Complexity Digest 2009.25

2009/12/07

Editor-in-Chief: Carlos Gershenson
Founding Editor: Gottfried Mayer

For individual e-mail subscriptions go to Subscriptions.
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Content

  1. Location, Location, Location, Science
    1. Anatomic Demarcation of Cells: Genes to Patterns, Science
    2. The Molecular Basis of Size Differences, Science
  2. On the Origin of Tomorrow, Science
  3. Could They All Be Prion Diseases?, Science
  4. Evolutionary dynamics from a variational principle, arXiv
  5. Hans Rosling: Asia's rise -- how and when, TED.com
    1. Misha Glenny investigates global crime networks, TED.com
  6. Article-Level Metrics and the Evolution of Scientific Impact, PLoS Biol
    1. University Public-Access Mandates Are Good for Science, PLoS Biol
  7. Mexico's transgenic maize under fire, Nature
  8. The Climate in Copenhagen, Science
    1. Relative increase of record high maximum temperatures compared to record low minimum temperatures in the U.S., Geophys. Res. Lett.
    2. Indirect Emissions from Biofuels: How Important?, Science
  9. Scale-free correlations in bird flocks, arXiv
  10. Flu-virus prevalence comes under scrutiny, Nature
    1. Identifying Changes in Selective Constraints: Host Shifts in Influenza, PLoS Comput Biol
    2. Epidemic Dynamics at the Human-Animal Interface, Science
    3. Reproducibility and usability of chronic virus infection model using agent-based simulation; comparing with a mathematical model, Biosystems
  11. Beyond word frequency: Bursts, lulls, and scaling in the temporal distributions of words, PLoS ONE
    1. Zipf's Law in the Popularity Distribution of Chess Openings, Phys. Rev. Lett.
  12. Biological logic, Nature
  13. Microbial Evolution: Enforcing Cooperation by Partial Kin Selection, Current Biology
  14. Forcing cells to change lineages, Nature
  15. Quantification of Circadian Rhythms in Single Cells, PLoS Comput Biol
  16. Emergence of heterogeneity and political organization in information exchange networks, arXiv
  17. Emotional expressivity as a signal of cooperation, Evolution and Human Behavior
    1. Honor among thieves: Cooperation as a strategic response to Functional Unpleasantness, European Journal of Political Economy
  18. What Can Virtual Worlds and Games Do for National Security?, Science
  19. Book Announcements
    1. Brain-Inspired Information Technology, Springer
    2. Modeling and Control of Complex Physical Systems: The Port-Hamiltonian Approach, Springer
    3. Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences, Springer
    4. Interest Rates and Coupon Bonds in Quantum Finance, Cambridge University Press
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Conference Announcements
    3. Webcast Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Location, Location, Location, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: When buying a house, only three things matter: location, location, location. In cell biology, a similar adage can be applied to the regulation of cellular and organismal physiology. The location of a cell within an organism and the location within the cell of its constituent parts will affect all it does, including the functions it is capable of performing, its signaling partners, and whether and how it grows and divides. Even in single-celled bacteria, spatial organization regulates cell division and other key developmental processes.

    1. Anatomic Demarcation of Cells: Genes to Patterns, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: An organizing principle of the diverse cell types in multicellular organisms is their anatomic location. In turn, anatomic location is patterned by the positional identities of cells along developmental axes. Recent progress in functional genomics and chromatin biology illustrates how cells use specific gene expression programs to encode location. Dynamic chromatin states of key genes, notably the Hox loci, serve as the internal representation in cells of their positional identity within the animal.

    2. The Molecular Basis of Size Differences, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Size differences account for a great deal of the diversity found in the animal kingdom, but we still have much to learn about how sizes are programmed. Generally, the cells of different animals are comparable in size, and all animals begin as a single cell. This leaves the number of cells accumulated as the main determinant of animal size. We can reasonably expect the genes controlling cell number to be conserved among animals. So it seems that size-determining genes must be deployed in the elephant in such a way that it amasses several hundred thousand times more cells than the mouse. Which are these genes and how do they control size?

  2. On the Origin of Tomorrow, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Darwin recognized that as long as the ingredients for the evolutionary process still exist, life has the potential to change. He didn't believe it was possible to forecast evolution's course, but he did expect humans would have a big effect. In his day, they had already demonstrated their power with the triumphs of domestication, such as breeding dogs from wolves. Darwin recognized that we humans can also wipe out entire species.
    • Source: On the Origin of Tomorrow, Carl Zimmer, DOI: 10.1126/science.326.5958.1334, Science Vol. 326. no. 5958, pp. 1334 - 1336, 2009/12/04

  3. Could They All Be Prion Diseases?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Misfolded proteins called prions are the cause of several neurodegenerative disorders in humans and other animals. A recent flurry of papers has revived interest in the idea that such mechanisms may play a role in an even wider range of neurodegenerative disorders, including two of the most dreaded scourges of old age: Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Such diseases almost certainly aren't contagious like true prion diseases are, at least in ordinary circumstances, but they may propagate through the nervous system in much the same way. Evidence from recent animal studies suggests that many of the misfolded proteins thought to play a central role in a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders can, like prions, "seed" the misfolding and aggregation of their normally folded kin (...)

  4. Evolutionary dynamics from a variational principle, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: We demonstrate with a thought experiment that fitness-based population dynamical approaches to evolution are not able to make quantitative, falsifiable predictions about the long-term behavior of evolutionary systems. A key characteristic of evolutionary systems is the ongoing endogenous production of new species. These novel entities change the conditions for already existing species. Even Darwin's Demon, a hypothetical entity with exact knowledge of the abundance of all species and their fitness functions at a given time, could not pre-state the impact of these novelties on established populations. We argue that fitness is always a posteriori knowledge (...)

  5. Hans Rosling: Asia's rise -- how and when, TED.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    About this talk: Hans Rosling was a young guest student in India when he first realized that Asia had all the capacities to reclaim its place as the world's dominant economic force. At TEDIndia, he graphs global economic growth since 1858 and predicts the exact date that India and China will outstrip the US.

    1. Misha Glenny investigates global crime networks, TED.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      About this talk: Journalist Misha Glenny spent several years in a courageous investigation of organized crime networks worldwide, which have grown to an estimated 15% of the global economy. From the Russian mafia, to giant drug cartels, his sources include not just intelligence and law enforcement officials but criminal insiders.

  6. Article-Level Metrics and the Evolution of Scientific Impact, PLoS Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Summary: Formally published papers that have been through a traditional prepublication peer review process remain the most important means of communicating science today. Researchers depend on them to learn about the latest advances in their fields and to report their own findings. The intentions of traditional peer review are certainly noble: to ensure methodological integrity and to comment on potential significance of experimental studies through examination by a panel of objective, expert colleagues. In principle, this system enables science to move forward on the collective confidence of previously published work. Unfortunately, the traditional system has inspired methods of measuring impact that are suboptimal for their intended uses.
    See Also: Tenurometer

    1. University Public-Access Mandates Are Good for Science, PLoS Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Why would university faculty choose to place their scholarship on electronic archives for a world-wide audience? Many US universities have adopted such mandates for public access to faculty research, perhaps most notably Harvard, MIT, and the University of Kansas. These policies (and many more like them in various stages of consideration on campuses across the nation and world) are harbingers of a new order, one in which essentially all scholarly articles can be found and accessed by any interested individual.

  7. Mexico's transgenic maize under fire, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Mexico doesn't have an adequate system to monitor or protect natural maize (corn) varieties from transgenes, say prominent scientists concerned about the experimental planting of genetically modified crops.

  8. The Climate in Copenhagen, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: With just days to go before the United Nations (UN) summit in Copenhagen that is supposed to define the world's strategy regarding climate change, the news seems unremittingly bad. The rumors speak of deadlock and little or no chance of reaching the crucial agreement that will enable us to avert climate catastrophe. Though this news has apparently taken many people by surprise, it is neither surprising nor necessarily disastrous. The worst possible outcome at Copenhagen would be a weak protocol that solves nothing. The best outcome would be an agreement to delay the final protocol for another year. By the time the parties to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change meet in Mexico in December 2010, we could finally be in a position to set up a protocol with the power to solve the worst crisis that humans have ever faced collectively.
    • Source: The Climate in Copenhagen, Sir David King, DOI: 10.1126/science.1185072, Science Vol. 326. no. 5958, p. 1319, 2009/12/4

    1. Relative increase of record high maximum temperatures compared to record low minimum temperatures in the U.S., Geophys. Res. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The current observed value of the ratio of daily record high maximum temperatures to record low minimum temperatures averaged across the U.S. is about two to one. This is because records that were declining uniformly earlier in the 20th century following a decay proportional to 1/n (n being the number of years since the beginning of record keeping) have been declining less slowly for record highs than record lows since the late 1970s. Model simulations of U.S. 20th century climate show a greater ratio of about four to one due to more uniform warming across the U.S. than in observations. Following an A1B emission scenario for the 21st century, the U.S. ratio of record high maximum to record low minimum temperatures is projected to continue to increase, with ratios of about 20 to 1 by mid-century, and roughly 50 to 1 by the end of the century.

    2. Indirect Emissions from Biofuels: How Important?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: A global biofuels program will lead to intense pressures on land supply and can increase greenhouse gas emissions from land-use changes. Using linked economic and terrestrial biogeochemistry models, we examined direct and indirect effects of possible land-use changes from an expanded global cellulosic bioenergy program on greenhouse gas emissions over the 21st century. Our model predicts that indirect land use will be responsible for substantially more carbon loss (up to twice as much) than direct land use; however, because of predicted increases in fertilizer use, nitrous oxide emissions will be more important than carbon losses themselves in terms of warming potential. A global greenhouse gas emissions policy that protects forests and encourages best practices for nitrogen fertilizer use can dramatically reduce emissions associated with biofuels production.

  9. Scale-free correlations in bird flocks, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: From bird flocks to fish schools, animal groups often seem to react to environmental perturbations as if of one mind. Most studies in collective animal behaviour have aimed to understand how a globally ordered state may emerge from simple behavioural rules. Less effort has been devoted to understanding the origin of collective response, namely the way the group as a whole reacts to its environment. Yet collective response is the adaptive key to survivor, especially when strong predatory pressure is present. Here we argue that collective response in animal groups is achieved through scale-free behavioural correlations. (...)
    • Source: Scale-free correlations in bird flocks, Andrea Cavagna, Alessio Cimarelli, Irene Giardina, Giorgio Parisi, Raffaele Santagati, Fabio Stefanini, Massimiliano Viale, arXiv:0911.4393, 2009/11/23

  10. Flu-virus prevalence comes under scrutiny, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Researchers are turning their attention to one of the great unknowns about the ongoing H1N1 influenza pandemic: how many people have been, and are being, infected. The first surveys to monitor for antibodies to the virus are now getting under way, belatedly in some countries such as the United States. The findings could substantially change much of what epidemiologists know about the current pandemic.

    1. Identifying Changes in Selective Constraints: Host Shifts in Influenza, PLoS Comput Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: The natural reservoir of Influenza A is waterfowl. Normally, waterfowl viruses are not adapted to infect and spread in the human population. Sometimes, through reassortment or through whole host shift events, genetic material from waterfowl viruses is introduced into the human population causing worldwide pandemics. Identifying which mutations allow viruses from avian origin to spread successfully in the human population is of great importance in predicting and controlling influenza pandemics. Here we describe a novel approach to identify such mutations.

    2. Epidemic Dynamics at the Human-Animal Interface, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Few infectious diseases are entirely human-specific: Most human pathogens also circulate in animals or else originated in nonhuman hosts. Influenza, plague, and trypanosomiasis are classic examples of zoonotic infections that transmit from animals to humans. The multihost ecology of zoonoses leads to complex dynamics, and analytical tools, such as mathematical modeling, are vital to the development of effective control policies and research agendas. Much attention has focused on modeling pathogens with simpler life cycles and immediate global urgency, such as influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome. Meanwhile, vector-transmitted, chronic, and protozoan infections have been neglected, as have crucial processes such as cross-species transmission. Progress in understanding and combating zoonoses requires a new generation of models that addresses a broader set of pathogen life histories and integrates across host species and scientific disciplines.

    3. Reproducibility and usability of chronic virus infection model using agent-based simulation; comparing with a mathematical model, Biosystems Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We created agent-based models that visually simulate conditions of chronic viral infections... The simulation results comprise a transient phase and an equilibrium phase, and unlike the mathematical model, virus count transit smoothly to the equilibrium phase without overshooting which correlates with actual biology in vivo of certain viruses.

  11. Beyond word frequency: Bursts, lulls, and scaling in the temporal distributions of words, PLoS ONE Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Recurrence patterns of words are well described by a stretched exponential distribution of recurrence times, an empirical scaling that cannot be anticipated from Zipf's law. Because the use of words provides a uniquely precise and powerful lens on human thought and activity, our findings also have implications for other overt manifestations of collective human dynamics.

    1. Zipf's Law in the Popularity Distribution of Chess Openings, Phys. Rev. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We perform a quantitative analysis of extensive chess databases and show that the frequencies of opening moves are distributed according to a power law with an exponent that increases linearly with the game depth, whereas the pooled distribution of all opening weights follows Zipf's law with universal exponent. We propose a simple stochastic process that is able to capture the observed playing statistics and show that the Zipf law arises from the self-similar nature of the game tree of chess. Thus, in the case of hierarchical fragmentation the scaling is truly universal and independent of a particular generating mechanism. Our findings are of relevance in general processes with composite decisions.

  12. Biological logic, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: 'Executable biology' (...) is an emerging approach to biological modelling that, its proponents say, could make simulations of cells and their components easier for researchers to build, understand and verify experimentally.

  13. Microbial Evolution: Enforcing Cooperation by Partial Kin Selection, Current Biology Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: How do bacterial cells mediate effective cooperation? A new paper suggests two routes: converting the uninitiated to their cause by lateral gene transfer, and enforcing cooperative behavior by killing revertants.

  14. Forcing cells to change lineages, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The ability to produce stem cells by induced pluripotency (iPS reprogramming) has rekindled an interest in earlier studies showing that transcription factors can directly convert specialized cells from one lineage to another. Lineage reprogramming has become a powerful tool to study cell fate choice during differentiation, akin to inducing mutations for the discovery of gene functions. The lessons learnt provide a rubric for how cells may be manipulated for therapeutic purposes.

  15. Quantification of Circadian Rhythms in Single Cells, PLoS Comput Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Earth's 24-h-rotation around its axis is mirrored in the circadian clock that resides within each of our cells, controlling expression of ~10% of all genes. The circadian clock is constructed as a negative feedback loop, in which clock proteins inhibit their own synthesis. During the last decade, a picture has emerged in which each cell is a self-sustained circadian oscillator that runs even without synchronizing cues. Here, we investigated state-of-the-art single-cell bioluminescence recordings of clock gene expression. It turns out that these time series are very well described by low-dimensional models, enabling us to extract descriptive parameters that characterize each cell. We find that different cell types do not differ much in their dynamics. However, different mutations in core clock genes yield different dynamic characteristics. (...)

  16. Emergence of heterogeneity and political organization in information exchange networks, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We present a simple model of the emergence of the division of labor and the development of a system of resource subsidy from an agent-based model of directed resource production with variable degrees of trust between the agents. The model has three distinct phases, corresponding to different forms of societal organization: disconnected (independent agents), homogeneous cooperative (collective state), and inhomogeneous cooperative (collective state with a leader). Our results indicate that such levels of organization arise generically as a collective effect from interacting agent dynamics, and may have applications in a variety of systems including social insects and microbial communities.

  17. Emotional expressivity as a signal of cooperation, Evolution and Human Behavior Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: A detailed analysis of the facial expressions displayed by participants revealed that cooperators displayed greater amounts of emotional expressions, not limited to positive emotional expression, when responding to unfair offers in the ultimatum game. These results suggest that cooperators may be more emotionally expressive than non-cooperators. We speculate that emotional expressivity can be a more reliable signal of cooperativeness than the display of positive emotion alone.

    1. Honor among thieves: Cooperation as a strategic response to Functional Unpleasantness, European Journal of Political Economy Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The assumption of self-interested behavior makes it difficult to explain cooperation among strangers. Economics experiments and game-theoretic analyses suggest that cooperation can arise from a willingness to punish noncooperative behavior, even at personal cost. Such behavior is often based on the notion that people who punish noncooperators value cooperation in itself. We show, by contrast, that people who like to cheat but also punish other cheaters - people who are Unpleasant, but who also have a strategic desire to avoid being punished themselves - can form the basis for widespread, even complete cooperation in society. Ultimately, such Unpleasant but strategic types can create conditions where all cooperate even though everyone would prefer to cheat.

  18. What Can Virtual Worlds and Games Do for National Security?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Military planners have long used war games to plan for future conflicts. Beginning in the 1950s, defense analysts began to develop computer-based models to predict the outcomes of military battles that incorporated elements of game theory. Such models were often restricted to two opposing forces, and often had a strict win-lose resolution. Today, defense analysts face situations that are more complex, not only in that conflicts may involve several opposing groups within a region, but also in that military actions are only part of an array of options available in trying to foster stable, peaceful conditions.

  19. Book Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Brain-Inspired Information Technology, Springer Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Summary:
      "Brain-inspired information technology" is one of key concepts for the development of information technology in the next generation. Explosive progress of computer technology has been continuing based on a simple principle called "if-then rule". This means that the programmer of software have to direct every action of the computer programs in response to various inputs. There inherently is a limitation of complexity because we human have a limited capacity for managing complex systems. Actually, many bugs, mistakes of programming, exist in computer software, and it is quite difficult to extinguish them. The parts of computer programs where computer viruses attack are also a kind of programming mistakes, called security hole. Of course, human body or nervous system is not perfect. No creator or director, however, exists for us. The function of our brain is equipped by learning, self-organization, natural selection, and etc, resulting in adaptive and flexible information system. Brain-inspired information techogy is aiming to realize such nature-made information processing system by using present computer system or specific hardware. To do so, researchers in various research fields are getting together to inspire each other and challenge cooperatively for the same goal.

    2. Modeling and Control of Complex Physical Systems: The Port-Hamiltonian Approach, Springer Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Summary:
      Energy exchange is a major foundation of the dynamics of physical systems, and, hence, in the study of complex multi-domain systems, methodologies that explicitly describe the topology of energy exchanges are instrumental in structuring the modeling and the computation of the system's dynamics and its control. This book is the outcome of the European Project "Geoplex" that studied and extended such system modeling and control methodologies. This unique book starts from the basic concept of port-based modeling, and extends it to port-Hamiltonian systems. This generic paradigm is applied to various physical domains, showing its power and unifying flexibility for real multi-domain systems.

    3. Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences, Springer Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Summary:
      All psychological processesâ€"like biological and social onesâ€"are dynamic. Phenomena of nature, society, and the human psyche are context bound, constantly changing, and variable. This feature of reality is often not recognized in the social sciences where we operate with averaged data and with homogeneous stereotypes, and consider our consistency to be the cornerstone of rational being. Yet we are all inconsistent in our actions within a day, or from, one day to the next, and much of such inconsistency is of positive value for our survival and development. Our inconsistent behaviors and thoughts may appear chaotic, yet there is generality within this highly variable dynamic. The task of scientific methodologiesâ€"qualitative and quantitativeâ€"is to find out what that generality is. It is the aim of this handbook to bring into one framework various directions of construction of methodology of the dynamic processes that exist in the social sciences at the beginning of the 21st century.

    4. Interest Rates and Coupon Bonds in Quantum Finance, Cambridge University Press Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Summary:
      The economic crisis of 2008 has shown that the capital markets need new theoretical and mathematical concepts to describe and price financial instruments. Focusing almost exclusively on interest rates and coupon bonds, this book does not employ stochastic calculus - the bedrock of the present day mathematical finance - for any of the derivations. Instead, it analyzes interest rates and coupon bonds using quantum finance. Building on the principles formulated in the author's previous book (Quantum Finance, Cambridge University Press, 2004) this ground-breaking book brings together a diverse collection of theoretical and mathematical interest rate models.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Quantifying Slow Evolutionary Dynamics in RNA Fitness Landscapes, P. Sulc, A. Wagner, O. C. Martin, 2009/11/28, arXiv:0911.5366

    2. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. World Congress on Nature & Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC 2009), Coimbatore, India, 09/12/9-11
      2. IWSOS 2009, the Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems, Zurich, Switzerland, 2009/12/9-11
      3. Complexity: Friend or Foe?, Brussels, Belgium, 2009/12/16
      4. Dynamics Days 2010, Evanston, IL, USA, 10/01/04-07
      5. NECSI Winter School on Complex Systems, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2010/01/04-15
      6. 5th Biennial Convention about the philosophical, epistemological, and methodological implications of the Theory of Complexity, Havana, Cuba, 10/01/6-8
      7. Conference on Dynamics of Layering in Biological Systems, Pasadena, California, USA, 2010/01/15-16
      8. 2nd International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2010), Valencia, Spain, 10/01/22-24
      9. Networks: A Framework for cross-disciplinary applications,Zaragoza, Spain, 2010/02/3-6
      10. 4th International Nonlinear Science Conference, University of Palermo, Sicily, 2010/03/15-17
      11. 20th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research, EMCSR 2010, University of Vienna, Austria, 10/04/6-9
      12. EvoStar 2010 , Istanbul, Turkey, 10/04/7-10
      13. International Conference on Computer Supported Education, Valencia, Spain, 10/04/7-10
      14. AAMAS-2010, the 9th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, Toronto Canada, 2010/05/10-14
      15. The IV International Workshop on Nature Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization - NICSO 2010, Granada, Spain, 10/05/12-14
      16. International Conference on Computational Science 2010 (ICCS 2010), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2010/05/31-06/2
      17. ICEIS 2010 (12th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems), Funchal-Madeira, Portugal, 10/06/6-10
      18. International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2010) , London, UK, 2010/06/28-30
      19. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2010), Portland, Oregon, USA, 2010/07/7-11
      20. The 2010 Advanced Geographical Analysis and Modeling Workshop, Neve Ilan, Israel, 2010/07/8-10
      21. 2010 World Congress on Computational Intelligence, Barcelona, Spain, 10/07/18-23
      22. The 2010 International Conference on Informatics Cypernetics, and Computer Applications (ICICCA2010), Bangalore, India, 2010/07/19-20
      23. European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI), Copenhagen, Denmark, 10/08/09-20
      24. Amorphous Computing and Complex Biological Networks, University of Sheffield, UK, 2010/08-17-20
      25. Artificial Life XII (ALife XII), Odense, Denmark, 10/08/19--23
      26. 2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI-10), Toronto, Canada, 2010/08/31-09/03
      27. ANTS 2010, Seventh International Conference on Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium, 10/09/8-10
      28. European Conference on Complex Systems, Lisbon, Portugal, 2010/09/13-17

    3. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Smarter Cities NYC. Posted on 2009/10/05

      2. ASSYST Digital Library. Since 09/09

      3. Complex Systems Teleconferences. Since 09/09

      4. Symmetry Festival 2009, Budapest, Hungary, 09/08/1-4.

      5. International Workshop on Coping with Crises in Complex Socio-Economic Systems, Zurich, Switzerland, 09/06/8-12

      6. Memorial Service for Dr Gottfried Mayer, Founding Editor Complexity Digest, Taipei, Taiwan (1954-2009). Video [RM], 09/02/13

      7. Making Connections: In Memory and Celebration of the Life of Dr. Gottfried Mayer (1954-2009). Video [RM] [MPG], 09/02/13

      8. Eulogy for Gottfried Mayer by Dean LeBaron [WMV, 25 Mb], [RM, 10 Mb], 09/02/10

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

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

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      • ASSYSTComplexity
        One of the main goals of the ASSYST Coordination Action is to promote Complex Systems for Socially Intelligent ICT (COSI-ICT) and, more generally, Complex Systems (CS) Science in Europe and Worldwide. We do this by communicating widely with scientists, policy makers, and business people, and by showcasing success stories of CS applications.
      • Job openings in Complex Systems
      • Call for Collaboration: the VISIONEER Project .
      • Tenurometer provides a smart interface to make Google Scholar more powerful, convenient, and easy to use. Unlike *Publish or Perish*, Tenurometer is not a standalone application; it is a browser extension, so it can be used on any computer with a Firefox browser.
        There is a twist. By using Tenurometer you help tag authors and contribute to a social database of annotations, associating authors, papers, and disciplines. We plan to make this data publicly available for research purposes. All you do is use Tenurometer for your own purposes, and submit one or more discipline tags when you query. Statistics from the annotations are available on the Tenurometer website.
        In addition to providing various established impact measures such as the h-index, Tenurometer leverages the statistics collected from user annotations to make it possible for the first time to compute the "universal h-index" (Radicchi & al, PNAS 2008). This measure is designed to quantitatively compare the impact of authors in different disciplines, with different citation patterns. While citation analysis has its well-known limitations and must be used with care, the universal h-index and its implementation may represent an important step toward meaningful comparative evaluation of research impact across diverse disciplines in science, the social sciences, arts and humanities.
      • A new Masters programme in Complex Systems is launched, as a joint venture of Univ. of Warwick (UK), Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) and Chalmers Univ. & Univ. of Gothenburg (Sweden), in partnership with the Complex Systems Society.
        Through the Erasmus Mundus scheme, there are full scholarships for 10-12 overseas students (deadline 4 Jan) and partial scholarships for up to 8 European students (deadline 4 May).

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