Complexity Digest 2005.15 Archive: http://comdig.unam.mx "I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking, 2000 _________________________________________________________________ 01. One Hundred Years of Uncertainty, NY Times 02. A Lucrative Brand of Tutoring Grows Unchecked, NY Times 02.01. Fixing 'No Child Left Behind', NY Times 02.02. Do 15-Month-Old Infants Understand False Beliefs?, Science 02.03. Infants' Insight into the Mind: How Deep?, Science 03. Keeping Fear in Check, Science Now 03.01. Understanding Biological Foundation Of Human Behavior Critical To Improving Laws, ScienceDaily 03.02. Vasopressin And Oxytocin Excite Distinct Neuronal Populations In The Central Amygdala, Science 04. Building a Spinal Cord Network, Science Now 04.01. Marburg's Behaviour Bewilders Scientists, Nature News 05. Emory Scientist Finds Different Paths Lead To Similar Cognitive Abilities, EurekAlert 05.01. Save the World and Get a) Redemption or b) Pay, NY Times 05.02. Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix, New Scientist 06. Remote Control Flies, Science Now 06.01. Radar Reveals Purpose In Butterfly Flights, Nature News 06.02. Tracking Butterfly Flight Paths Across The Landscape With Harmonic Radar, Proc. Biol. Sc. 07. Non-Acoustic Sensors Detect Speech Without Sound, New Scientist 08. Programmed DNA Forms Fractal, Technology Research News 09. A Single-Protein Wet Biotransistor, Physics News Update 09.01. A Bio-Physically Inspired Silicon Neuron, Circuits & Sys. 10. The Coming Chip Revolution, Business Week 10.01. Gordon Moore On 40 Years Of His Processor Law, CNET News.com 10.02. Laptops For The Poor, IST News 11. Distributed Economies – A New Engine for Innovation, Journal of Cleaner Production 11.01. Marginal Lands In Europe-Causes Of Decline, Basic & Appl. Ecol. 12. Stirring The Primordial Soup, Nature 12.01. Great Extinction Came in Phases, BBC News 12.02. The Dynamics Of Genetic And Morphological Variation On Volcanic Islands, Proc. Biol. Sc. 13. Facelift Seals Standing of Oldest Hominid, News @ Nature 14. Code Of Many Colors - Can Researchers See Race In The Genome?, Science News 15. Cosmic Dust Supports a Snowball Earth, Science Now 15.01. Galactic Pancake Mystery Solved, BBC News 16. US Drivers Fume As Gas Prices Soar, BBC News 17. U.S. Drones Crowding the Skies to Help Fight Insurgents in Iraq, NY Times 18. Opium vs. Democracy in Afghanistan, NY Times 19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks 19.01. Global Health Agency Split Over Potential Anti-Terrorism Duties, Nature 19.02. Terrorist Attacks on Reactor Pools, NY Times 19.03. Nuclear Plants Warned Of Terrorist Fire Hazard, Nature News 20. Links & Snippets 20.01. Other Publications 20.02. Webcast Announcements 20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements _________________________________________________________________ 01. One Hundred Years of Uncertainty , NY Times Excerpts: Although we have yet to fully lay bare quantum mechanics' grand lesson for the underlying nature of the universe, I like to think even Einstein would be impressed that in the 50 years since his death our facility with quantum mechanics has matured from a mathematical understanding of the subatomic realm to precision control. Today's technological wizardry (computers, M.R.I.'s, smart bombs) exists only because research in applied quantum physics has resulted in techniques for manipulating the motion of electrons - probabilities and all - through mazes of ultramicroscopic circuitry * [1] One Hundred Years of Uncertainty, Brian Greene, 05/04/08, NYTimes [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/opinion/08greene.html?th&emc=th _________________________________________________________________ 02. A Lucrative Brand of Tutoring Grows Unchecked , NY Times Excerpts: Propelled by the No Child Left Behind law, the federally financed tutoring industry has doubled in size in each of the last two years, with the potential to become a $2 billion-a-year enterprise, market analysts say. (...) This new brand of tutoring is offered to parents by private companies and other groups at no charge if their children attend a failing school. But it is virtually without regulation or oversight, causing concern among school districts, elected officials and some industry executives. * [2] A Lucrative Brand of Tutoring Grows Unchecked, Susan Saulny, 05/04/04, NYTimes [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/education/04tutor.html _________________________________________________________________ 02.01. Fixing 'No Child Left Behind' , NY Times Excerpts: The United States has historically viewed public education as a local issue, so the federal government has looked the other way when the states have damaged the national interest by failing to educate large swaths of the population. That approach has left us with one of the weakest educational systems in the developed world. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law three years ago, marked a recognition by Congress that things had to change. (...) * [3] Fixing 'No Child Left Behind', 05/04/05, NYTimes [3] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/opinion/05tue3.html _________________________________________________________________ 02.02. Do 15-Month-Old Infants Understand False Beliefs? , Science Excerpts: For more than two decades, researchers have argued that young children do not understand mental states such as beliefs. Part of the evidence for this claim comes from preschoolers' failure at verbal tasks that require the understanding that others may hold false beliefs. Here, we used a novel nonverbal task to examine 15-month-old infants' ability to predict an actor's behavior on the basis of her true or false belief about a toy's hiding place. Results were positive, supporting the view that, from a young age, children appeal to mental states—goals, perceptions, and beliefs—to explain the behavior of others. * [4] Do 15-Month-Old Infants Understand False Beliefs?, Kristine H. Onishi , Ren?e Baillargeon, 05/04/08, Science : 255-258 [4] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5719/255 _________________________________________________________________ 02.03. Infants' Insight into the Mind: How Deep? , Science Excerpts: Although primates and other animals seem to have some understanding of mind (that is, the behavior of others), the concept of belief seems to be a specifically human ability. Comprehending false belief is the clearest sign of understanding a critical aspect of the mind: its subjectivity and its susceptibility to manipulation by information. It is thought that children develop an understanding of false belief around 4 years of age. * [5] Infants' Insight into the Mind: How Deep?, Josef Perner , Ted Ruffman, 05/04/08, Science : 214-216 [5] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;308/5719/214 _________________________________________________________________ 03. Keeping Fear in Check , Science Now Excerpts: Fear, in a nutshell. The balance of oxytocin-sensitive neurons (red) and vasopressin-sensitive neurons (green) in the central nucleus of the amygdala may calibrate fear responses. CREDIT: Adapted from Huber et al., Science The findings suggest that vasopressin and oxytocin have contrasting influences on behavior because they have opposite effects on the output neurons of the central amygdala, (...). The researchers speculate that natural variations in the balance of vasopressin and oxytocin receptors in the central amygdala could explain why some individuals are typically nervous, while others are seemingly immune to anxiety. The region where the team found the oxytocin neurons acts as an off switch for fear, (...). (...), oxytocin could be the "silver bullet" researchers have been looking for. * [6] Keeping Fear in Check, Greg Miller, 05/04/08, Science Now [6] http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2005/407/2?etoc _________________________________________________________________ 03.01. Understanding Biological Foundation Of Human Behavior Critical To Improving Laws , ScienceDaily Excerpts: Laws and public policy will often miss their mark until they incorporate an understanding of why, biologically, humans behave as they do, (...). "The legal system tends to assume that either people are purely rational actors or that their brains are blank slates on which culture and only culture is written. The reality is much more complicated and can only be appreciated with a deeper understanding of behavioral biology," (...). * [7] Understanding Biological Foundation Of Human Behavior Critical To Improving Laws, 2005/04/04, ScienceDaily & Vanderbilt University * Contributed by [8] Atin Das [7] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050328143813.htm [8] mailto:dasatin@yahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 03.02. Vasopressin And Oxytocin Excite Distinct Neuronal Populations In The Central Amygdala , Science Excerpts: Vasopressin and oxytocin strongly modulate autonomic fear responses, through mechanisms that are still unclear. We describe how these neuropeptides excite distinct neuronal populations in the central amygdala, which provides the major output of the amygdaloid complex to the autonomic nervous system. We identified these two neuronal populations as part of an inhibitory network, through which vasopressin and oxytocin modulate the integration of excitatory information from the basolateral amygdala and cerebral cortex in opposite manners. Through this network, the expression and endogenous activation of vasopressin and oxytocin receptors may regulate the autonomic expression of fear. * [9] Vasopressin And Oxytocin Excite Distinct Neuronal Populations In The Central Amygdala, Daniel Huber, Pierre Veinante, Ron Stoop, 05/04/08, Science : 245-248 [9] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5719/245 _________________________________________________________________ 04. Building a Spinal Cord Network , Science Now Excerpts: Step by step. A new report outlines a strategy for translating research into better therapies for people with spinal cord injuries. CREDIT: Anton Wernig/University of Bonn Research with animals, for example, has shown that severed spinal cord axons can in fact regenerate, with a little help. But Johnson and the panel emphasize that regeneration will only be one part of the multifaceted approach needed to treat spinal cord injuries. Not only do axons need to regenerate, he says, they must repair their damaged myelin insulation and reconnect with other neurons. And not just any neurons--forming the wrong connections can lead to neuropathic pain or other complications * [10] Building a Spinal Cord Network, Greg Miller, 05/04/05, Science Now [10] http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2005/405/1?etoc _________________________________________________________________ 04.01. Marburg's Behaviour Bewilders Scientists , Nature News Excerpts: The Marburg virus has infected mostly children in this outbreak. ? SPL The current outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Angola is raising difficult questions about this enigmatic pathogen and its origins. As of 5 April, Angolan health officials had reported 181 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever, of which 156 have been fatal. The outbreak of the rare but lethal virus, which causes fever and circulatory collapse, is the worst ever recorded. * [11] Marburg's Behaviour Bewilders Scientists, Helen Pearson, 05/04/07, Nature News [11] http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050404/full/050404-12.html _________________________________________________________________ 05. Emory Scientist Finds Different Paths Lead To Similar Cognitive Abilities , EurekAlert Excerpts: Despite the divergent evolutionary paths of dolphins and primates -- and their vastly different brains -- both have developed similar high-level cognitive abilities, (...). While modern humans have brains that are seven times bigger than would be expected for our body size, giving us an encephalization level of seven, some modern dolphins and whales have an encephalization level close to five -- not a huge difference, says Marino. For example, Homo sapiens' closest relatives, the great apes, have encephalization levels of only two to two-and-a-half. * [12] Emory Scientist Finds Different Paths Lead To Similar Cognitive Abilities, EurekAlert, 05/04/05 [12] http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/euhs-esf040505.php _________________________________________________________________ 05.01. Save the World and Get a) Redemption or b) Pay , NY Times Excerpts: Kratos, the protagonist of Sony's action-adventure game God of War, does everything big. He fights big monsters, sleeps with big-breasted women and commits sins so heinous that he is a pariah. If Kratos were a game designer instead of a Spartan general charged with saving Athens from a power-mad god, he would create a game just like God of War, full of massive ruins and savage monsters set in a tale of mythic proportions. (...) * [13] Save the World and Get a) Redemption or b) Pay, Charles Herold, 05/04/08, NYTimes [13] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/arts/08game.html _________________________________________________________________ 05.02. Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix , New Scientist Excerpt: IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment giant Sony. The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive. It describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating "sensory experiences" ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims.[...] * [14] Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix, Jenny Hogan Barry Fox , 07 April 2005, Issue 2494 of New Scientist magazine, 07 April 2005, page 10 * Contributed by [15] Hugh Trenchard [14] http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624944.600 [15] mailto:htrenchard@shaw.ca _________________________________________________________________ 06. Remote Control Flies , Science Now Excerpts: Laser guided. A fly's trajectory, computed from a video, switches from sedentary (L) to adventurous (R) when a laser activates its ion channels. CREDIT: Adapted from Lima et al., Cell, 121, 148 (2005) When hit with a burst from an ultraviolet laser, the ATP broke free, activating the rat ion channels and causing the fly's neurons to fire, (...). (...), the laser caused sedentary flies to become hyperactive. If the ion channel were expressed in the giant fiber neurons, which control reflexes for escape, the flies could be made to leap about, buzz their wings, and fly. The method could be used to study a plethora of other behaviors, including courtship, mating, and feeding, the researchers say. * [16] Remote Control Flies, Mason Inman, 05/04/08, Science Now [16] http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2005/408/1?etoc _________________________________________________________________ 06.01. Radar Reveals Purpose In Butterfly Flights , Nature News Excerpts: The butterflies carried tiny radio transponders on their backs. ? bbsrc Tiny radar devices have revealed patterns in the meandering flights of butterflies: the looping dives are thought to help them to search for food or a home. What's more, the radar technology could help conservationists to find safe havens for the insects amid fragmented agricultural landscapes. Researchers attached radio transponders, each weighing just 12 milligrams, to butterflies and used them to track around 30 of the insects. "You have to carefully remove the hairs from their back first," explains Lizzie Cant of Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, UK. "I give them a wax with Sellotape." * [17] Radar Reveals Purpose In Butterfly Flights, Jim Giles, 05/04/05, Nature News [17] http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050404/full/050404-4.html _________________________________________________________________ 06.02. Tracking Butterfly Flight Paths Across The Landscape With Harmonic Radar , Proc. Biol. Sc. Excerpts: For the first time, the flight paths of five butterfly species were successfully tracked using harmonic radar within an agricultural landscape. Until now, butterfly mobility has been predominantly studied using visual observations and mark-recapture experiments. Attachment of a light-weight radar transponder to the butterfly's thorax did not significantly affect behaviour or mobility. Tracks were analysed for straightness, duration, displacement, ground speed, foraging and the influence of linear landscape features on flight direction. Two main styles of track were identified: (A) fast linear flight and (B) slower nonlinear flights involving a period of foraging and/or looped sections of flight. (...) * [18] Tracking Butterfly Flight Paths Across The Landscape With Harmonic Rada, E. T. Cant , A. D. Smith , D. R. Reynolds , J. L. Osborne, 2005/04/06, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.3002, Proceedings: Biological Sciences * Contributed by [19] Atin Das [18] http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=2dcf4b60afd14f639302e17bdde99ff1&referrer=parent&backto=issue,7,16;journal,1,187;linkingpublicationresults,1:102024,1 [19] mailto:dasatin@yahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 07. Non-Acoustic Sensors Detect Speech Without Sound , New Scientist Excerpts: DARPA is also pursuing an approach first developed at NASA's Ames lab, which involves placing electrodes called electromyographic sensors on the neck, to detect changes in impedance during speech. A neural network processes the data and identifies the pattern of words. The sensor can even detect subvocal or silent speech. The speech pattern is sent to a computerised voice generator that recreates the speaker's words. * [20] Non-Acoustic Sensors Detect Speech Without Sound, David Hambling, 05/04/09, New Scientist [20] http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7247 _________________________________________________________________ 08. Programmed DNA Forms Fractal , Technology Research News Excerpts: The image on the top shows DNA molecules that have self-assembled into a Sierpinski triangle pattern. The graphic on the bottom shows the fractal pattern A decade after the idea became the topic of his doctoral dissertation, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology has showed that it is possible to coax short strands of artificial DNA to spontaneously assemble into a Sierpinski triangle. A Sierpinski triangle is a type of crystal, or structure that regularly repeats. The Sierpinski triangle is fractal -- a pattern of triangles that looks the same in zoomed-in or zoomed-out views. * [21] Programmed DNA Forms Fractal, Kimberly Patch, 05/04/06, Technology Research News [21] http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2005/040605/Programmed_DNA_forms_fractal_040605.html _________________________________________________________________ 09. A Single-Protein Wet Biotransistor , Physics News Update Excerpts: A biotransistor, consisting of a gate electrode, two gold electrodes (source and drain), and an intermediator a single metalloprotein. The smallest electric motor in the world, devised by physicists at UC Berkeley, is based on the shuttling of atoms between two metal droplets---one large and one small---residing on the back of a carbon nanotube. An electric current transmitted through the nanotube causes atoms to move from the big to the small droplet. In effect, potential energy is being stored in the smaller droplet in the form of surface tension. * [22] A Single-Protein Wet Biotransistor, 05/04/07, Physics News Update [22] http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/726.html _________________________________________________________________ 09.01. A Bio-Physically Inspired Silicon Neuron , Circuits & Sys. Excerpts: The physical principles governing ion flow in biological neurons share interesting similarities to electron flow through the channels of MOSFET transistors. Here, is described a circuit which exploits the similarities better than previous approaches to build an elegant circuit with electrical properties similar to real biological neurons. (...) uses two transistors and one capacitor. One more capacitor simulates the neuron membrane capacitance yielding a total circuit of four capacitors and six transistors. This circuit operates in real-time, is fabricated on standard CMOS processes, runs in subthreshold, and has a power supply similar to that of real biology. (...) * [23] A Bio-Physically Inspired Silicon Neuron, Farquhar, E. , Hasler, P., Mar. 2005, online 2005/03/14, DOI: 10.1109/TCSI.2004.842871, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I * Contributed by [24] Atin Das [23] http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?isnumber=30499&arnumber=1406175&count=21&index=1 [24] mailto:dasatin@yahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 10. The Coming Chip Revolution , Business Week Excerpts: Facing the limits of silicon, scientists are turning to carbon nanotubes The virtues of nanotubes go beyond electricity. In addition to being excellent conductors of heat, the tubes are 10 times stronger than steel and are resistant to radiation. (...). For all their promise, nanotubes face huge challenges going from lab to fab. Current production techniques yield a stew of more than 30 varieties of nanotubes, (...). Whether nanotube-based chips are 10 years away or 20, experts agree the transition will be incremental. First they expect to see hybrid silicon-nanotube designs (...). * [25] The Coming Chip Revolution, Adam Aston, 05/04/18, Business Week [25] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_16/b3929120_mz018.htm _________________________________________________________________ 10.01. Gordon Moore On 40 Years Of His Processor Law , CNET News.com Excerpts: Gordon Moore is one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley and one of the few still alive. His famous dictum turns 40 on April 19. He spoke to reporters recently about the electronics industry's progress, artificial intelligence, the emergence of China and the early days of the industry. * [26] Gordon Moore On 40 Years Of His Processor Law, Michael Kanellos, 04/05/07, CNET News.com [26] http://news.com.com/Moore+on+40+years+of+his+dictum/2008-1006_3-5657677.html _________________________________________________________________ 10.02. Laptops For The Poor , IST News Excerpt: A new project initiated by the US-based MIT Media Lab could brighten the lives and prospects of hundreds of millions of developing world kids thanks to Internet- and multimedia-capable laptop computers at a cost of $100 apiece. The laptops would be mass-produced in orders of no smaller than 1 million units and bought by governments, which would distribute them. Three corporate partners have committed an initial $2 million apiece to the initiative and pledged to serve as suppliers for the 'one laptop per chil' project: US-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which will bring expertise in processors; (...). * [27] Laptops For The Poor, 2005/04/06, Information Society Technologies News * Contributed by [28] Atin Das [27] http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/news/Briefs/briefs/ID/75076 [28] mailto:dasatin@yahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 11. Distributed Economies – A New Engine for Innovation , Journal of Cleaner Production Abstract: This article introduces the concept of distributed economies (DE) as a fresh strategy to guide industrial development towards becoming more sustainable. The concept calls for a transformation in the industrial system towards DE departing from the socio-economically and environmentally unsustainable dynamics associated with large-scale, centralised production units that are favoured by neoclassical economic drivers. With DE, a selective share of production is distributed to regions where a diverse range of activities are organised in the form of small-scale, flexible units that are synergistically connected with each other and prioritise quality in their production. However, rather than the total abolishment of large-scale production, our argument concentrates on finding a renewed balance between large- and small-scale and between resource flows that take place within and across regional boundaries. Other desirable characteristics of production units compatible with DE are elaborated. The paper concludes by calling for the deployment of the vast amount of globally and regionally available knowledge for the formation of regionally adapted strategies to create dynamically “self-organizing” business environments. * [29] Distributed Economies – A New Engine for Innovation, Allan Johansson, Peter Kisch, Murat Mirata, 2005/08-9, DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2004.12.015, Journal of Cleaner Production 13(10-11): 971-979 [29] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2004.12.015 _________________________________________________________________ 11.01. Marginal Lands In Europe-Causes Of Decline , Basic & Appl. Ecol. Excerpt: This article analyses the mechanisms behind changes in agricultural land use. Intensification of land use on the one hand, and abandonment on the other have had important consequences for landscape and biodiversity. The basic mechanism behind it is a change in the relative prices of inputs and output. In this sense the general economic developments have been determining the changes in agricultural land use. In Western Europe, the rapid increase in the opportunity costs of labour was the main factor behind mechanisation and intensification of agriculture. (...) * [30] Marginal Lands In Europe-Causes Of Decline, D Strijker, Apr. 2005, online 2005/02/11, DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2005.01.001, Basic and Applied Ecology * Contributed by [31] Pritha Das [30] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7GVS-4FFX97T-1&_user=10&_handle=V-WA-A-W-AW-MsSAYVW-UUW-U-AAACVVCAYD-AAABUWCEYD-BWYZCACW-AW-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate=04%2F01%2F2005&_rdoc=3&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%2320438%232005%23999939997%23590531!&_cdi=20438&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=e1a0303738f81da2773fbac0e0d33165 [31] mailto:prithadas01@yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 12. Stirring The Primordial Soup , Nature Excerpts: William R. Taylor is in the Division of Mathematical Biology, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK. RNA world: does changing the direction of replication make RNA life viable? * [32] Stirring The Primordial Soup, William?R.?Taylor, 05/04/07, DOI: 10.1038/434705a, Nature 434, 705 [32] http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v434/n7034/full/434705a_fs.html _________________________________________________________________ 12.01. Great Extinction Came in Phases , BBC News Excerpt: The greatest mass extinction recorded in Earth history did not occur as a result of one single cataclysmic event. A joint UK-Chinese team tell Nature magazine the disaster that befell the planet 250 million years ago must have happened in phases. Their conclusion is based on the abundance of "organic fossils" found in rocks at Meishan in southern China. These suggest there were at least two episodes to the mass die-off that saw up to 95% of lifeforms disappear. * [33] Great Extinction Came in Phases, 2005/04/01, BBC News [33] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4398401.stm _________________________________________________________________ 12.02. The Dynamics Of Genetic And Morphological Variation On Volcanic Islands , Proc. Biol. Sc. Excerpt: Oceanic archipelagos of volcanic origin have been important in the study of evolution because they provide repeated natural experiments allowing rigorous tests of evolutionary hypotheses. Ongoing volcanism on these islands may, however, affect the evolutionary diversification of species. Analysis of population structure and phylogeographic patterns in island populations can provide insight into evolutionary dynamics on volcanic islands. We analysed genetic and morphological variation in the gecko Tarentola boettgeri on the island of Gran Canaria (...). This suggests that historically caused patterns in morphology may be overwritten by natural selection within 2 million years. * [34] The Dynamics Of Genetic And Morphological Variation On Volcanic Islands, T. Gübitz , R. S. Thorpe , A. Malhotra, 2005/04/05, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.3018, Proceedings: Biological Sciences * Contributed by [35] Atin Das [34] http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=2dcf4b60afd14f639302e17bdde99ff1&referrer=parent&backto=issue,11,16;journal,1,187;linkingpublicationresults,1:102024,1 [35] mailto:dasatin@yahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 13. Facelift Seals Standing of Oldest Hominid , News @ Nature Excerpts: The find (...) dated to about 7 million years ago (...) Brunet's team assigned Toumaï to a new species, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the 'man of Chad'. (...) "Now it's completely confirmed that Toumaï is not a chimp, or a gorilla, but a true hominid" Contributing Editor's Note: This finding shows that hominids arose at least one million years earlier than previously thought. * [36] Facelift Seals Standing of Oldest Hominid, Jessica Ebert, 2005/04/06, DOI: 10.1038/news050404-6, News @ Nature [36] http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050404/full/050404-6.html _________________________________________________________________ 14. Code Of Many Colors - Can Researchers See Race In The Genome? , Science News Excerpts: The first in a two-part series on race, biology, and medicine Historian Frank W. Sweet of the University of Florida in Gainesville recounts the classic rags-to-riches tale of Louetta Chassereau, an early 20th-century socialite. As a baby, Chassereau was adopted from an orphanage by a well-to-do white couple. She later married a wealthy man, and her children attended the best white-only schools. * [37] Code Of Many Colors - Can Researchers See Race In The Genome?, Christen Brownlee, 05/04/09, Science News [37] http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050409/bob9.asp _________________________________________________________________ 15. Cosmic Dust Supports a Snowball Earth , Science Now Excerpts: Frozen. A true Snowball Earth would have coated the globe with ice. CREDIT: Photos.com The more iridium deposited at the end of a snowball, the longer the snowball had gone on. (...) A spike showed up in all three cores (...) about 635 million years ago and in two cores at the end of the earlier Sturtian glaciation about 710 million years ago. If meteoritic material was falling to Earth 635 million years ago at anything like the rate it has during the past 80 million years, the group calculates, Snowball Earth lasted 12 million years, give or take 3 million years. * [38] Cosmic Dust Supports a Snowball Earth, Richard A. Kerr, 05/04/08, Science Now [38] http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2005/407/1?etoc _________________________________________________________________ 15.01. Galactic Pancake Mystery Solved , BBC News Excerpts: Simulations show how galaxies evolve under dark matter influence Astronomers have figured out why a series of small galaxies surrounding the Milky Way are distributed around it in the shape of a pancake. Theorists believed that the eleven dwarf galaxy companions should have a diffuse, spherical arrangement. But a University of Durham team used a supercomputer to show how the galaxies could take the pancake form without challenging cosmological theory. The results were presented at the UK National Astronomy Meeting. * [39] Galactic Pancake Mystery Solved, Paul Rincon , 05/04/07, BBC News [39] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4422555.stm _________________________________________________________________ 16. US Drivers Fume As Gas Prices Soar , BBC News Excerpts: There may be little sympathy in Europe, but US drivers are feeling the pinch ] There are increasing signs that US motorists are changing their driving habits in the face of record prices at the fuel pumps. While the US love affair with the motor car is far from over, consumer dismay has greeted the latest predictions that the average price of petrol will hit $2.35-a-gallon during the peak summer driving season. That is cheap fuel by European standards, but represents a substantial spike in the US, where motorists were paying some 40 cents less last summer. Sales of gas-hungry sport utility vehicles and pick-ups are stalling, while drivers are taking drastic steps to cut down on expenses. (...) * [40] US Drivers Fume As Gas Prices Soar, Matthew Davis, 05/04/09, BBC News [40] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4425593.stm _________________________________________________________________ 17. U.S. Drones Crowding the Skies to Help Fight Insurgents in Iraq , NY Times Excerpts: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times The Predator, with a 49-foot wingspan, is among the remotely piloted aircraft sending data from Iraq and Afghanistan back to crews in Nevada. Military officials say number of remotely piloted aircraft in skies over Iraq has shot up to more than 700 from just handful four years ago; they are increasingly crucial tools in tracking insurgents, foiling roadside bombings, protecting convoys and launching missile attacks; they are being put into service so quickly that military and intelligence branches are struggling to keep pace with increased number of operators required and with lack of common policy and strategy on how to use them; Pentagon is poised to spend more than $13 billion on them through end of decade, for use in antiterrorism and counterinsurgency missions; photo; chart (M) * [41] U.S. Drones Crowding the Skies to Help Fight Insurgents in Iraq, Eric Schmitt, 05/04/05, NYTimes [41] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/international/middleeast/05predator.html _________________________________________________________________ 18. Opium vs. Democracy in Afghanistan , NY Times Excerpts: A huge boom in opium traffic is threatening to reverse the recent spate of encouraging progress in Afghanistan. Last year, the country provided an estimated 87 percent of the world's illegal opium crop. Apart from the damage that opium, transformed into heroin, inflicts on users worldwide, the trafficking also lines the pockets of armed militia leaders and corrupt local officials, giving them the means to resist President Hamid Karzai's efforts to promote security, development and democracy. (...) * [42] Opium vs. Democracy in Afghanistan, 05/04/05, NYTimes [42] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/opinion/05tue2.html _________________________________________________________________ 19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks _________________________________________________________________ 19.01. Global Health Agency Split Over Potential Anti-Terrorism Duties , Nature Excerpts: Bioterror role could compromise World Health Organization, critics say. * [43] Global Health Agency Split Over Potential Anti-Terrorism Duties, ERIKA CHECK , 05/04/07, DOI: 10.1038/434686a, Nature 434, 686 [43] http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v434/n7034/full/434686a_fs.html _________________________________________________________________ 19.02. Terrorist Attacks on Reactor Pools , NY Times Excerpts: A report just released by the National Academy of Sciences bears two disturbing revelations. The cooling pools for nuclear waste at some reactor sites may be far more vulnerable to a devastating attack by terrorists than federal regulators are willing to admit. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is operating in a hermetically sealed cocoon that makes it difficult for anyone - even the academy, armed with a Congressional mandate - to tell whether the public is adequately protected. * [44] Terrorist Attacks on Reactor Pools, 05/04/09, NYTimes [44] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/09/opinion/09sat1.html _________________________________________________________________ 19.03. Nuclear Plants Warned Of Terrorist Fire Hazard , Nature News Excerpts: Power plants must do more to protect their radioactive waste from possible terrorist attacks, according to a committee of the National Academy of Sciences, the leading US scientific society. The danger, according to the report, is that terrorists might start a fire in a power plant's spent-fuel pool, where radioactive waste is stored after it is removed from the reactor. "Under certain conditions a substantial amount of fission products can be released in a pool fire," says Carl Alexander, a materials scientist at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and a member of the committee. * [45] Nuclear Plants Warned Of Terrorist Fire Hazard, Geoff Brumfiel, 05/04/07, Nature News [45] http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050404/full/050404-8.html _________________________________________________________________ 20. Links & Snippets _________________________________________________________________ 20.01. Other Publications - Sony Patent Takes First Step towards Real-life Matrix, 2005/04/07, New Scientist 2494 , p. 10 - Cognitive Linguistics, Biology of Cognition and Biosemiotics: Bridging the Gaps, 2005/04/01, Language Sciences, Article in Press, Corrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2005.02.002 - Input And Output Coupled Nonlinear Systems, Mar. 2005, online 2005/03/14, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I, DOI: 10.1109/TCSI.2004.842873 - New Type Of Data Transmission Using A Synchronization Of Chaotic Systems, Jan. 2005, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127405012119 - Performance Of An Automatic Ball Balancer With Dry Friction, Jan. 2005, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127405012016 - Search Engines No Longer Safe From Spamming, 2005/04/06, Information Society Technologies News - Flexibility Of Spatial Averaging In Visual Perception, 2005/04/07, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.3007 - Directionality Theory: A Computational Study Of An Entropic Principle In Evolutionary Processes, 2005/04/05, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.3012 - Amplification Of Individual Preferences In A Social Context: The Case Of Wall-Following In Ants, 2005/04/04, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.2990 - Some Brain Cells 'Change Channels', 2005/04/05, ScienceDaily & Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions - Mathematician Untangles Legendary Problem, 2005/04/05, ScienceDaily & University Of Wisconsin-Madison - White Collar Proteins Help Fungi Do It In The Dark, 2005/04/07, ScienceDaily & Public Library Of Science - Walnuts' Secret Defense Explored, 2005/04/08, ScienceDaily & USDA / Agricultural Research Service - Creating Cognitive Presence In A Blended Faculty Development Community, 1st Quarter 2005, online 2005/03/13, The Internet and Higher Education, DOI: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.11.001 - Centrality And Network Flow, Jan. 2005, online 2005/01/08, Social Networks, DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2004.11.008 - A Functional Method For Classifying European Grasslands For Use In Joint Ecological And Economic Studies, Apr. 2005, online 2005/02/17, Basic and Applied Ecology, DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2005.01.006 - Cooperation Evolution And Self-Regulation Dynamics In Metapopulation: Stage-Equilibrium Hypothesis, Jun. 2005, online 2005/03/05, Ecological Modelling, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2004.11.004 - Modeling Annual Energy Metabolism Rhythms In Mammals, Jun. 2005, online 2004/12/13, Ecological Modelling, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2004.10.003 - 2 Sides Do Battle in Court on Whether E.P.A. Should Regulate Carbon Dioxide, 05/04/09, NYTimes, A federal appeals court heard arguments in a five-year battle over whether the E.P.A. has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles. - After DeLay Remarks, Bush Says He Supports 'Independent Judiciary', 05/04/09, NYTimes, President Bush appeared to distance himself from recent comments by Representative Tom DeLay that Congress should crack down on unaccountable judges. - DeLay Says Federal Judiciary Has 'Run Amok,' Adding Congress Is Partly to Blame, 05/04/08, NYTimes, Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, escalated his talk of a battle between the legislative and judicial branches of government - An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq, 05/04/08, Washington Post - Rumsfeld Memo on Intelligence Criticized, 05/04/07, The Washington Post - In-Flight Calls Could Cause Turbulence, Opponents Say, 05/04/08, The Washington Post, Many shudder at the prospect of the federal government lifting its ban on cell phone use during flights, as millions of dollars are being spent on research to determine whether wireless communications pose a threat to airline navigation systems. - Open doors, 05/04/07, BBC, The impact of US-drafted laws on the Iraqi economy - Signs of a Second Flowing Solid Deepen a Quantum Mystery, 05/04/08, Science : 190 - Molecular Switch: Protein May Influence Chronic-Pain Disorder, 05/04/09, Science News, A cell-surface protein found in the nervous system may play a central role in a chronic-pain condition known as neuropathy. - Remote Control Minds: Light Flashes Direct Fruit Fly Behavior, 05/04/09, Science News, Researchers have exerted a little mind control over fruit flies by designing and installing genetic 'remote controls' within the insects' brains. - Moon Story Waxes Fuller, 05/04/09, Science News, A new analysis may have put the final piece in the puzzle of how the Moon formed. - Lightning Creates Radiation-Safe Zone, 05/04/09, Science News, A relatively safe region within the seas of radiation that surround Earth owes its existence to lightning storms. - Phages Take Breaks While Ejecting DNA, 05/04/09, Science News, Bacterial viruses, or phages, inject DNA into their prey in a way that is more complicated than researchers had previously thought. - Tense Encounters Drive A Nanomotor, 05/04/09, Science News, Exploiting the relative strength of surface tension forces in the world of tiny objects, a novel type of nanomotor creates a powerful thrust each time molten metal droplets merge. _________________________________________________________________ 20.02. Webcast Announcements [46] Symposium : Energy For The Future, , Taipei, Taiwan, 05/04/08 [47] 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 [48] World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 05/01/26-30 [49] 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7 [50] Neurobiological Foundation For The Meaning Of Information, Kolkata, India, Conference Webcast, 04/11/22-25 [51] ALife 9: Ninth International Conference on Artificial Life, Boston, MA, 04/09/12-15 The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China, 04/07/22-23 Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30 From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20 ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy, 04/06/14-17 Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28 International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21 Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28 Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27 Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01 Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30 Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994 CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998 Edge Videos [46] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/05EFTF/Target=new [47] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/Nicolis05/Target=new [48] http://clients.world-television.com/worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2005/default.aspTarget=new [49] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/ECCS04/Target=new [50] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/ICONIP04/ Target=new [51] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/ALife9 Target=new _________________________________________________________________ 20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements [52] Online Course on Genetic Programming, with Lee Altenberg, University of Hawaii Outreach College 2005/01/10 to 2005/05/13. 2005 World Exposition " [53] Nature's Wisdom, Aichi, Japan, 05/03/25-09/25 FINCO 2005: Foundations Of Interactive Computation, Edinburgh, Scotland, 05/04/09 5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15 Connecting Biology, Chemistry & Business San Francisco, California, 05/04/19-22 Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents, Hatfield, UK, 05/04/12-15 MeshForum 2005, Chicago, Il, 05/05/01-04 2005 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show Nanotech 2005, Anaheim, California, U.S.A., 05/05/08-12 Socio-Dynamics, Networks and Markets, London, 05/05/09-11 Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 05/05/16-19 2ndShanghai Intl Symposium on Nonlinear Science and Applications, Shanghai, 05/06/03-07 IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10 10th Annual Workshop on Economic Heterogeneous Interacting Agents (WEHIA 2005) , University of Essex, United Kingdom, 05/06/13-15 Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22 NKS Summer School, Brown University, Providence, RI, 05/06/20-07/08 6th Intl Conf Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, Kiev, Ukraine, 05/06/20-26 Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24 2005 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), Washington, DC, USA, 05/06/25-29 6th Intl Summer School/Conference "Let's Face Chaos Through Nonlinear Dynamics"Dedicated to the 75th Birthday of Professor Siegfried Grossmann, Maribor, Slovenia, 05/06/26-07/10 Computational Social and Organizational Science (NAACSOS 2005), University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN USA, 05/06/26-28 The Potential Impacts Of Systemics On Society, 49th Annual Meeting of the Intl Soc for the System Sciences, Cancun, Mexico, 05/07/01-05 WOSC 13th International Congress Of Cybernetics And Systems, Maribor, Slovenia, 05/07/06-10 Summer Graduate Workshop In Computational Social Science Modeling And Complexity, Santa Fe, NM, 05/07/10-23 4th International Workshop on Computational Intelligence in Economics and Finance (CIEF'2005), Salt Lake City, 05/07/21-26 Epigenetic Robotics, Nara, Japan 05/07/22-24 5th Gathering on Biosemiotics, Urbino, Italy, 05/07/22-24 Soc for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences 15th Annual Intl Conf, Denver, CO, USA, 05/08/04-06 2005 Intl Conf on Natural Computation (ICNC'05), Intl Conf on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD'05), Changsha, China, 05/08/27-29 ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK, 05/09/05-09 Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14 18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23 Genomics in Context, University of Exeter, UK, 05/09/28-30 CSDS-2005 Intl Conf on CONTROL AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS , Leon, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 05/10/04-07 European Conference on Complex Systems, Paris, France, 05/11/14-18 3rd International Complexity Science and Educational Research Conference, Robert, Louisiana, 05/11/20-22, see also: Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, Inaugural issue - Free Online Access The Second International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology , Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, 06/01/26-27 FRACTAL 2006 Complexity and Fractals in Nature, 9th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vienna, Austria, 06/02/12-15 [52] http://dynamics.org/UH_ICS/691_GP/Announcement.html target=new [53] http://www.expo2005.com/expo_facts.htm Target=new _________________________________________________________________ [54]Complexity Digest is an independent publication available to organizations that may wish to repost ComDig to their own mailing lists. 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