复杂性文摘 NO：2004.10

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Complexity Digest 2004.10

Archive: http://www.comdig.org, European Mirror: http://www.comdig.de Asian
Mirror:
http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/ (Chinese GB-Code) "I think the
next century will be the
century of complexity." Stephen Hawking

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Content:

01. Inside the Idea Factory, Santa Fe New Mexican
01.01. Analyzing The Analysts, Darwin Magazine
02. The Origin Of Speech, Science
02.01. Evolution of Language, Science
02.02. The First Language?, Science
02.03. Why Anatolia?, Science
02.04. Continuing The Debate On Words And Seeds, Science
02.05. The Future Of Language, Science
02.06. Towards a New Functional Anatomy of Language, Cognition
03. Emergent Properties Of CNS Neuronal Networks As Targets For
Pharmacology, Progress in
Neurobiology
03.01. Cortical processing of complex sound: a way forward?, Trends in
Neurosciences
03.02. Memories Light Up The Corners Of Our Minds, ScienceDaily
04. Understanding Environmental Complexity Through A Distributed Knowledge
Network, BioScience
04.01. Evolving a Stigmergic Self-Organized Data-Mining, arXiv
04.02. Learning User Similarity And Rating Style For Collaborative
Recommendation, Info. Retrieval
05. Cancer Without Disease, Nature
06. A Move To Sort Life From Death, Nature
07. Shotgun Sequencing Of The Ocean Reveals 1.2 Million New Genes, The
Scientist
07.01. Genetically Engineered Organisms, NPR Audio
07.02. DNA Chip Will Catch Beefed Up Chicken, NewScientist
07.03. Rich Genes Travel More, ScienceDaily
08. Gulf Stream Probed For Early Warnings Of System Failure, Nature
08.01. The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare, Fortune
08.02. US Military Creates Second Earth, BBC News
09. The Complex Interaction Of Aerosols And Clouds, Science
09.01. Measurement Of The Effect Of Amazon Smoke On Inhibition Of Cloud
Formation, Science
10. Unification In The Century Of Biology, Science
10.01. Ants Avoid Traffic Jams, Natue Science update
10.02. Mucus Good for the Local Economy, Science Now
10.03. Phylogenetic Constraints And Adaptation Explain Food-Web Structure,
Nature
11. Why Are Mobile Phones Annoying?, Behav. & Info. Tech.
11.01. Comparative Usability Evaluation, Behav. & Info. Tech.
12. Long-Term Working Memory And Interrupting Messages In Human - Computer
Interaction, Behav. &
Info. Tech.
13. The Minority Game: An Introductory Guide, arXiv
14. Tragedy Of The Commons In Melipona Bees, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.
14.01. Patterns And Coevolutionary Consequences Of Repeated Brood
Parasitism, Alphagalileo & Biol.
Lett.
15. Self-Coiling Nanoribbons, Science
15.01. Superconductivity: Symmetry Not Required, Nature
16. Criminals Follow Laws Of Statistics, Natue Science update
16.01. Disease Control: Virtual Plagues Get Real, Nature
16.02. Haitians Again Relying On U.S. Military To Bring Order, NY Times
17. Toss Out The Toss-Up: Bias In Heads-Or-Tails, Science News
17.01. Opinion Polling: Taking The Voters' Pulse, Nature
18. Why Is Washington Going Easy On Pakistan  Nuclear Black Marketers?, The
New Yorker
18.01. Nukes 'R' Us, NY Times
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. U.S.-Pakistan Struck Deal On Bin Laden, NPR
19.02. German Judges Order A Retrial For 9/11 Figure, NY Times
19.03. How Tiny Swiss Cellphone Chips Helped Track Global Terror Web, NY Times
19.04. As U.S. Detains Iraqis, Families Plead For News, NY Times
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
20.03.01. Strategic Thinking in a Complex World, Smithsonian Resident
Associates Program

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01. Inside the Idea Factory , Santa Fe New Mexican

Excerpts: The article traces the history of SFI from its 1984 beginnings
through today, with a
focus on new
scientific research directions and as well as our innovative Business
Network Program. (...)
Researchers say they have found striking similarities between the two
brands of virus, so having
the biological side of the sciences working with the computer side provides
data for both.

"Perhaps one of the big values is as a network," Bell said. "The people
they (SFI) attract and the
problems they go after are just very useful. I think when you bring that
collection of people
together, you really redirect. Everybody goes away thinking quite
differently about what they're
doing.

* Inside the Idea Factory, Dick Benke , 04/01/31, Santa Fe New Mexican


_________________________________________________________________

01.01. Analyzing The Analysts , Darwin Magazine

Excerpts: The
StarMine service, free on Yahoo, measures "analyst recommendation
performance."(...)

StarMine measures analyst recommendation performance on a 1-to-5 scale,
representing the return
performance of an analyst's recommendations relative to his or her peers.
To reach the scocres,
StarMine analyzes every recommendation, upgrade and downgrade published by
thousands of sell-side
analysts around the world. Analysts are measured in two ways: on an
absolute scale (used in the
industry rankings) and on a coverage-relative scale (used for an analyst's
overall score). Only
analysts scoring 4 or 5 stars are displayed.

* Analyzing The Analysts, Carol Zarrow , 04/03/01, Darwin Magazine


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02. The Origin Of Speech , Science

Excerpts: Archaeologists have identified various milestones in human
behavior in the 5-million-year
evolutionary void between animal communication and human speech, but there
is no consensus on which
achievements imply the capacity for language. For example, the first stone
tools date to 2.4
million years ago; some researchers think this may indicate linguistic
facility, but others argue
that toolmaking is far removed from speech. (...) 2 million years ago, when
the hominid brain began
a period of rapid expansion, including in the primary brain areas
associated with producing or
processing language (...).

* The Origin Of Speech, Constance Holden , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.303.5662.1316, Science,
Vol 303, Issue 5662, 1316-1319


_________________________________________________________________

02.01. Evolution of Language , Science

Excerpts: Complex language is clearly among the key traits that separate
humans from our ape
ancestors. A special section of the 27 Feb 2004 Science investigated how
this powerful ability to
communicate evolved and how language, (...), has changed over time. Five
News stories delved into
the history and prehistory of language evolution, from the origin of speech
to modern efforts to
organize the world's thousands of languages. Three Viewpoints explored the
rapid changes occurring
in our language systems as new technologies and international communication
strive to keep pace
with global population expansion.

* Evolution of Language, Elizabeth Culotta  , Brooks  , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.303.5662.1315, Science, Vol 303, Issue 5662, 1315


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02.02. The First Language? , Science

Excerpts: Genetic and linguistic data indicate--but can't quite prove--that
our ancient ancestors
spoke with strange clicking noises

(...) suggest that our early ancestors depended on such clicks to
communicate. The latest
linguistic work points to clicks as having deep roots, originating at the
limits of linguistic
analysis sometime earlier than 10,000 years ago, and genetic data suggest
that click-speaking
populations go back to a common ancestor perhaps 50,000 or more years ago.

(...) "population that was ancestral to all living humans lived in the
savanna and used clicks,"
(...).

* The First Language?, ElizabethPennisi , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.303.5662.1319, Science Vol
303, Issue 5662, 1319-1320


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02.03. Why Anatolia? , Science

Excerpts: (...) both the seeds of the Indo-European language and the
gateway for the spread of
agriculture into Europe some 8000 years ago. Recent research at a number of
Anatolian sites has
shown that this huge plateau was teeming with human populations, rich with
art and culture, and
home to the grains, cereals, and legumes key to the expansion of farming.
"Everybody agrees that
farming came to Europe from Anatolia," says (...) Colin Renfrew, chief
partisan of the
farming-dispersal model of Indo-European origins. "So Anatolia must be the
point of departure [for
languages too]."

* Why Anatolia?, MichaelBalter , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.303.5662.1324, Science, Vol 303,
Issue 5662, 1324


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02.04. Continuing The Debate On Words And Seeds , Science

Excerpts: What we find is not unexpected: the history of the world is more
complex than the
farming-language dispersal hypothesis suggests. Scratch the archaeology of
any one continent and
what had once been argued as a simple case of Neolithic dispersal becomes a
mosaic of multiple
processes that may have produced quite independent patterns of economic,
linguistic, and biological
change within the populations concerned.

Similarly, scratching the surface of any one discipline exposes
methodological difficulties. (...)
cultural change originates in the spread of people or of new ideas and
technologies.

* Continuing The Debate On Words And Seeds, Steven Mithen , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.1092897,
Science, Vol 303, Issue 5662, 1298-1299


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02.05. The Future Of Language , Science

Excerpts: The world's language system is undergoing rapid change because of
demographic trends, new
technology, and international communication. (...) English may not be the
dominant language of the
future, and the need to be multilingual will be enhanced. Although many
languages are going
extinct, new ones are emerging in cities and extended social groups (...).
In the mid-20th century, nearly 9% of the global population grew up
speaking English as their first
language, but that proportion is declining oward nearer 5% by 2050.

* The Future Of Language, David Graddol , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.1096546, Science, Vol 303,
Issue 5662, 1329-1331


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02.06. Towards a New Functional Anatomy of Language , Cognition

Abstract: The classical brain-language model derived from the work of
Broca, Wernicke, Lichtheim,
Geschwind, and others has been useful as a heuristic model that stimulates
research and as a
clinical model that guides diagnosis. However, it is now uncontroversial
that the classical model
is (i) empirically wrong in that it cannot account for the range of aphasic
syndromes, (ii)
linguistically underspecified to an extent that prohibits contact with the
language sciences, and
(iii) anatomically underspecified. We briefly summarize some of the central
issues that motivate
why a new functional anatomy of language is necessary, in the context of
introducing a collection
of articles that describe systematic new attempts at specifying the new
functional anatomy. The
major convergent observations are highlighted and the emergent conceptual
and empirical trends are
identified.

* Towards a New Functional Anatomy of Language, David Poeppel , Gregory
Hickok , 2004-05_06, DOI:
10.1016/j.cognition.2003.11.001, Cognition 92(1-2):1-12
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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03. Emergent Properties Of CNS Neuronal Networks As Targets For
Pharmacology , Progress in
Neurobiology

Abstract: CNS [Central Nervous System, Ed.] drugs may act by modifying the
emergent properties of
complex
CNS neuronal networks. Emergent properties are network characteristics that
are not predictably
based on properties of individual member neurons.
Neuronal membership within networks is controlled by several mechanisms,
including burst firing,
gap junctions, endogenous and exogenous neuroactive substances,
extracellular ions, temperature,
interneuron activity, astrocytic integration and external stimuli. The
effects of many CNS drugs in
vivo may critically involve actions on specific brain loci, but this
selectivity may be absent when
the same neurons are isolated from the network in vitro where emergent
properties are lost.

* Emergent Properties Of CNS Neuronal Networks As Targets For Pharmacology,
Carl L. Faingold ,
Progress in Neurobiology, 2004, 72:1:55-85


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03.01. Cortical processing of complex sound: a way forward? , Trends in
Neurosciences

Abstract: The organization of the cortical auditory system remains
controversial. In
particular, the extent to which there is regional specialization in the
cortical
processing of complex sound is unclear. Here, we ask whether we are
currently asking the right questions of auditory cortex, or using the
appropriate
techniques to do so. A key factor that will promote such understanding in the
future will be increasing dialogue between workers using electrophysiological
recording methods to assess the response properties of single neurons and
those using imaging techniques to map regional organization. In the future,
further insights will be obtained by efforts to test hypotheses developed
on the
basis of one approach by the use of the other. Imaging can tell the
neurophysiologists where to look, and work on single neurons can constrain
network models based on imaging. There is a crucial need for better
understanding of the anatomy of the auditory cortex in different species
and for
comparative studies that will underpin both approaches.

* Cortical processing of complex sound: a way forward? , Timothy D.
Griffiths , Jason D. Warren ,
Sophie K. Scott , Israel Nelken  , Andrew J. King
, 04/02/25, DOI: 10.1016/S0166-2236(04)00056-6, Trends in Neurosciences


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03.02. Memories Light Up The Corners Of Our Minds , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: Memories do indeed light up the corners of our mind, just as the
songwriter said.
Scientific evidence for this notion comes from studies using magnetic
resonance imaging to examine
the living human brain. These studies show that certain brain areas "light
up" as an individual is
learning information. Scientists had previously established that people
remember emotionally
charged events and facts better than neutral ones. Now researchers at MIT
have discovered that
memories with an element of arousal or excitement are remembered by a
different area of the
brain-the amygdala-from memories of a calmer nature, which are remembered
by the prefrontal cortex

* Memories Light Up The Corners Of Our Minds, 2004/03/02, ScienceDaily &
Massachusetts Institute Of
Technology
* Contributed by Atin Das


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04. Understanding Environmental Complexity Through A Distributed Knowledge
Network , BioScience

Abstract: Understanding environmental complexity and other dimensions of
ecological systems
necessitates a holistic approach that can be achieved only by identifying,
retrieving, and
synthesizing diverse data from distributed sources; by collaborating with
other scientists from a
broad range of disciplines; and by investigating many different systems.
Knowledge Network for
Biocomplexity is developing new software tools to advance ecological
understanding through
discovery, access, retrieval, and management of distributed and
heterogeneous ecological and
environmental data. To address the need for cultural change in ecologists
and other environmental
scientists (...) training a cadre of young investigators (...) with
emphasis on multiscale
integration and synthesis.

* Understanding Environmental Complexity Through A Distributed Knowledge
Network, Andelman S. J.  ,
Bowles C. M.  , Willig M. R.  , Waide R. B. , Mar. 2004, BioScience
* Contributed by Atin Das


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04.01. Evolving a Stigmergic Self-Organized Data-Mining , arXiv

Abstract: Self-organizing complex systems typically are comprised of a
large number of frequently
similar components or events. Through their process, a pattern at the
global-level of a system
emerges solely from numerous interactions among the lower-level components
of the system. Moreover,
the rules specifying interactions among the system's components are
executed using only local
information, without reference to the global pattern, which, as in many
real-world problems is not
easily accessible or possible to be found. Stigmergy, a kind of indirect
communication and learning
by the environment found in social insects is a well know example of
self-organization, providing
not only vital clues in order to understand how the components can interact
to produce a complex
pattern, as can pinpoint simple biological non-linear rules and methods to
achieve improved
artificial intelligent adaptive categorization systems, critical for
Data-Mining. On the present
work it is our intention to show that a new type of Data-Mining can be
designed based on Stigmergic
paradigms, taking profit of several natural features of this phenomenon. By
hybridizing
bio-inspired Swarm Intelligence with Evolutionary Computation we seek for
an entire distributed,
adaptive, collective and cooperative self-organized Data-Mining. As a
real-world, real-time test
bed for our proposal, World-Wide-Web Mining will be used. Having that
purpose in mind, Web usage
Data was collected from the Monash University's Web site (Australia), with
over 7 million hits
every week. Results are compared to other recent systems, showing that the
system presented is by
far promising.

* Evolving a Stigmergic Self-Organized Data-Mining, Vitorino Ramos , Ajith
Abraham , 2004-02-28,
DOI: cs.AI/0403001, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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04.02. Learning User Similarity And Rating Style For Collaborative
Recommendation , Info. Retrieval

Abstract: Information filtering is an area getting more important as we
have long been flooded with
too much information, where product brokering in e-commerce is a typical
example. Systems which can
provide personalized product recommendations to their users have gained a
lot of interest in recent
years. Collaborative filtering is one of the commonly used approaches which
normally requires a
definition of user similarity measure. In this paper, we propose the use of
machine learning
techniques to learn the optimal user similarity measure as well as user
rating styles for enhancing
recommendation acurracy. We have evaluated our proposed (...).

* Learning User Similarity And Rating Style For Collaborative
Recommendation, Cheung K.-W.
william@comp.hkbu.edu.hk , Tian L. F. ftian@comp.hkbu.edu.hk , Sep. 2004, DOI:
10.1023/B:INRT.0000011212.66249.b7, Information Retrieval
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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05. Cancer Without Disease , Nature

Excerpts: (...) body's inherent capacity to prevent the majority of these
in situ tumours from
recruiting their own new blood supply, thus preventing further growth owing
to a lack of oxygen and
nutrients. In the absence of a new supply of blood vessels by a process
known as angiogenesis, an
in situ tumour can remain dormant indefinitely. Paradoxically, it is
proposed that angiogenesis
itself is under the control of many genes in our body known to promote
cancer (oncogenes) or
suppress growth of tumours (tumour suppressors)
(...).

* Cancer Without Disease, Judah Folkman  , Raghu Kalluri , 04/02/26, DOI:
10.1038/427787a,
Nature427,787


_________________________________________________________________

06. A Move To Sort Life From Death , Nature

Excerpts: Nerve growth factor determines neuronal cell fate during
development or after injury. A
newly identified 'death factor', an unprocessed form of this protein,
induces cell death by
activating two receptors in concert.

The death of nerve cells is a key aspect in the establishment of functional
neural circuits during
development, but inevitably also features in injury or degenerative
conditions. (...) Two unrelated
cell-surface proteins, (...), collaborate to induce death in responsive
cells ?including neurons.
This joint effort involves direct interactions (...).

* A Move To Sort Life From Death, David R. Kaplan  , Freda D. Miller ,
04/02/26, DOI:
10.1038/427798a, Nature427,798-799


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07. Shotgun Sequencing Of The Ocean Reveals 1.2 Million New Genes , The
Scientist

Excerpts: More than 1.2 million new genes were identified, revealing a
level of microbial diversity
in seawater that was only previously guessed at. More than 700 of those
were new rhodopsin-like
photoreceptors.

(...) there must be between 10 and 20 billion different genes in the planet
Earth';s
repertoire,(...)


e basically know very little about the genomic composition of the microbial
community in the
ocean, and the genes that we know about are only from the tiny fraction of
cultured organisms,?
* Shotgun Sequencing Of The Ocean Reveals 1.2 Million New Genes , Cathy Holding
mailto:cathyholding@aol.com , 04/03/05, The Scientist


_________________________________________________________________

07.01. Genetically Engineered Organisms , NPR Audio

Excerpts: In this hour NPR's Ira Flatow and guests discuss what we really
know about
the risks of genetically engineered organisms.

* Genetically Engineered Organisms, Allison Snow , C. S. Prakash
, NPR Audio


_________________________________________________________________

07.02. DNA Chip Will Catch Beefed Up Chicken , NewScientist

Excerpts: A single test can now reveal the presence of meat from any of 32
different species in
food samples, enabling a wide range of important questions to be answered.

These include whether chicken has been bulked up with beef or pork
extracts; whether expensive
albacore tuna is really cheap skipjack tuna; whether rats, mice or even
bits of people fell into
the mincer when your burger was being made; and whether unscrupulous
companies are risking
spreading mad cow disease by adding beef to cattle feed?

* DNA Chip Will Catch Beefed Up Chicken, Andy Coghlan  , 04/03/04, New
Scientist


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07.03. Rich Genes Travel More , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: In a study of changes in gene expression covering taxa from
bacteria to human (...)
report their discovery of a fundamental governing principle to the dynamics
capable of producing
the heterogeneous distribution of gene expression. The basic dynamics that
underlie and produce
this power-law distribution have yet to be worked out, (...) now propose
that the proportional
dynamic operating in gene expression changes might be described as a
"rich-travel-more" mechanism,
a counter concept to the "rich-get-richer" metaphor that has been used to
explain other power
law-based distributions, such as the growth of network connections in the
World Wide Web.

* Rich Genes Travel More, 2004/03/04, ScienceDaily & RIKEN Center For
Developmental Biology
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

08. Gulf Stream Probed For Early Warnings Of System Failure , Nature

Excerpts: "Complete collapse of the north Atlantic circulation is a
worst-case scenario," (...).

The team will use 22 moorings across the subtropical Atlantic: (...).
Sensors will travel up and
down wires from buoys to the moorings on the sea floor. Differences in
water density will be
calculated from the temperature and salinity measured throughout these
water columns. With US
measurements from the Florida Strait and satellite observation of
wind-driven surface currents,
these will help researchers understand water flow in the north Atlantic.

* Gulf Stream Probed For Early Warnings Of System Failure, Quirin
Schiermeier , 04/02/26, DOI:
10.1038/427769a, Nature427,769


_________________________________________________________________

08.01. The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare , Fortune

Excerpts: Global warming may be bad news for future generations, (...) most
of us spend as little
time worrying about it as we did about al Qaeda before 9/11. Like the
terrorists, though, the
seemingly remote climate risk may hit home sooner and harder than we ever
imagined. In fact, the
prospect has become so real that the Pentagon's strategic planners are
grappling with it.

The threat that has riveted their attention is this: Global warming, rather
than causing gradual,
centuries-spanning change, may be pushing the climate to a tipping point.

* The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare, David Stipp  , Fortune


_________________________________________________________________

08.02. US Military Creates Second Earth , BBC News

Excerpts:


The copy of the original should be finished by
September



The US Army is building a second version of Earth on computer to help it
prepare for conflicts
around the world.

The detailed simulation will be drawn from a real-world terrain database
and will be drawn to the
same scale as the original.

The software Earth is being created for the US Army by gaming company
There, (...).

world being created will not be a game but instead will be a "massively
multi-user persistent
environment" that will model real world physics as closely as possible.

* US Military Creates Second Earth, 04/02/23, BBC News


_________________________________________________________________

09. The Complex Interaction Of Aerosols And Clouds , Science

Excerpts: Aerosols have an important effect on atmospheric chemistry
throughout the troposphere and
lower stratosphere. They influence the radiative budget of Earth directly
and indirectly by the
modification of the cloud droplet size spectrum and precipitation at the
surface. Researchers are
beginning to incorporate these effects into the most sophisticated climate
models for shallow
clouds. This is because aerosol-cloud interactions are seen as one of the
most important single
forces that drive climate change, but there are big uncertainties in the
current understanding of
these processes.

* The Complex Interaction Of Aerosols And Clouds, Hans-F. Graf , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.1094411, Science, Vol 303, Issue 5662, 1309-1311


_________________________________________________________________

09.01. Measurement Of The Effect Of Amazon Smoke On Inhibition Of Cloud
Formation , Science

Abstract: Urban air pollution and smoke from fires have been modeled to
reduce cloud formation by
absorbing sunlight, thereby cooling the surface and heating the atmosphere.
Satellite data over the
Amazon region during the biomass burning season showed that scattered
cumulus cloud cover was
reduced from 38%in clean conditions to 0%for heavy smoke (...). This
response to the smoke
radiative effect reverses the regional smoke instantaneous forcing of
climate from ?8 watts per
square meter in cloud-free conditions to +8 watts per square meter once the
reduction of cloud
cover is accounted for.

* Measurement Of The Effect Of Amazon Smoke On Inhibition Of Cloud
Formation, Ilan Kren  , Yoram J.
Kaufman  , Lorraine A. Remer  , Jose V. Martins , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.1089424, Science,
Vol 303, Issue 5662, 1342-1345


_________________________________________________________________

10. Unification In The Century Of Biology , Science

Excerpts: Scientific progress is based ultimately on unification rather
than fragmentation of
knowledge. At the threshold of what is widely regarded as the century of
biology, the life sciences
are undergoing a profound transformation. (...), forming two major domains:
one extending from the
molecule to the organism, the other bringing together population biology,
biodiversity studies, and
ecology. Kept separate, these domains, no matter how fruitful, cannot hope
to deliver on the full
promise of modern biology. They cannot lead to an appreciation of life in
its full complexity,
(...).

* Unification In The Century Of Biology, Fotis C. Kafatos  , Thomas Eisner
, 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.303.5662.1257, Science, Vol 303, Issue 5662, 1257


_________________________________________________________________

10.01. Ants Avoid Traffic Jams , Natue Science update

Excerpts:


  Less congestion means faster transport of food.


?SPL


When it comes to traffic congestion, ants prefer the no-nonsense approach -
they barge others out
of the way, forcing them to take an alternative route. (...)

But problems can arise when too many ants try to use the route, (...) ants
are surprisingly good at
avoiding congestion, simply by shoving each other off the main highway and
on to back
streets.(...)

The re-routing strategy allows ants to maintain the same flow of food back
to the nest even when
things start to get crowded (...).

* Ants Avoid Traffic Jams, Michael Hopkin , 04/03/04, Nature Science update


_________________________________________________________________

10.02. Mucus Good for the Local Economy , Science Now

Excerpts: Coral are nothing to sneeze at when it comes to generating mucus.
One species common in
Australia's Great Barrier Reef, for example, can exude up to 4.8 liters of
mucus per square meter
of reef a day. Scientists knew that the goo keeps the coral from drying out
and protects them from
infection, but now a research team proposes that the slime doesn't just
help the coral. It helps
the entire reef ecosystem save energy by recycling nutrients.

* Mucus Good for the Local Economy, 04/03/05, Science Now


_________________________________________________________________

10.03. Phylogenetic Constraints And Adaptation Explain Food-Web Structure ,
Nature

Excerpts: Food webs are descriptions of who eats whom in an ecosystem.
Although extremely complex
and variable, their structure possesses basic regularities. (...) Until
now, two models have been
devised (...). Here, we propose a new model built on the hypothesis that
any species' diet is the
consequence of phylogenetic constraints and adaptation. Simple rules
incorporating both concepts
yield food webs whose structure is very close to real data. Consumers are
organized in groups
forming a nested hierarchy, which better reflects the complexity and
multidimensionality of most
natural systems.

* Phylogenetic Constraints And Adaptation Explain Food-Web Structure,
Marie-France Cattin  ,
Louis-F ix Bersier  , Carolin Banaek-Richter  , Richard Baltensperger  ,
Jean-Pierre Gabriel ,
04/02/26, DOI: 10.1038/nature02327, Nature 427, 835-839


_________________________________________________________________

11. Why Are Mobile Phones Annoying? , Behav. & Info. Tech.

Abstract: Sixty four members of the public were exposed to the same staged
conversation either
while waiting in a bus station or travelling on a train. Half of the
conversations were by mobile
phone, so that only one end of the conversation was heard, and half were co
present face-to-face
conversations. Analysis of variance showed that mobile phone conversations
were significantly more
noticeable and annoying than face-to-face conversations at the same volume
when the content of the
conversation is controlled. Indeed this effect of medium was as large as
the effect of loudness.
Various explanations of this effect are explored, (...).

* Why Are Mobile Phones Annoying?, Monk A.  , Carroll J.  , Parker S.  ,
Blythe M. , Jan.-Feb.
2004, DOI: 10.1080/01449290310001638496, Behaviour and Information Technology
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

11.01. Comparative Usability Evaluation , Behav. & Info. Tech.

Abstract: This paper reports on a study assessing the consistency of
usability testing across
organisations. Nine independent organisations evaluated the usability of
the same website,
Microsoft Hotmail. (...) no two teams reported the same problem. Some of
the unique findings were
classified as serious. Even the tasks used by most or all teams produced
very different results -
around 70% of the findings for each of these tasks were unique. Our main
conclusion is that our
simple assumption that we are all doing the same and getting the same
results in a usability test
is plainly wrong.

* Comparative Usability Evaluation, Molich R.  , Ede M.  , Kaasgaard K.  ,
Karyukin B. , Jan.-Feb.
2004, DOI: 10.1080/0144929032000173951, Behaviour and Information Technology
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

12. Long-Term Working Memory And Interrupting Messages In Human - Computer
Interaction , Behav. &
Info. Tech.

Abstract: The extent to which memory for information content is reliable,
trustworthy, and accurate
is crucial in the information age. Being forced to divert attention to
interrupting messages is
common, however, and can cause memory loss. The memory effects of
interrupting messages were
investigated in three experiments. In Experiment 1, attending to an
interrupting message decreased
memory accuracy. In Experiment 3, an interrupting message was shown to be
most disturbing when it
was semantically very close to the main message. (...) it is argued that
interrupting messages can
both disrupt the active semantic elaboration (...) and cause semantic
interference upon retrieval.

* Long-Term Working Memory And Interrupting Messages In Human - Computer
Interaction, Oulasvirta A.
  , Saariluoma P. , Jan.-Feb. 2004, DOI: 10.1080/01449290310001644859,
Behaviour and Information
Technology
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

13. The Minority Game: An Introductory Guide , arXiv

Abstract: The Minority Game is a simple model for the collective behavior
of agents in an idealized
situation where they have to compete through adaptation for a finite
resource. This review
summarizes the statistical mechanics community efforts to clear up and
understand the behavior of
this model. Our emphasis is on trying to derive the underlying effective
equations which govern the
dynamics of the original Minority Game, and on making an interpretation of
the results from the
point of view of the statistical mechanics of disordered systems.

* The Minority Game: An Introductory Guide, Esteban Moro , 2004-02-26, DOI:
cond-mat/0402651, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

14. Tragedy Of The Commons In Melipona Bees , Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.

Abstract: Inequality among social classes or castes is a frequent cause of
conflict in human
society. In social insects such as ants, bees and wasps, individuals can
develop as one of two
castes, queen or worker. (...) studied Melipona stingless bees native in
tropical America where
each individual bee can determine its own caste development. If each bee
chose its caste only for
the good of the colony, almost all should be workers. But this is not what
happens. Up to 15% were
selfish, developing as queens even if they carried out no work in the colony.

* Tragedy Of The Commons In Melipona Bees, T. Wenseleers  , F. L. W.
Ratnieks , 2004/03/01,
Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

14.01. Patterns And Coevolutionary Consequences Of Repeated Brood
Parasitism , Alphagalileo & Biol.
Lett.

Abstract: While many parasitic cuckoos lay eggs mimicking host eggs, other
brood parasites,
including cowbirds, lay distinct eggs. Yet cowbird hosts do not typically
eject odd-looking eggs.
During our colourbanding studies of two species of cowbird hosts, many
females were parasitised
multiple times during their lifespan. We then examined mathematically the
role of such repeated
experience with parasitism in the evolution of egg-ejection by would-be
foster parents. Increasing
repeated parasitism delayed the evolution of rejection, especially in
species that paid higher
costs when raising cowbird chicks. These observations help us understand
the counterintuitive
patterns of non-rejection by vulnerable hosts of parasites.

* Patterns And Coevolutionary Consequences Of Repeated Brood Parasitism, M.
E. Hauber  , P. Yeh  ,
J. Roberts , 2004/03/01, Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

15. Self-Coiling Nanoribbons , Science

Excerpts: Ceramic materials are generally thought to be much more brittle
than metals or
polymers. (...) ceramics can exhibit surprising flexibility. (...) can be
induced to grow by a
spontaneous self-coiling process and fuse to form a
single crystal ring tens of nanometers thick and several micrometers across.
(...) Compared to the macromolecular building blocks of living systems like
proteins, (...), the ZnO nanoribbons are quite simple. However, in the
context of
our attempts to replicate nature's complexity in artificial inorganic material-
based systems, (...) possibility of creating more complex
and unusual structures in the future.

* Single-Crystal Nanorings Formed by Epitaxial Self-Coiling of Polar Nanobelts
, Xiang Yang Kong  , Yong Ding  , Rusen Yang  , Zhong Lin Wang , 04/02/27, DOI:
10.1126/science.1092356, Science, 303: 1348-1351


_________________________________________________________________

15.01. Superconductivity: Symmetry Not Required , Nature

Excerpts:
* Superconductivity: Symmetry Not Required, S.S.SAXENA  , P.MONTHOUX ,
04/02/26, DOI:
10.1038/427799a, Nature427,799


_________________________________________________________________

16. Criminals Follow Laws Of Statistics , Natue Science update

Excerpts: The best way to combat casual crime is not to search for
persistent offenders but to
deter people from committing their first crime.

(...) people who do and don't commit crimes appear to be governed by
slightly different statistical
rules. The two types live in different mathematical worlds, the researchers
say. A switch in
statistical behaviour occurs just once, when a young person crosses the
divide. Once having
committed a single crime, a youth is statistically likely to go on to
commit any number of further
crimes, (...).

* Criminals Follow Laws Of Statistics, Philip Ball , 04/03/03, Nature
Science Update


_________________________________________________________________

16.01. Disease Control: Virtual Plagues Get Real , Nature

Excerpts: Mathematical models incorporating ecological data are starting to
be deployed (...).
During Britain's epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001, the government
culled some 4 million
cattle, pigs and sheep. These drastic measures were introduced following
the advice of a new breed
of epidemiologist ?those who deploy mathematical models of disease ecology
to predict the progress
of an outbreak and the probable effectiveness of different control
strategies. In this case, the
modellers crunched data on the distribution of farms, the size of herds,
wind patterns and records
of recent animal transport.

* Disease Control: Virtual Plagues Get Real, Virginia Gewin , 04/02/26,
DOI: 10.1038/427774a,
Nature 427,774-775


_________________________________________________________________

16.02. Haitians Again Relying On U.S. Military To Bring Order , NY Times

Excerpts: Now the United States military is back in Haiti for the third
time in 90 years. It says
its mission will last 90 days. On June 1, the United States plans to hand
off to an international
force under the United Nations. Planning for that force has barely begun,
and Haiti's 15 neighbors
in the Caribbean, furious at Mr. Aristide's ouster under American pressure,
say they want no part
of it.

(?) last American military deployment, in 1994, to build lasting
institutions, like the police,
courts and schools.

* Haitians Again Relying On U.S. Military To Bring Order, Tim Weiner  ,
Lydia Polgreen , 04/03/07,
NY Times


_________________________________________________________________

17. Toss Out The Toss-Up: Bias In Heads-Or-Tails , Science News

Excerpts: If you want to decide which football team takes the ball first or
who gets the larger
piece of cake, the fairest thing is to toss a coin, right? Not necessarily.

A new mathematical analysis suggests that coin tossing is inherently
biased: A coin is more likely
to land on the same face it started out on. (...)

This slight bias pales when compared with that of spinning a coin on its
edge. A spinning penny
will land as tails about 80 percent of the time.

* Toss Out The Toss-Up: Bias In Heads-Or-Tails, Erica Klarreich , 04/02/28,
Science News,Also
available in Audible format.


_________________________________________________________________

17.01. Opinion Polling: Taking The Voters' Pulse , Nature

Excerpts: Political strategies and careers are built and broken on the
results of opinion polls.
But polls' apparently small margins of error can hide large uncertainties.
(...)

Before the Iowa caucuses kicked off the US presidential primary elections
on (...), most polling
organizations were predicting a virtual tie between the top (...)
candidates. (...)

What looked like a serious polling blunder was more likely due to a
last-minute surge of support
for Kerry, and the quirky rules of the Iowa caucuses, which allow voters to
switch their support
after the voting begins.

* Opinion Polling: Taking The Voters' Pulse, Tony Reichhardt , 04/02/26,
DOI: 10.1038/427772a,
Nature 427, 772-773


_________________________________________________________________

18. Why Is Washington Going Easy On Pakistan  Nuclear Black Marketers? ,
The New Yorker

Excerpt: A Bush Administration intelligence officer with years of
experience in nonproliferation
issues told me last month, ne thing we do know is that this was not a rogue
operation. Suppose
Edward Teller had suddenly decided to spread nuclear technology and
equipment around the world. Do
you really think he could do that without the government knowing? How do
you get missiles from
North Korea to Pakistan? Do you think A.Q. shipped all the centrifuges by
Federal Express? The
military has to be involved, at high levels.?
* Why Is Washington Going Easy On Pakistan  Nuclear Black Marketers?,
Seymour M. Hersh  ,
04/03/01, The New Yorker


_________________________________________________________________

18.01. Nukes 'R' Us , NY Times

Excerpts: Dubai's involvement is no surprise to those who follow the murky
world of nuclear
technology sales. For the last two decades it, along with other points in
the emirates, has been
the main hub through which traffickers have routed their illegal commerce
to hide their trails. Yet
the United States, which has depended on the emirates as a pillar of
relative stability in the
Middle East and, since 1991, as a host to American troops, has done little
to pressure it to crack
down on illicit arms trade.

* Nukes 'R' Us, Gary Milhollin  , Kelly Motz , 04/03/08, NY Times


_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks





_________________________________________________________________

19.01. U.S.-Pakistan Struck Deal On Bin Laden , NPR

Excerpts: The New Yorker reports that U.S. officials agreed to support
Pakistan's pardon
of Abdul Qadeer Khan -- a scientist who admitted passing nuclear secrets to
Iran, Libya and North Korea -- in exchange for permission to hunt for Osama
bin Laden in Pakistan. Pentagon officials deny they struck such a deal. Hear

* U.S.-Pakistan Struck Deal On Bin Laden, Bob Edwards  , Seymour Hersh ,
04/03/01, NPR Audio


_________________________________________________________________

19.02. German Judges Order A Retrial For 9/11 Figure , NY Times

Excerpts: Complaining that crucial evidence had been withheld by the German
and American
authorities, a five-judge panel threw out the year-old conviction of Mr.
Motassadeq and sent the
case back to the lower court in Hamburg, which had sentenced him to 15
years in prison on more than
3,000 counts of accessory to murder.

(...) was denied a fair trial because the United States refused to allow
testimony by Ramzi bin
al-Shibh, a suspect in American captivity who is believed to have played a
central role in the
Sept. 11 plot.
Editor's Note: This example seems to suggest that the fight against global
terrorist networks is
made less effective by weakening the global network of legal prosecution.

* German Judges Order A Retrial For 9/11 Figure, Desmond Butler , 04/03/05,
NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19.03. How Tiny Swiss Cellphone Chips Helped Track Global Terror Web , NY Times

Excerpts:


Sylvain Savolainen for The New York Times



SIM cards connect cellphones to networks. A Swiss company once sold such
Subscriber Identity Module cards without asking buyers for identification,
making its cards a favorite with criminals. But investigators were able to
match
the numbers with terror suspects and track some down in Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Indonesia and several countries in Europe. Switzerland is ending
anonymous card sales on July 1.

* How Tiny Swiss Cellphone Chips Helped Track Global Terror Web, DON VAN
NATTA Jr.  , DESMOND
BUTLER , 04/03/04, NY Times


_________________________________________________________________

19.04. As U.S. Detains Iraqis, Families Plead For News , NY Times

Excerpts: Part of the reason so many are being held is that soldiers' work
is not police work. Tips
are not as reliable. Artillerymen are not detectives. The troops cast a
wide net and then sort
through the catch, with much of the investigation coming after the arrest,
not before. (...)

Under international law, the American authorities have the right as
occupiers to detain anyone who
poses a security threat, even without enough evidence to prosecute. But in
Iraq, unlike in postwar
Japan or Germany, occupation has come without pacification.

* As U.S. Detains Iraqis, Families Plead For News, Jeffrey Gettleman ,
04/03/07, NY Times


_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets





_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications



- Global Organization of Metabolic Fluxes in the Bacterium, Escherichia
coli, E. Almaas , B. Kovacs
, T. Vicsek , Z. N. Oltvai , A.-L. Barabasi , 2004-02-28, arXiv, DOI:
q-bio.MN/0403001
- Minimal Cut Sets In Biochemical Reaction Networks, Klamt S.  , Gilles E.
D. , 2004/01/22,
Bioinformatics, DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btg395
- Ideas Are Not Replicators But Minds Are, Gabora L. , Jan. 2004, Biology
and Philosophy, DOI:
10.1023/B:BIPH.0000013234.87103.76
- The Role of Biodiversity Scientists In A Troubled World, G ez-P. A. ,
Mar. 2004, BioScience
- Zipf's Law In Phonograms And Weibull Distribution In Ideograms:
Comparison Of English With
Japanese, T. Nabeshima  , Y.-P. Gunji yukio@kobe-u.ac.jp , 2004/01/28,
Biosystems, DOI:
10.1016/j.biosystems.2003.11.002
- Critical Periods Of Brain Growth And Cognitive Function In Children, Gale
C. R.  , O'Callaghan F.
J.  , Godfrey K. M.  , Law C. M.  , Martyn C. N. , Feb. 2004, Brain, DOI:
10.1093/brain/awh034
- Hornbills Can Distinguish Between Primate Alarm Calls, H. J. Rainey  , K.
Zuberbuhler  , P. J. B.
Slater , 2004/03/01, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
- New Research Demonstrates That Social Interaction Determines Left Or
Right-Side Bias, G.
Vallortiga  , S. Ghirlanda , 2004/03/04, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B
(Biological Sciences)
- Firefly's Light Can Help Us Spot Life In Space, J. S.-Fransson
jacobsf@admin.kth.se , 2004/03/05,
Alphagalileo
- Unemployment Leads To Political Passiveness, A. Waara
anneli.waara@uadm.uu.se , 2004/03/01,
Alphagalileo
- Baby's Face Lights Up Emotional Center Of New Mom's Brain, 2004/03/01,
ScienceDaily & University
Of Wisconsin-Madison
- Anger, Hostility Linked To Atrial Fibrillation In Men, 2004/03/03,
ScienceDaily & American Heart
Association
- Taking The Brand Promise Online: Challenges And Opportunities, Chernatony
L.  , Christodoulides
G. , Jan./Mar. 2004, Interactive Marketing
- Replicating Web Structure In Small-Scale Test Collections, Gurrin C.
cgurrin@computing.dcu.ie ,
Smeaton A. F. asmeaton@computing.dcu.ie , Sep. 2004, Information Retrieval,
DOI:
10.1023/B:INRT.0000011206.23588.ab
- Bush Envoy Briefs Panel After Talks on A-Bombs, DAVID E. SANGER
, James A. Kelly told a Senate panel that it was "quite possible" that
North Korea
had turned all 8,000 of its spent nuclear fuel rods into plutonium to fuel
nuclear
weapons.
- U.S. Sees No Rebel Role in New Haiti Government, CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
, The Bush administration declared that paramilitaries will not play a role in
Haiti's political reconstruction and urged them to lay down their arms and go
home.
- 9/11 Panel Rejects White House Limits on Interviews, PHILIP SHENON , The
commission investigating
the Sept. 11 attacks is refusing to accept strict
conditions from the White House for interviews with President Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney.
- International Journal of Unconventional Computing, Specific topics
include but are not limited
to:

(...) complexity (e.g. computational complexity of non-standard computer
architectures; theory of amorphous computing; artificial chemistry),
- New Doubts Over Dino Death Theory, A group of researchers is challenging
the theory that a single
asteroid crashing
into the Earth caused the dinosaurs to disappear 65 million years ago. They
say the Yucatan Peninsula's Chicxulub crater is too old. But others stand
by the
crater as the smoking gun. NPR's Richard Harris reports.
Monday, March 1, 2004
- Genetically Engineered Organisms , Allison Snow , C. S. Prakash
, In this hour NPR's Ira Flatow and guests discuss what we really know about
the risks of genetically engineered organisms.
- GM crop go-ahead 'irresponsible', MPs say it would be irresponsible to
allow GM crops to be grown
commercially
in the UK on the basis of the recent trials.
- 2003 summer hottest in 500 years, The scorching heatwave in Europe made
last summer the hottest
in five
centuries, a study say
- Robo-talk helps pocket translator, 04/03/05, Tourists landing in Tokyo
can hire out a handheld
gadget that translates in a
second.
- Mars rocks once 'water drenched', 04/03/04, Nasa says one of its rovers
has shown the Red Planet
would have had the
necessary water environments to support life.
- Tribes take to wireless web, Wireless technology is helping native
Americans in California go
online and
learn computing skills.
- Bush Policy on Human Stem Cells Faces New Challenges, NICHOLAS WADE
, The White House's policy on research with human embryonic stem cells has
been put under new pressure by the development of new stem cell lines by a
Harvard researcher.
- Gnawing Away at Human Family Tree
- Common Virus Protects Against HIV
- A Message From Her Majesty Eggs
- The Penis Plan
- UNurgesstandoninternetdrugs
- PeskyNetskytops virus warnings
- Haitians Again Relying on U.S. Military to Bring Order
- Stronger evidence for desktop fusion, Valerie Jamieson  , 04/03/04,
NewScientist
- Cellphone software creates bogus backgrounds, 04/03/05, NewScientist
- Astronomy:Out of the Dark Ages, S. George Djorgovski , 04/02/26,
Nature427,790-791, DOI:
10.1038/427790a
- LabNetworkEyesCloserTiesForTacklingWorldHunger, DennisNormile
, Science Feb 27 2004:1281-1283
- Microbe exhibits out-of-body activity
- Feral breed lacks domestic dogs' skill
- The calculus of love
- Primate virus found in zoo workers
- How agriculture ground to a start
- Blocked gene gives mice super smell
- Inflammatory Fat
- Averting Pain:Epilepsy drug limits migraine attacks
- Old Colonies:Ancient formations are termites 'legac
- Fox Selection:Bottleneck survivors show surprising variety



_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements



Science, Complexity, and the Ethics of Global Governance,  Cork, Ireland,
04/02/26-28

Creative Education Exposition, , Taipei, Taiwan, 04/02/12-14


Voices of Public Intellectuals Lecture Series: Democracy's Response to the
Terrorist Threat
Now in its fifth year, the Radcliffe Institute Voices of Public
Intellectuals lecture series brings
issues affecting civic life to a public forum. This year's series of three
lectures features
experts in the study of terrorism and the prosecution of terrorists to
explore the effects of
terrorism on democracy. These lectures take place in Cambridge on February
26, March 4, and March
11 at 4 p.m.

World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland

  Riding the Next Democratic Wave,
Al-Thani, Khan, Vike-Freiberga, Wade, Soros, Zakaria, World Economic Forum,
04/01/25
  The Future of Global Interdependence, Kharrazi, Held, Owens, Shourie,
Annan, Martin, Schwab, World
Economic Forum, 04/01/25

Why Victory Against Terrorism Demands Shared Values


The Process of Curricular Review: Redefining a World-Class Education,
Benedict Gross, Thomas
Bender, Harvard@home, 04/01/21, Dean of Harvard College Benedict Gross
discusses Harvard's first
comprehensive review of the undergraduate curriculum in almost 3 decades.
This program introduces
the process of curricular review by presenting two segmented lectures. The
first, by Dean Gross,
outlines the approach and considerations in undertaking the current review.
The second lecture,
presented by NYU Professor Thomas Bender, presents a historical perspective
on academic culture.

Cancer Biology , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, How the spread of cancer
is like wound healing
gone awry.

    Tracking Ebola , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, A new study might
help scientists predict
where Ebola may!
strike next.

    Animal Thought and Communication, NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16,
How do animals think and communicate with each other? And what can studying
animals tell us about
the evolution of language in humans? In this hour, NPR's Ira Flatow and
guests look at thought and
communication in apes, gorillas and monkeys. What can non-human primates
tell us about
communication in humans?

  CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And
Intelligent Systems, 2004
Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
   EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of
   Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social
   Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
   The Semantic Web
   and Language Technology - Its Po
tential and Practicalities,
   Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
   ECAL 2003, 7th
   European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany,
   03/09/14-17
   New Santa
   Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role,
   (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
   SPIE's 1st Intl Symp
   on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
   NAS Sackler
   Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report,
   03/05/11
   13th Ann Intl Conf,
   Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA,
   2003/08/08-10
   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




_________________________________________________________________

20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements



  Arbeitskreis
  Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme Jahrestagung
  (AKSOE), Regensburg, Germany, 04/03/08-12

  11th Annual Winter Chaos Conference Dynamical Systems Thinking in Science
and Society, Stony
Creek, CT, USA, 04/03/12-14


Alife Mutants' Hackingsession on Systems and Organisms, Bielefeld
(Germany), 04/03/06-13

  Capital
  Science 2004, Washington, 04/03/20-21

  Fractal 2004,
  "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl
  Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 04/04/04-07

  6th German Workshop on Artificial Life 2004 (GWAL-6), Bamberg, Germany,
04/04/14-16

  The
  9th IEEE Intl Conf on Engineering of Complex Computer
  Systems, Florence, Italy, 04/04/14-16

  Complexity Science and the Exploration of the Emerging World, Austin, TX,
04/04/17

  2004
  Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC'04),
  Arlington, VA., USA, 04/04/18-22

  NKS
  (New Kind of Science) 2004 Conference and Minicourse,
  Boston, Massachusetts, 04/04/22-25

IDS'04 - Intentional Dynamic Systems Symposium, Memphis, TN, USA,  04/04/24-26

  Urban
  Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences
  of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse,  Manchester, UK,
  04/04/29-30


What Really Matters ?The Global Forum 2004, Santa Fe, NM, 04/05/02-04

  5th
  International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004),
  Boston, MA, USA, 04/05/16-21

  3rd Intl Conf on
  Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming
  Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success",
  Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 04/05/19-21

4th Intl Conf on
Fractals And Dynamic Systems In Geoscience, München, Germany, 04/05/19-22

  9th
  Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction Agents
  (WEHIA04), Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29

  13th
  International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious
  Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05

  ECC8
  Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
  04/06/14-17

  An Intl Tribute to Francisco Varela, Paris,04/06/18-20

  7th
Intl Conf on Linking Systems Thinking, Innovation,Quality, Entrepreneurship
and Environment
(STIQE),
MARIBOR, SLOVENIA, 04/06/24-26


NAACSOS 2004, North American Association for Computational Social and
Organizational Science,
Pittsburgh PA, 04/06/27-29


Statphys - Kolkata V An International Conference on Complex Networks:
Structure, Function and
Processes , Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30


ICAD 2004 10th International Conference on Auditory Display, Sydney,
Australia, 04/07/06-09


3rd Intl School Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics Discrete Dynamical Systems and
Applications , Urbino
(Italy), 04/07/07-09

  `Perspectives on Nonlinear Dynamics 2004 (PNLD-2004), Chennai, India,
04/07/12-15

  From Animals To Animats
  8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior
  (SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17

  14th Annual International Conference The Society for Chaos Theory in
Psychology & Life Sciences ,
Milwaukee, WI, USA, 04/07/15-18


Facing Complexity, Wellington, NZ, 04/07/15-17

  Gordon Research Conference on "Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities In
Chemical Systems",
Lewiston, ME, 04/07/18-23

  3rd
Intl Conf Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2004),
New York City,
04/07/19-23

7th
Intl Workshop on: Trust in Agent Societies , New York City, 04/07/19-20

  8th
  World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
  Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21

  2004
  Summer Simulation MultiConference (SummerSim'04), San Jose
  Hyatt, San Jose, California, 04/07/25-29

  SME 2004 Symposium on Modeling
  and Control of Economic Systems , University in Redlands, CA, 04/01/28-31

  6th
  International Mathematica Symposium (IMS 2004), Banff,
  Canada, 04/08/02-06

   Fractals and Natural Hazards at
32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28


ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, ,
Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01

  ANTS
  2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony
  Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium,
  04/09/05-08

  Dynamic
  Ontology, An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of Reality,
  and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy,
  04/09/08-11

  9th
  Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems
  (ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15

  The
Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18

  The
  8th Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature
  (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22

  XVII Brazilian
  Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao -
  Brazil, 04/09/22-24

   TEDMED Conference ,
Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15

  Wolfram
  Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois,
  04/10/21-23

  6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce
ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape,  Delft, The Netherlands,
04/10/25-27

   Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference ,  Rio de Janeiro,
04/11






_________________________________________________________________

20.03.01. Strategic Thinking in a Complex World , Smithsonian Resident
Associates Program




Recognizing the world as one vast interconnected system is essential to
understanding the level of
complexity in today  global environment.


This course is designed to give you a working knowledge of complexity
science, and to show how to
apply insights from the new science to your life and work, and to world events.

* Strategic Thinking in a Complex World, T. Irene Sanders  , David Rejeski
, 04/05/01-22,
Smithsonian Resident Associates Program



_________________________________________________________________
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