Complexity Digest 2009.02

18-Jan-2009

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

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Content

  1. The Year of Darwin, Science
    1. Darwin 200, Nature
    2. On the Origin of Life on Earth, Science
  2. International Year of Astronomy, Nature
  3. Grooming your way to the top, News@Nature
  4. I Am Not a Scientist, I Am a Number, PLoS Comput Biol
    1. MPACT And Citation Impact: Two Sides Of The Same Scholarly Coin?, Lib. & Info. Sc. Res.
  5. Why Model?, JASSS
  6. Being Human: Love: Neuroscience reveals all, Nature
  7. Trade Liberalization and Economic Development, Science
    1. Informed Traders, Phil. Trans. A
  8. Metabolic Reactions: Less Is More In Single-celled Organisms, ScienceDaily
    1. Spontaneous Reaction Silencing in Metabolic Optimization, PLoS Comput Biol
  9. Predicting the popularity of online content, arXiv
    1. Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope, arXiv
  10. Key To Future Medical Breakthroughs Is Systems Biology, Innovations-report
  11. 2009: The Year Ahead In The US: What's In Store For The Tech Industry Stateside, vnunet.com
    1. Snap, Map, Chat And Hyperlink?, Innovations-report
  12. Unlocking The Dynamic Web, Innovations-report
    1. The Evolution Of The Web And Implications For eResearch, Phil. Trans. A
  13. New Hope For Cancer Comes Straight From The Heart, ScienceDaily
  14. Clockwork That Drives Powerful Virus Nanomotor Discovered, ScienceDaily
  15. How The Spider Spun Its Web: ‘Missing Link' In Spider Evolution Discovered, ScienceDaily
  16. The Dynamics of Public Opinion in Complex Networks, JASSS
    1. Replication in the Deception and Convergence of Opinions Problem, JASSS
    2. Modeling Cultural Dynamics, arXiv
  17. Professor Helps Control Infectious Diseases With Models And Math, ScienceDaily
  18. Fractal, A Microscopic Crowd Model, Fractals
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Police Get New Hacking Powers: Remote Computer Searching Without A Warrant Upsets Privacy Groups, vnunet.com
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements
  1. The Year of Darwin, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Science is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of the author's birth with a variety of news features, scientific reviews and other special content, all collected here.
    1. Darwin 200, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin falls on 12 February 2009. Darwin was arguably the most influential scientist of modern times. No single researcher has since matched his collective impact on the natural and social sciences; on politics, religions, and philosophy; on art and cultural relations, and in ways that the man himself would never have imagined.
    2. On the Origin of Life on Earth, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: In 1871, [Darwin] outlined the problem in a letter to his friend, botanist Joseph Hooker: "But if (and Oh! what a big if!) we could conceive in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, etc., present, that a protein compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed."
  2. International Year of Astronomy, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt:
    Image: Hubble Space Telescope/Christian Darkin
    To mark in 2009 the International Year of Astronomy and 400 years since Galileo made his first telescope observations, Nature has commissioned a series of special articles and reviews. From telescopes to planets, stars, galaxies and cosmology, plus commentary on the state of the field from top experts, we hope they will make you look at the universe with new eyes.
    See Also: International Year of Astronomy 2009
  3. Grooming your way to the top, News@Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Among most mammals, being the biggest and meanest is the only way to become the alpha male with a choice of mates. But in chimpanzee society, it seems that being nice can be just as powerful.
  4. I Am Not a Scientist, I Am a Number, PLoS Comput Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: (...) Scientists will want to be assigned a number, or at least a unique identifier. Why?
    Imagine a time when you and your complete scholarly outputâ€"papers, grant applications, blog posts, etc.â€"could be identified online and in perpetuity and returned in a variety of easy-to-digest ways. While ego comes into it as a driver to make this happen, measuring scientific career advancement is something that lacks good metrics in a digital world. Unless one has a truly unique name, applying such a metric is not possible now.
    1. MPACT And Citation Impact: Two Sides Of The Same Scholarly Coin?, Lib. & Info. Sc. Res. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: This article provides the first comparison of citation counts and mentoring impact (MPACT) indicators - indicators that serve to quantify the process of doctoral mentoring. Using a dataset of 120 library and information science (LIS) faculty members in North America, this article examines the correlation between MPACT indicators and citation counts. Results suggest that MPACT indicators measure something distinct from citation counts. The article discusses these distinctions, with emphasis on differences between faculty ranks. It considers possible explanations for weak correlations between citations and mentoring at the full professor rank as well as implications for faculty activity analysis and broader institutional evolution.
  5. Why Model?, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: This lecture treats some enduring misconceptions about modeling. One of these is that the goal is always prediction. The lecture distinguishes between explanation and prediction as modeling goals, and offers sixteen reasons other than prediction to build a model. It also challenges the common assumption that scientific theories arise from and 'summarize' data, when often, theories precede and guide data collection; without theory, in other words, it is not clear what data to collect. Among other things, it also argues that the modeling enterprise enforces habits of mind essential to freedom.
    • Source: Why Model?, Joshua M. Epstein, JASSS 11(4), 2008/10/31
  6. Being Human: Love: Neuroscience reveals all, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Poetry it is not. Nor is it particularly romantic. But reducing love to its component parts helps us to understand human sexuality, and may lead to drugs that enhance or diminish our love for another
  7. Trade Liberalization and Economic Development, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: (...) will trade liberalization generally, and possible outcomes of a Doha agreement particularly, promote development in poor countries?
    1. Informed Traders, Phil. Trans. A Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: An asymmetric information model is introduced for the situation in which there is a small agent who is more susceptible to the flow of information in the market (...), and who tries to implement strategies based on the additional information. In this model market participants have access to a stream of noisy information concerning the future return of an asset, whereas the informed trader has access to a further information source which is obscured by an additional noise that may be correlated with the market noise. (...) Explicit trading strategies leading to statistical arbitrage opportunities, (...) how excess information can be translated into profit.
      • Source: Informed Traders, D. C. Brody, M. H.A. Davis, R. L. Friedman, L. P. Hughston, DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2008.0465, Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences, 2008/12/19
      • Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinayahoo.co.in
  8. Metabolic Reactions: Less Is More In Single-celled Organisms, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: A Northwestern University study has found a surprising similarity among four quite different organisms. The simplest organism, a bacterium called H. pylori, uses the same number of biochemical reactions (around 300) as yeast, the largest, most complex organism of the group, when optimizing growth.
    1. Spontaneous Reaction Silencing in Metabolic Optimization, PLoS Comput Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Cellular growth and other integrated metabolic functions are manifestations of the coordinated interconversion of a large number of chemical compounds. But what is the relation between such whole-cell behaviors and the activity pattern of the individual biochemical reactions? In this study, we have used flux balance-based methods and reconstructed networks of Helicobacter pylori, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to show that a cell seeking to optimize a metabolic objective, such as growth, has a tendency to spontaneously inactivate a significant number of its metabolic reactions, while all such reactions are recruited for use in typical suboptimal states.
  9. Predicting the popularity of online content, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: We present a method for accurately predicting the long time popularity of online content from early measurements of user access. Using two content sharing portals, Youtube and Digg, we show that by modeling the accrual of views and votes on content offered by these services we can pre- dict the long-term dynamics of individual submissions from initial data.
    1. Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing, among others. But the linked structures of social networks do not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and the daily rythms of life and work makes people default to interacting with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the declared set of friends and followers.
  10. Key To Future Medical Breakthroughs Is Systems Biology, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Crucial breakthroughs in the treatment of many common diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's could be achieved by harnessing a powerful scientific approach called systems biology, according to leading scientists from across Europe. In a Science Policy Briefing (...), the scientists provide a detailed strategy for the application of systems biology to medical research over the coming years. Conventional approaches of biology do not have the capacity to unravel these elaborate webs of interactions, which is why drug design often fails. Simply knocking out one target molecule in a biochemical pathway is turning out to be a flawed strategy for drug design, (...).
  11. 2009: The Year Ahead In The US: What's In Store For The Tech Industry Stateside, vnunet.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Predictions are notoriously difficult to make in the IT industry, but here are half a dozen anyway. (...) Contraction: There is no doubt that next year will be one of the toughest business climates since the 1930s. Getting capital is going to be difficult, companies aren't buying and even consumers, (...). (...) We've already seen a drying up of venture capital for start-ups, and this is going to get worse before it gets better. (...) held a meeting of the companies it had invested in, and presented an unusually stark image. On entering the office the attendees saw a gravestone with 'Good times RIP' on it. (...)
    1. Snap, Map, Chat And Hyperlink?, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Hyperlinking reality is a huge advance for mobile navigation, interaction and for image recognition, but what can it actually do? Quite a lot, apparently, with more to come. European researchers working in the MOBVIS project have successfully developed a system that can attach hyperlinks to real-world urban features. Users simply take a picture of a streetscape with their mobile phone and the MOBVIS system will do the rest. The potential range of applications is vast. Click the icon to get details about what bus routes are served by a particular stop, and at what time. Quickly scan today's specials on a restaurant menu (...).
  12. Unlocking The Dynamic Web, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Most of the knowledge and services potentially available on the worldwide web can't be accessed through browsers and websites. A new European research project has devised a smart toolkit that unlocks and links the web's hidden resources. Change is coming to the IT world, says Dave Robertson, (...). "More and more companies are pushing much of what they do out into the cloud," says Robertson. "If that's the way things are going, and if it's going to be very large, then society needs some way to be able to take control of how that gets coordinated." (...)
    1. The Evolution Of The Web And Implications For eResearch, Phil. Trans. A Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The hypertext visionaries foresaw the potential of richly interlinked global information systems for advancing human knowledge. The Web provided the infrastructure to enable those ideas to become a reality, and it quickly became a platform for collaborative research and data sharing. As the Web has evolved, new ways of using it for eResearch have emerged, such as the social networking facilities enabled by Web 2.0 technologies. The next generation of the Web-the so-called Semantic Web-is now on the horizon, which will again enable new types of collaborative research to emerge. (...)
  13. New Hope For Cancer Comes Straight From The Heart, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Digitalis-based drugs like digoxin have been used for centuries to treat patients with irregular heart rhythms and heart failure and are still in use today. (...) now report that this same class of drugs may hold new promise as a treatment for cancer. This finding emerged through a search for existing drugs that might slow or stop cancer progression. "This is really exciting, to find that a drug already deemed safe by the FDA also can inhibit a protein crucial for cancer cell survival," says (...).
  14. Clockwork That Drives Powerful Virus Nanomotor Discovered, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Peering at structures only atoms across, researchers have identified the clockwork that drives a powerful virus nanomotor. Because of the motor's strength--to scale, twice that of an automobile--the new findings could inspire engineers designing sophisticated nanomachines. In addition, because a number of virus types may possess a similar motor, including the virus that causes herpes, the results may also assist pharmaceutical companies developing methods to sabotage virus machinery. (...) "This research is a breakthrough that not only may lead to the development of a means of arresting harmful infections, but it also points to possible ways in which nano-devices could be fashioned," (...)
  15. How The Spider Spun Its Web: ‘Missing Link' In Spider Evolution Discovered, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: New interpretations of fossils have revealed an ancient missing link between today's spiders and their long-extinct ancestors. The research (...) may help explain how spiders came to weave webs. The research focuses on fossil animals called Attercopus fimbriunguis. While modern spiders make silk threads with modified appendages called spinnerets, the fossil animals wove broad sheets of silk from spigots on plates attached to the underside of their bodies. Unlike spiders, they had long tails. (...) caused the paleontologists to reinterpret their original findings. (...)
  16. The Dynamics of Public Opinion in Complex Networks, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: This paper studies the problem of public opinion formation and concentrates on the interplays among three factors: individual attributes, environmental influences and information flow. We present a simple model to analyze the dynamics of four types of networks. Our simulations suggest that regular communities establish not only local consensus, but also global diversity in public opinions. However, when small world networks, random networks, or scale-free networks model social relationships, the results are sensitive to the elasticity coefficient of environmental influences and the average connectivity of the type of network.
    1. Replication in the Deception and Convergence of Opinions Problem, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Reported results of experiments are usually trustworthy, but some of them might be obtained from errors or deceptive behavior. When an agent only read articles about experimental results and use the articles to update his subjective opinions about different theories, the existence of deception can have severe consequences.
    2. Modeling Cultural Dynamics, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: EVOC (for EVOlution of Culture) is a computer model of culture that enables us to investigate how various factors such as barriers to cultural diffusion, the presence and choice of leaders, or changes in the ratio of innovation to imitation affect the diversity and effectiveness of ideas. It consists of neural network based agents that invent ideas for actions, and imitate neighbors' actions.
  17. Professor Helps Control Infectious Diseases With Models And Math, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Can an algebraic equation hold the secret to eradicating malaria or schistosomiasis? A Case Western Reserve University mathematics professor is utilizing the combination of algorithms and models in an effort to assist his medical colleagues in the fight against infectious diseases. (...) is developing mathematical models to track and analyze symptoms, treatment outcomes and environmental conditions that affect diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis, also known as "snail fever." These models would allow doctors to make predictions towards effective treatment. (...)
  18. Fractal, A Microscopic Crowd Model, Fractals Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The core of this research is related to the human crowd problem. Some major problems are congestion, emergency evacuation, and fatal catastrophe. In fact, it has been realized that many crowd related problems can be resolved by influencing (controlling) human flow with providing various control measures. (...) The relationship between fractal pattern and crowd behavior is produced with respect to the crowd behavior model. It exposes a comparison between the crowd paths resulting from the model developed and the fractal formation created to imitate the crowd paths. A new approach for crowd behavior modeling is proposed based on fractal features (...).
    • Source: Fractal, A Microscopic Crowd Model, S. Widyarto - swidyartoagmail.com, M. S. A.. Latiff, DOI: 10.1142/S0218348X08004095, Fractals, Dec. 2008
    • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Police Get New Hacking Powers: Remote Computer Searching Without A Warrant Upsets Privacy Groups, vnunet.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Home Office has awarded new powers to the police and MI5 allowing them to hack into personal computers without a warrant. The move follows proposals by the European Union which extend the use of intrusive surveillance. The remote searching technique uses keyloggers, which can be installed in a variety of ways to allow officers to monitor a suspect's computer usage, including emails, web surfing and instant messaging conversations. Each case must still be authorised by a chief constable, but the new measures have angered opposition MPs, as well as civil liberty and privacy organisations, which are threatening a legal challenge to the extension. (...)
  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Distributed Constrained Optimization with Semicoordinate Transformations, William Macready and David Wolpert, 2008/11/04, arXiv, DOI: 0811.0823
      2. When are two algorithms the same?, Andreas Blass, Nachum Dershowitz, and Yuri Gurevich, 2008/11/05, arXiv, DOI: 0811.0811
      3. Hierarchical Models in the Brain, Karl Friston, 2008/11/07, PLoS Comput Biol 4(11): e1000211, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000211
      4. Solitonets: Complex Networks Of Interacting Fields, I. Kaminer, M. Segev, A. M. Bruckstein, Y. C. Eldar, 2008/12/17, Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2008.0401
      5. Experience versus Talent Shapes the Structure of the Web, Joseph S. Kong, Nima Sarshar, Vwani P. Roychowdhury, 2009/01/02, arXiv, DOI: 0901.0296
      6. A Poissonian explanation for heavy-tails in e-mail communication, R. Dean Malmgren, Daniel B. Stouffer, Adilson E. Motter, Luis A.N. Amaral, 2009/01/06, arXiv [PNAS 105(47): 18153-18158 (2008)], DOI: 0901.0585
      7. Complexity And Generalized Exponential Relaxation: Memory Versus Renewal, P. Grigolini - grigoaunt.edu, Sep. 2008, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127408021920
      8. Working Memory In The Network Of Neuron-Like Units With Noise, V. V. Klinshov, V. I. Nekorkin, Sep. 2008, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127408021968
    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. NECSI Winter School, Cambridge, MA, 09/01/05-23
      2. Winter School - Chemical Discrimination and Localization using Biologically Based Olfactory Processing, San Diego, CA, 09/01/12-13
      3. COMPLEX'2009, First Intl Conf on Complex Systems: Theory and Applications, Shanghai, China, 09/02/23-25
      4. 3rd Biennial International Transdisciplinary Seminar on the Complexity Approach, Camaguey, Cuba. 09/02/23-27
      5. Models and Simulations 3 Conference, Charlottesville, USA 09/03/05-07
      6. 2nd Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-09.org), Arlington, Virginia, 09/03/06-09
      7. 2009 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, Nashville, Tennessee, USA,09/03/30-04/02
      8. 7th Annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, 09/04/27-29, Boston, MA
      9. 2nd Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference (CHAOS2009), Chania, Crete, Greece, 09/06/01-05
      10. 20th Intl Conf on Noise and Fluctuations, Pisa, Italy, 09/06/14-19
      11. 17th Intl Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics of Electronic Systems (NDES 2009), Rapperswil, Switzerland, 09/06/21-24
      12. Emergence in Chemical Systems, , Anchorage, Alaska, 09/06/22-26
      13. 7th Intl Conf on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA., 09/07/10-13
      14. Second International Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Synchronization (INDS'09), Klagenfurt, Austria, 09/07/20-21
      15. The 19th Annual Intl Conf Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences , Milwaukee, WI USA, 09/07/23-25
      16. 2009 Intl Conf of the System Dynamics Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 09/07/26-30
      17. 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

        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:
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        Guilderland, NY 12084 USA
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        Ref. Gottfried Mayer

      2. Two positions open in Unconventional Computing

        Leverhulme Trust Research Project
        "Mold intelligence: Designing Biological Amorphous Robots"
        University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

        We are looking for physicists, biologists, computer scientists or chemists to fill two Research Associate positions in Unconventional Computing to undertake laboratory experiments and computer simulation of plasmodium of Physarum Polycephalum.

        These are fixed term 3 year positions based the Unconventional Computing Group, UWE, Frenchay Campus, Bristol.

        See more details at
        http://info.uwe.ac.uk/vacancies/job_details.asp?ref=R12184/RWS
        http://info.uwe.ac.uk/vacancies/job_details.asp?ref=R12186/RWS

        Please contact Prof Andy Adamatzky


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