...) today at least a half-dozen companies are developing cancer drugs that interfere with the hormone's cousin - insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF-1). (...)

    If clinical trials find that dampening IGF-1 shrinks tumors in cancer patients, scientists will have not only a new kind of cancer drug but also a new source of insight into the interplay between body weight, metabolism, and cancer. (...)


    1. Scientists Show Stem Cells Don't Cause Cancer, U.S. News & World Report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Solving this problem is an important step before moving on to potential therapies

      A major concern with using stem cells to treat disease has been the possibility that the retrovirus used to implant the cells might cause cancer, but now a group of scientists appears to have solved that problem. (...)

      In addition, there has been a fear that using a retrovirus to implant stem cells results in an increased risk of cancer. This study showed that doesn't happen, Taylor said. "It proves, without a doubt, that these cells are safe for human use," he noted.
      Editor's Note: Is this "Proof without a doubt" in the context of so many different types of cancer with so many pathways really a scientific statement?

  5. Medicine: Sidestepping Mutational Meltdown, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: One benefit of sexual reproduction is the ability to shuffle genes and repair DNA damage during germ cell differentiation. Genetic recombination during the formation of egg and sperm cells in mammals thus permits the generation of genetic diversity and the continuous removal of deleterious mutations from the population (1). Mitochondria in mammalian cells harbor their own DNA (mtDNA), but unlike nuclear DNA, the mitochondrial genome is transmitted asexually from mother to child, and thus does not benefit from genetic recombination.

  6. Researchers Unveil Landscape Of Human-Pathogen Protein Interactions, EurekAlert Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) provided the first global analysis of human proteins interacting with viral proteins and proteins in other pathogens. The scientists examined publicly available experimental data for 190 different pathogens that comprise 10,477 interactions between human and pathogen proteins. This approach provides a highly detailed network map of human proteins interfacing with proteins in different pathogens. The network of interactions, published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, reveals possible key intervention points for the future development of therapeutics against infectious diseases.

    1. Gene Therapy 'Trains' Immune System To Destroy Brain Cancer Cells And Reverses Behavioral Deficits, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center EurekAlert Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Study in laboratory rats, conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, supports future translation to human trial

      A new gene therapy approach that attracts and "trains" immune system cells to destroy deadly brain cancer cells also provides long-term immunity, produces no significant adverse effects and -- in the process of destroying the tumor -- promotes the return of normal brain function and behavioral skills, (...). (...)

      The researchers used a virus stripped of its disease-causing genes as a vehicle to deliver two therapeutic proteins directly into the tumor cells.

  7. Sex Differences In The Brain's Serotonin System, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: A new thesis (...) shows that the brain's serotonin system differs between men and women. The scientists who conducted the study think that they have found one of the reasons why depression and chronic anxiety are more common in women than in men. Serotonin is a brain neurotransmitter that is critical to the development and treatment of depression and chronic anxiety, conditions that, for reasons still unknown, are much more common in women than in men. (...)

    1. Instructing Neuronal Connections, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Information in the brain travels along neuronal axons that form junctions, or ‘synapses', with tree-like dendrites of other neurons. Normally, the myriad of neuronal pathways develop into highly organized layers called lamina-distinct areas where axons physically meet dendrites, providing a structural basis for integrating information. How such patterning of neurons actually occurs has long eluded brain scientists. Now, a team (...) has determined that adhesion molecules on terminally projecting axons instruct the laminar configuration within ‘target' dendrites-branches of neurons that receive signals from axons (1). The researchers found that individual dendrites are divided molecularly and functionally into ‘sub-dendritic segments', (...).

  8. How Believing Can Be Seeing: Study Shows How Context Dictates What We Believe We See, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Scientists (...) have found the link between what we expect to see, and what our brain tells us we actually saw. The study, (...) reveals that the context surrounding what we see is all important - sometimes overriding the evidence gathered by our eyes and even causing us to imagine things which aren't really there. The paper reveals that a vague background context is more influential and helps us to fill in more blanks than a bright, well-defined context. This may explain why we are prone to ‘see' imaginary shapes in the shadows when the light is poor. (...)

  9. Ecology: Green With Complexity, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Predators, by affecting prey behavior, can change both plant diversity and productivity in an ecosystem.

    Why the sky is blue is a matter of basic physics, but why land is green is a much trickier question. The obvious response is that land is green because it is covered with plants. This answer, however, raises the question of why land is covered with plants in the face of omnipresent herbivory, which in turn raises the question of why herbivory is omnipresent in the face of omnipresent carnivory?

    1. Key Issues For Attention From Ecological Economists, Env. & Dev. Econ. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: This paper gives an ecologist's overview of the deteriorating environmental situation. It then describes areas where the activities of ecological economists seem appropriate (e.g., ecosystem service valuation, trade) and others requiring more attention (e.g., definitions of utility, social discounting, preserving population diversity, global toxification, the epidemiological environment, overpopulation, overconsumption, the economic impacts of nuclear explosions, and the equilibration of opportunity costs when attempting to solve global dilemmas). A general problem is the failure of ecological economists adequately to communicate their results and concerns to the general public and to decision makers. (...)

  10. 'Junk' RNA May Have Played Role in Vertebrate Evolution, ScientificAmerican.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    microRNA INSIDE: The lamprey, the jawless fish that represents one of the earliest vertebrates, has several more microRNAs than the proto-vertebrate sea squirt. ? J. ELLEN MARSDEN, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
    New study says tiny snippets of RNA co-evolved with vertebrates, likely accounting for the new organisms' complexity. (...)

    Tiny snippets of the genome known as microRNA were long thought to be genomic refuse because they were transcribed from so-called "junk DNA," sections of the genome that do not carry information for making proteins responsible for various cellular functions. Evidence has been building since 1993, however, that microRNA is anything but genetic bric-a-brac. Quite the contrary, scientists say that it actually plays a crucial role in switching protein-coding genes on or off and regulating the amount of protein those genes produce.


  11. Evolutionary Biology: Darwin In The Fossils, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Adaptation by natural selection is thought to drive evolution. Although it has been difficult to confirm this process in the fossil record, evidence has been there all along: we just haven't been looking properly. (...)

    Although natural selection can cause all three patterns (directional trends, stasis or randomness), the tradition has been to invoke selection only when models of randomness fit the data very poorly. Up to now, few studies have been able to reject randomness; and those that have point to stabilizing selection, rather than directional selection.

  12. Flying Deaf? Earliest Bats Probably Didn't Echolocate, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    FREQUENT FLYER. Although many aspects of the fossils of Onychonycteris finneyi suggest that the ancient bat could fly, the size and structure of its inner ear indicate that the creature couldn't echolocate. Royal Ontario Museum
    Fossils of a cardinal-sized creature recently unearthed in western Wyoming suggest that primitive bats developed the ability to fly before they could track their prey with biological sonar.

    More than one-fifth of living mammal species are bats, and most of those use echolocation to track prey or avoid obstacles. The fossil record of these delicate-boned creatures is sparse, but analyses hint that even the earliest known bats¡Xthose flitting through the skies between 54 million and 50 million years ago¡Xcould echolocate (...).

  13. Chaos In A Long-Term Experiment With A Plankton Community, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Mathematical models predict that species interactions such as competition and predation can generate chaos. However, experimental demonstrations of chaos in ecology are scarce, and have been limited to simple laboratory systems with a short duration and artificial species combinations. Here, we present the first experimental demonstration of chaos in a long-term experiment with a complex food web. Our food web was isolated from the Baltic Sea, and consisted of bacteria, several phytoplankton species, herbivorous and predatory zooplankton species, and detritivores.

  14. Global Warming: Another Side to the Climate-Cloud Conundrum Finally Revealed, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Two new studies show that clouds' response to global temperature changes may be much quicker and more direct--and thus easier to study--than experts have thought. (...)

    (...) researchers struggle to understand how clouds are responding to--and perhaps magnifying--greenhouse warming. As a result, cloud behavior is the biggest single source of uncertainty in climate prediction.

  15. Going The Distance: Galaxies May Hail From Early Universe, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    LONG AGO, FAR AWAY. Gravity of the cluster Abell 1689 acts as a gravitational lens, bending into arcs and magnifying the light from remote background galaxies. One galaxy appears so remote that it doesn't show up in visible light (top, right) but only in the infrared (middle and bottom, right). L. Bradley & H. Ford/JHU, Bouwens & Illingworth/UCSC, NASA, ESA
    Using a cosmic magnifying glass to peer into the deepest reaches of space, two teams of astronomers have discovered tiny galaxies that may be among the most distant known. Images suggest that one of the galaxies is so remote that the light now reaching Earth left this starlit body when the 13.7-billion-year-old universe was only about 700 million years old.

    The discoveries are important, notes Tim Heckman of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, because they probe a special time in the universe, when the cosmos changed from a place filled with neutral gas to a place ionized by the emergence of the first substantial population of stars and black holes.

  16. Catalysis: The Art Of Splitting Water, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Plants produce oxygen from water, but the same chemical reaction is hard to achieve synthetically. A new family of catalysts could breathe fresh life into the quest for artificial photosynthesis. (...)

    Given the breakthroughs reported seemingly daily in materials science, nanotechnology and molecular biology, it might seem odd that we have made so little progress in designing catalysts for essential reactions such as water oxidation under conditions comparable to those of photosynthesis.

    1. Solar Cell Speeds Hydrogen Production, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A solar cell that mimics photosynthesis has been used to make hydrogen directly from water. The prototype is inefficient, but the researchers who built it believe they can boost its efficiency, perhaps leading to a viable source of hydrogen to fuel cars and other vehicles.

      The device, built by Thomas Mallouk of Pennsylvania State University and colleagues, works much like a solar cell called a Gr?tzel cell, using sunlight to knock electrons off dye molecules.

  17. Materials Science: On Mixing And Demixing, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Trying to mix two dissimilar granular materials--such as light and heavy or small and large particles--may lead to counterintuitive results: Putting more and more energy into mixing may actually result in more and more demixing (1-5). The robust and varied patterns resulting from demixing (see the first figure) have long puzzled practitioners and researchers alike. How can one mix something that does not want to mix? Recently, Shi et al. have devised a conceptual approach that may allow for the mixing of dissimilar granular materials based on the fundamental physics of granular flow (6).

    1. Granular Matter: Static In Motion, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Wind-blown desert sands can charge up spontaneously. But although sand flow and the forces on charged bodies are well studied separately, surprisingly little is known of what happens when the two combine. (...)

      Grains in an electric field are also known to self-assemble into complex patterns4. Other poorly understood, but bothersome, phenomena can be traced back to particle charging, too. Clouds of charged dust regularly produce devastating explosions in grain and coal plants5. On the Moon, charged grit attaches itself to spacesuits and works its way into suit joints, causing them to leak air and so cut exploration time.

    2. Why Anyone Can Make A Sandcastle: A High Level Of Understanding Of The Complex Structure Of Moist Granule, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Anyone trying to build sandcastles on the beach will need some degree of skill and imagination, but not an instruction manual. The water content is actually relatively unimportant to the mechanical properties of the sand. This observation, which is borne out by precise measurements in the laboratory, puzzles researchers. Even with water content of just 3%, the fluid inside represents a highly-complex structure. The mechanical stiffness of the wet sand remains practically constant with moisture ranging from less than 1% to well over 10%, although the fluid structure changes enormously internally. (...)

  18. U.S. Struggles to Tutor Iraqis in Rule of Law, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A mob had gathered by the time the F.B.I. agents arrived at the house where an assassin's bomb killed nine people last year, narrowly missing a deputy prime minister. Fearing their own lives might be at risk, the agents gave themselves no more than 30 minutes to collect evidence.

    As agents worked inside the house, an Iraqi police commander outside ordered the arrest of a man on the fringe of the crowd, according to American agents who were at the scene. The man later confessed to complicity in the attack. The case, if it could be called that, was quickly closed.

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

    1. The Next Generation of Terror, Foreign Policy Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Tsouli's online username, as they discovered, was Irhabi007 ("Terrorist007" in Arabic). It was a moniker well known to international counterterrorism officials. Since 2004, this young man, with no history of radical activity, had become one of the world's most influential propagandists in jihadi chatrooms. It had been the online images of the war in Iraq that first radicalized him. He began spending his days creating and hacking dozens of Web sites in order to upload videos of beheadings and suicide bombings in Iraq and post links to the texts of bombmaking (...).

    2. German Intelligence Describes a ¡§New Quality¡¨ in Jihadi Threats, The Jamestown Foundation Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: An increasing number of messages on jihadi websites call for an attack on German soil. Simultaneously, there seems to be a ¡§new quality¡¨ in the Islamic propaganda, (...). Messages and videos, including specific instructions for the building of bombs, are now directly posted to websites in German and in Arabic with German subtitles. According to Fromm, this strengthening of al-Qaeda's internet offensive has been observed for the last year ...). There is a consensus among members of the government and the intelligence community that the domestic security situation has deteriorated. (...)


  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Evolutionary Biology: A First For Bats, John Speakman, 08/02/14, Nature 451, 774-775, Which came first as bats evolved ¡X flight or echolocation? Newly described fossils favour the flight-first hypothesis. But these creatures may have been otherwise equipped for flying at night., DOI: 10.1038/451774a
      2. Molecular Biology: Cohesin Branches Out, Frank Uhlmann, 08/02/14, Nature 451, 777-778 The cohesin complex ¡X best known for its role in cell division ¡X does not rest between divisions, and instead participates in regulating gene expression. How it does this is only now becoming clear., DOI: 10.1038/451777a
      3. Astronomy: Alien Planetary System Looks a Lot Like Home, Richard A. Kerr, 08/02/15, Science : 885. After finding nearly 250 alien-looking extrasolar planets, astronomers using a powerful new observing technique report in Science this week (p. 927) that they have spotted a planetary system--a star and two giant planets--that bears a striking resemblance to our own solar system.
      4. Behavioral Science: The In-Group Rules, Ben W. Heineman Jr., 08/02/15, Science: 904-905. Approaching morality from the perspective of behavioral and social development, Hinde explores the values people hold, the actions they actually take, and how they arrive at their positions.
      5. Animal Origins: Genome Reveals Early Complexity, 08/02/16, Science News, Analysis of DNA from a choanoflagellate, the closest known living nonanimal relative of animals, allows scientists to infer the genetic starter kit possessed by the first animal.
      6. Swell, A Pain Lesson: Gut Microbes Needed For Immune Development, 08/02/16, Science News, Intestinal bacteria train the immune system to cause pain and swelling, but that's a good thing.
      7. New World Stopover: People May Have Entered The Americas In Stages, 08/02/16, Science News, People first reached the edge of the Americas about 40,000 years ago but had to stay put for at least 20,000 years before melting ice sheets allowed them to move south and settle the rest of the continent.
      8. Bird Fads Weaken Sexual Selection, 08/02/16, Science News, There's a new look for a hot male among lark buntings every year.
      9. Nanocrystal, 08/02/16, Science News, Researchers have used DNA as Velcro to create the first materials that spontaneously assemble into regular 3-D patterns.
      10. Interactions Between Rainfall, Deforestation And Fires During Recent Years In The Brazilian Amazonia, L. Eduardo O.C. Aragão, Y. Malhi, N. Barbier, Andre Lima, Y. Shimabukuro, L. Anderson, S. Saatchi, 2008/02/11, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2007.0026
      11. Socially Informed Random Walks: Incorporating Group Dynamics Into Models Of Population Spread And Growth, D. T. Haydon, J. M. Morales, A. Yott, D. A. Jenkins, R. Rosatte, J. M. Fryxell, 2008/02/12, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1688
      12. 'Recordable' Proteins As Next-generation Memory Storage Materials, 2008/02/12, ScienceDaily & American Chemical Society
      13. Nuclear 'Eye' Reveals That Napoleon Was Not Poisoned, Although Arsenic Levels High At That Time, 2008/02/14, ScienceDaily & Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
      14. Nanotechnology Lends A Hand With 'Self-cleaning' Wool And Silk Fabrics, 2008/02/14, ScienceDaily & American Chemical Society
      15. US Prepares To Shoot Down Satellite: Relax, It's One Of Theirs, I. Thomson, 2008/02/15, vnunet.com
      16. Worker Or Queen? Harvester Ant Moms Set Their Daughters' Fates, 2008/02/16, ScienceDaily & Cell Press
      17. Research, Revisionists And The Radical Right, M. J. Goodwin, Feb. 2008 online 2007/12/14, Politics, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9256.2007.00308.x
      18. Pedagogy, Politics And Information Literacy, S. Thornton, Feb. 2008 online 2007/12/14, Politics, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9256.2007.00308.x
      19. Global Variation In Diversification Rates Of Flowering Plants: Energy Vs. Climate Change, R. Jansson - roland.janssonaemg.umu.se, T. J. Davies, Feb. 2008. online 2008/01/07, Ecology Letters, DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01138.x

    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, 08/01/22-27
      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. 8. Interdisziplinärer Salon für Europa [I.S.E.]. Thema: Struktur, Berlin, Germany, 08/02/26
      2. The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 08/03/01-03
      3. The 3rd Intl Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15
      4. 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28
      5. 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28
      6. Nexus for Change II, Bowling Green, OH, 08/03/29-04/01
      7. 2nd Applied Neuroscience Meeting, Monterrey, Mexico, 08/04/03-06
      8. Fumee 1 - 1St Futures Meeting - Understanding Anticipatory Systems, Rovereto (Italy), 08/04/10-12
      9. 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12
      10. Emergence In The Physical And Biological World: A Notion In Search Of Clarification, Erice (Italy), 08/04/12-16
      11. BIO_IT World Conf & Expo, Boston, MA, 08/04/28/30
      12. CHAOS2008 Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference, Chania, Crete, Greece, 08/06/03-06
      13. International Conference on Chaos, Complexity & Conflict, Omaha, NE, 08/06/05-07
      14. 4th Organization Studies Summer Workshop: "Embracing Complexity: Advancing Ecological Understanding in Organization Studies", Pissouri, Cyprus, 08/06/05-07
      15. Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Tenth Annual... Applying Systems Biology, San Francisco, CA, 08/06/09-11
      16. 9th Intl Mathematica Symposium, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 08/06/20-24
      17. The 14th Intl Conf on Auditory Display (ICAD), Paris, France, 08/06/24-27
      18. 7th Intl Summer School and Conf "Let's Face Chaos through Nonlinear Dynamics", Maribor, Slovenia, 08/06/29-07/13
      19. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      20. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      21. Complex Systems and Social Simulations, CEU Summer University, Budapest, Hungary, 08/07/07-18
      22. Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21
      23. 1st Intl Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Synchronization (INDS'08), Klagenfurt, Austria, 08/07/18-19
      24. Scratch@MIT,Cambridge, MA, 08/07/24-26
      25. 8th Intl Conf on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems, Brighton, UK, 08/07/31-08/02

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. 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


Also available in: Simple HTML format | TXT format | TXT format with links | Print