Complexity Digest 2008.44

30-Oct-2008

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Content

  1. Economics: Risk Communication on Climate: Mental Models and Mass Balance, Science
  2. Being Human: Religion: Bound To Believe?, Nature
  3. Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal Warmth, Science
  4. A Question Of Class, Nature
  5. Oceanography: Global Warming Throws Some Curves in the Atlantic Ocean, Science
  6. Economics: Sustainable Fisheries, Nature
  7. Astrophysics: How Do Galaxies Form?, Nature
  8. Geology: The Story of O2, Science
    1. Biogeochemistry: Life Before The Rise Of Oxygen, Nature
  9. Correlation Between Nanosecond X-Ray Flashes And Stick-Slip Friction In Peeling Tape, Nature
  10. Systems Biology: Metabonomics, Nature
  11. Dolphins Use Complex Coordination During Predation, High-tech Acoustics Study Finds, ScienceDaily
    1. The Role Of Intersubjectivity In Animal And Human Cooperation, Biol. Theor.
  12. Animal Behaviour: Idle Ants, Nature
  13. Bacteria That Do Logic, Science News
    1. Hippocampal Volumes And Neuron Numbers Increase Along A Gradient Of Environmental Harshness, Proc. Biol. Sc.
  14. Visions Of Evolution: Self-Organization Proposes What Natural Selection Disposes, Biol. Theor.
    1. Development Puts An End To Evolution Of Endless Forms, ScienceDaily
    2. Chemists Devise Self-Assembling "Organic Wires", Innovations-report
  15. The Relevance Of Brain Evolution For The Biomedical Sciences, Biol. Lett.
  16. Mapping A Clan Of Mobile Selfish Genes, Innovations-report
  17. Nanoparticles Target Multiple Cancer Genes, Shrink Tumors More Effectively, PhysOrg.com
  18. Obituary: Anatol Zhabotinsky (1938 - 2008), Nature
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Embassy Row, Washington Post
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Economics: Risk Communication on Climate: Mental Models and Mass Balance, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The strong scientific consensus on the causes and risks of climate change stands in stark contrast to widespread confusion and complacency among the public (1, 2). Why does this gulf exist, and why does it matter? Policies to manage complex natural and technical systems should be based on the best available scientific knowledge, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides rigorously vetted information to policy-makers. In democracies, however, the beliefs of the public, not only those of experts, affect government policy.

  2. Being Human: Religion: Bound To Believe?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Is religion a product of our evolution? The very question makes many people, religious or otherwise, cringe, although for different reasons. Some people of faith fear that an understanding of the processes underlying belief could undermine it. Others worry that what is shown to be part of our evolutionary heritage will be interpreted as good, true, necessary or inevitable. Still others, many scientists included, simply dismiss the whole issue, seeing religion as childish, dangerous nonsense.

  3. Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal Warmth, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: "Warmth" is the most powerful personality trait in social judgment, and attachment theorists have stressed the importance of warm physical contact with caregivers during infancy for healthy relationships in adulthood. Intriguingly, recent research in humans points to the involvement of the insula in the processing of both physical temperature and interpersonal warmth (trust) information. Accordingly, we hypothesized that experiences of physical warmth (or coldness) would increase feelings of interpersonal warmth (or coldness), without the person's awareness of this influence.

  4. A Question Of Class, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Categorization is a fundamental skill learned in childhood. Yet the principles that guide it are sometime misunderstood and misused by scientists. Here, we analyse the concepts of 'category' and 'class', and reveal that some controversies over scientific classification, such as the case of planets, should not be controversial at all. Others, including the case of ulcers, can be explained as a consequence of wrong assumptions about categories.
    • Source: A Question Of Class, Jeffrey Parsons, Yair Wand, DOI: 10.1038/4551040a, Nature 455, 1040-1041, 08/10/23

  5. Oceanography: Global Warming Throws Some Curves in the Atlantic Ocean, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Although global warming seems able to alter even the saltiness of the sea, it hasn't noticeably freshened the high latitudes of the North Atlantic, as some researchers thought it might be doing back in 2003. When run without rising greenhouse gases, the Hadley model produces so many salinity swings up and down through natural processes built into the climate system that any greenhouse fingerprint would have been smudged beyond recognition, the group found.

  6. Economics: Sustainable Fisheries, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Fishermen's aims of increasing their catch seem at odds with preserving fish stocks by limiting catch. A study of more than 11,000 fisheries shows that 'individual tradable quotas' can reconcile these goals.

    The destruction of the world's major fisheries has been widely documented, with a general consensus that the biomass of top marine predators is now some 10% of what it was half a century ago1. Many of these species ¡X such as the bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, and swordfish in the Atlantic and Indian oceans ¡X are expected to be extinct within decades.

  7. Astrophysics: How Do Galaxies Form?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A study of galaxies indicates that galaxy formation may be regulated by a single parameter. This unexpected finding shows that prevailing views on the process could need revision.

    The current theory of galaxy formation holds that galaxies were assembled through the chaotic hierarchical merging of massive haloes of dark matter, in which star-forming matter was later embedded. One would therefore expect the properties of individual galaxies to be determined by numerous independent factors (...).

  8. Geology: The Story of O2, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: How did O2, a gas critical to the evolution of animal life, become the second most abundant gas on Earth? The story is not as simple as it might first appear. To understand it, we must know not only how and when O2 was first generated, but also how it came to persist in high concentrations in the atmosphere. (...)

    Net oxidation of the atmosphere requires long-term storage of the reductants, primarily as organic carbon. The largest reservoir, by far, is Earth's crust. The major mechanism for burial of organic matter is sedimentation and accretion onto cratons (stabilized continents) and, to a lesser extent, subduction deep into the mantle (...).

    1. Biogeochemistry: Life Before The Rise Of Oxygen, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The discovery of molecular fossils in 2.7-billion-year-old rocks prompted a re-evaluation of microbial evolution, and of the advent of photosynthesis and rise of atmospheric oxygen. That discovery now comes into question.

  9. Correlation Between Nanosecond X-Ray Flashes And Stick-Slip Friction In Peeling Tape, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Relative motion between two contacting surfaces can produce visible light, called triboluminescence1. This concentration of diffuse mechanical energy into electromagnetic radiation has previously been observed to extend even to X-ray energies2. Here we report that peeling common adhesive tape in a moderate vacuum produces radio and visible emission3, 4, along with nanosecond, 100-mW X-ray pulses that are correlated with stick-slip peeling events. For the observed 15-keV peak in X-ray energy (...).

  10. Systems Biology: Metabonomics, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Organisms often respond in complex and unpredictable ways to stimuli that cause disease or injury. By measuring and mathematically modelling changes in the levels of products of metabolism found in biological fluids and tissues, metabonomics offers fresh insight into the effects of diet, drugs and disease. (...)

    Metabonomics broadly aims to measure the global, dynamic metabolic response of living systems to biological stimuli or genetic manipulation.

  11. Dolphins Use Complex Coordination During Predation, High-tech Acoustics Study Finds, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Spinner dolphins have long been known for their teamwork in capturing prey but a new study using high-tech acoustics has found that their synchronization is even more complex than scientists realized and likely evolved as a strategy to maximize their energy intake. The study, (...) found that dolphins engage in a highly choreographed night-time "dance" to enclose their prey, and then dart into the circle of confused fish in organized pairs to feed for about 15 seconds, before backing out and letting the next pairs in line take their turn. (...) "Synchronized swimmers have nothing on spinner dolphins," said (...).

    1. The Role Of Intersubjectivity In Animal And Human Cooperation, Biol. Theor. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: I argue that analyses of various kinds of cooperation will benefit from an account of the cognitive and communicative functions required for the cooperation. In particular, I focus on the role of intersubjectivity (theory of mind), which has not been sufficiently considered in game theory. Intersubjectivity will here be divided into representing the emotions, desires, attention, intentions, and beliefs of others. I then analyze some kinds of cooperation-reciprocal altruism, indirect reciprocity, cooperation on future goals, and conventions-with respect to their cognitive and communicative prerequisites. It is argued that uniquely human forms of cooperation depend on advanced forms of intersubjectivity.

  12. Animal Behaviour: Idle Ants, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Genetic tests showed that cheaters, although closely related to their nest-mates, are genetically distinct. They also revealed the same cheater lineage in more than one nest, suggesting that it can spread between colonies, and leading the researchers to describe the cheats as a transmissible 'social cancer' that has evolved to exploit the cooperative behaviour of the majority.

  13. Bacteria That Do Logic, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When the cells transcribed the DNA into molecules of RNA ¡X the first step toward making functional proteins ¡X the snippets of code knotted up into 3-dimensional twists in the RNA. These twists can sense the presence of certain ¡§input¡¨ molecules and respond by either destroying the RNA or leaving it intact.

    If the RNA is left intact, it will produce the protein it encodes; if not, it won't. It's like a binary switch in a computer.

    1. Hippocampal Volumes And Neuron Numbers Increase Along A Gradient Of Environmental Harshness, Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Environmental conditions may provide specific demands for memory, which in turn may affect specific brain regions responsible for memory function. For food-caching animals, in particular, spatial memory appears to be important because it may have a direct effect on fitness via the accuracy of cache retrieval. Animals living in more harsh environments should rely more on cached food, and thus theoretically should have better memory to support cache retrieval, which may be crucial for survival. Consequently, animals in harsh environments may benefit from more neurons within a larger hippocampus (Hp), a part of the brain involved in spatial memory. (...)

  14. Visions Of Evolution: Self-Organization Proposes What Natural Selection Disposes, Biol. Theor. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: This article reviews the seven "visions" of evolution (...) concluding that each posited relationship between natural selection and self-organization has suited different aims and approaches. (...) we show that these seven viewpoints may be collapsed into three fundamentally different ones: (1) natural selection drives evolution; (2) self-organization drives evolution; and (3) natural selection and self-organization are complementary aspects of the evolutionary process. We then argue that these three approaches are not mutually exclusive, since each may apply to different stages of development of different systems. What emerges from our discussion is a more encompassing view: that self-organization proposes what natural selection disposes.

    1. Development Puts An End To Evolution Of Endless Forms, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Researchers have put forward a simple model of development and gene regulation that is capable of explaining patterns observed in the distribution of morphologies and body plans (or, more generally, phenotypes). (...) Nature truly displays a bewildering variety of shapes and forms. Yet, with all its magnificence, this diversity still represents only a tiny fraction of the endless 'space' of possibilities, and observed phenotypes actually occupy only small, dense patches in the abstract phenotypic space. Borenstein and Krakauer demonstrate that the sparseness of variety in nature can be attributed to the interactions between multiple genes and genetic controls involved in the development of organisms (...).

    2. Chemists Devise Self-Assembling "Organic Wires", Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Chemists have created water-soluble electronic materials that spontaneously assemble themselves into "organic wires" that can be used in the human body. From pacemakers constructed of materials that so closely mimic human tissues that a patient's body can't discern the difference to devices that bypass injured spinal cords to restore movement to paralyzed limbs, the possibilities presented by organic electronics read like something from a science fiction novel. To this end, a team of chemists at The Johns Hopkins University has created water-soluble electronic materials that spontaneously assemble themselves into "wires" much narrower than a human hair. (...)

  15. The Relevance Of Brain Evolution For The Biomedical Sciences, Biol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Most biomedical neuroscientists realize the importance of the study of brain evolution to help them understand the differences and similarities between their animal model of choice and the human brains in which they are ultimately interested. Many think of evolution as a linear process, going from simpler brains, as those of rats, to more complex ones, as those of humans. However, in reality, every extant species' brain has undergone as long a period of evolution as has the human brain, and each brain has its own species-specific adaptations. By understanding the variety of existing brain types, we can more accurately reconstruct the brains (...).

  16. Mapping A Clan Of Mobile Selfish Genes, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Much of human DNA is the genetic equivalent of e-mail spam: short repeated sequences that have no obvious function other than making more of themselves. After starting out in our primate ancestors 65 million years ago, one type of repetitive DNA called an Alu retrotransposon now takes up 10 percent of our genome, with about one million copies. Roughly every 20th newborn baby has a new Alu retrotransposon somewhere in its DNA, scientists have estimated. As mutations gradually blur the features of older Alu elements, some become unable to make copies of themselves. (...)

  17. Nanoparticles Target Multiple Cancer Genes, Shrink Tumors More Effectively, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Nanoparticles filled with small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules targeting two genes that trigger melanoma have shown that they can inhibit the development of melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. The nanoparticles, administered in conjuction with ultrasound irradiation, exerted their effects only on malignant tissue, leaving healthy tissue alone.

  18. Obituary: Anatol Zhabotinsky (1938 - 2008), Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Zhabotinsky, with his characteristic experimental skill and care, was soon observing chemical oscillations. He improved the recipe by substituting malonic acid for citric acid, and showed that the source of the colours was the ceric ions, rather than bromine as proposed by Belousov. (...)

    The discovery of oscillating reactions revolutionized the way that scientists thought about chemical dynamics.


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

    1. Embassy Row, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Pakistani Ambassador Husain Haqqani is wondering why foreign governments can bail out banks in their own countries but ignore the economic meltdown in his South Asian nation, where a financial collapse could encourage extremists and undermine the global war against terrorism. (...)

      Meanwhile, terrorists continue to test the government of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Suicide bombers have killed more than 1,000 in 88 attacks since July.

      • Source: Embassy Row, James Morrison, The Washington Time, 08/10/30

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Functional Traits and Niche-Based Tree Community Assembly in an Amazonian Forest, Nathan J. B. Kraft, Renato Valencia, David D. Ackerly, 08/10/24
      2. India Launches Its First Mission To Moon: Chandrayaan-1, 2008/10/22, ScienceDaily & European Space Agency
      3. Memory Function Varies After Damage To Key Area Of The Brain, 2008/10/23, Innovations-report
      4. Constraint-Based Network Model Of Pathogen–Immune System Interactions, J. Thakar, A. S.-Moghaddam, E. T. Harvill, R. Albert, 2008/10/24, Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2008.0363
      5. Scientists Build World’s Smallest Storage Device: Major Breakthrough In Quantum Computing, I. Thomson, 2008/10/25, vnunet.com
      6. Human Brain Minimizes Energy Expenditure And Integrates Gravity Into The Action Plan, 2008/10/26, ScienceDaily & Public Library of Science
      7. Novel Marker Of Colon Cancer, 2008/10/27, Innovations-report
      8. The Worst Of Friends: OPEC And G-77 In The Climate Regime, J. Barnett, Nov. 2008, Online 2008/10/16, Global Environmental Politics, DOI: 10.1162/glep.2008.8.4.1
      9. Community Structures And Role Detection In Music Networks, T. Teitelbaum, P. Balenzuela, P. Cano, J. M. Buldú, Sept. 2008, online 2008/10/14, Chaos, DOI: 10.1063/1.2988285

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Can Ants Solve Traffic Jams?, Danielle Parsons, Slatev.com, 08/07/22

        As roads and highways become ever more clogged, Danielle Parsons tells us how researchers are studying ways to learn from nature's own traffic-flow experts: ants.

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

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. What Is Computation? (How) Does Nature Compute? - 2008 Midwest NKS Conference, Bloomington, IN, 08/10/30-11/02
      2. 2nd Intl Congress of Complex Systems in Sport (2nd ICCSS) and 10th European Workshop of Ecological Psychology. (10th EWEP), Funchal, in Madeira Island, Portugal, 08/11/05-08
      3. 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI-08), Sydney, Australia, 08/12/09-12
      4. "Approaching Complexity" Workshop, IT Revolutions, Venice, 08/12/17-19
      5. COMPLEX'2009, First Intl Conf on Complex Systems: Theory and Applications, Shanghai, China, 09/02/23-25
      6. Models and Simulations 3 Conference, Charlottesville, USA 09/03/05-07
      7. 2nd Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-09.org), Arlington, Virginia, 09/03/06-09
      8. 2009 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, Nashville, Tennessee, USA,09/03/30-04/02
      9. 2nd Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference (CHAOS2009), Chania, Crete, Greece, 09/06/01-05
      10. 2009 Intl Conf of the System Dynamics Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 09/07/26-30
      11. 5th Intl Conf on Fractals and Dynamic Systems in Geoscience, Townsville, Australia, 09/08/13-14

    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

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