----- Forwarded message from Complexity Digest Distribution
<comdig@...> -----

From: Complexity Digest Distribution <comdig@...>
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:57:57 +0800
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;@...
Subject: Complexity Digest 2007.11 (text version -2)
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3028


Complexity Digest 2007.11

Archive: [1]http://www.comdig.org, European Mirror: [2]http://www.comdig.de

[1] http://www.comdig.org/
[2] http://www.comdig.de/

Asian Mirror: [3]http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/ (Chinese
GB-Code)

[3] http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/

"I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen
Hawking, 2000
_________________________________________________________________

01. Is The Universe A Fractal?, New Scientist
01.01. Searching For The Dark Side, NY Times
02. Connections: Control Without Hierarchy, Nature
02.01. Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems, Cogprints
03. Start-Up Fervor Shifts to Energy in Silicon Valley, NY Times
04. Augmented Reality, Technology Review
04.01. Animation Tool Puts You In The Frame, Or The Game, New Scientist
05. Neuron Control, Technology Review
06. Odor Cues During Slow-Wave Sleep Prompt Declarative Memory Consolidation,
Science
06.01. Neuroscience: Hunting for Meaning After Midnight, Science
06.02. Biological Basis For Teenage Mood Swings Found, Medical News Today
06.03. Scriptural Violence Can Foster Aggression, Nature
07. To Buy Or Not To Buy: What You Decide Affects How You'll Feel Next Time,
Innovations-report
07.01. Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark On The Brain, ScienceDaily
08. Evolutionary Biology: The Elvis Paradox, Nature
08.01. Evidence Of 'Mafia' Behavior In Cowbirds: "The Sopranos" Have Some
Competition, Innovations-report
08.02. Prey Synchronize Their Vigilant Behaviour With Other Group Members,
Proc. Biol. Sc.
08.03. Social Tolerance Allows Bonobos To Outperform Chimpanzees On A
Cooperative Task, ScienceDaily
09. Evolution of Robustness to Noise and Mutation in Gene Expression Dynamics,
arXiv
09.01. Yacht Voyage Yields Array Of New Genes, Boston.com
10. Evolution: Robot Suggests How The First Land Animals Got Walking, Science
10.01. Robo-salamander Goes Swimming, News@Nature
10.02. From Swimming To Walking With A Salamander Robot Driven By A Spinal Cord
Model, Science
11. Robot That Roams The Body To Seek And Destroy Cancer, Daily Mail
12. Living Long On Less? Mouse And Human Cells Respond To Slim Diets, Science
News
12.01. Cocoa Nutrient For 'Lethal Ills', BBC News
13. Far More Mutations Than Thought Involved In Cancer
14. Meteorology: A Dose Of Dust That Quieted An Entire Hurricane Season?,
Science
14.01. Inverse Relations Between Amounts Of Air Pollution And Orographic
Precipitation, Science
15. Not-So-Perma Frost - Warming Climate Is Taking Its Toll On Subterranean
Ice, Science News
16. Superconductivity Two Decades On, Nature
16.01. Room-Temperature Quantum Hall Effect In Graphene, Science
17. Materials Science: Silicon Life Forms, Nature
17.01. Applied Physics: Oxide Electronics Emerge, Science
17.02. Gold Nanorods Assemble Themselves Into Rings, EurekAlert
18. A Smarter Web, Technology Review
18.01. Peering into Video's Future, Technology Review
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. US Struggles To Ensure Funds Aid Fight Against Bioterrorism, Boston.com
19.02. Governing Terror: The State Of Emergency Of Biopolitical Emergence, Int.
Poli. Sociol.
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference Announcements
20.04. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements

_________________________________________________________________

01. Is The Universe A Fractal? , New Scientist

Excerpts: A researcher at the Meudon Observatory in Paris, Nottale set out to
extend Einstein's principle of relativity - in which the laws of physics remain
the same regardless of the motion of an observer - to a theory in which the law
s
of physics would remain the same regardless of the scale at which the universe
is being observed. He found that the underlying space-time of such a theory
would have to be fractal.

* [4] Is The Universe A Fractal?, Amanda Gefter, 07/03/09, New Scientist

[4]
http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19325941.600;jsessionid=CBHFDLNNGGCD

_________________________________________________________________

01.01. Searching For The Dark Side , NY Times

Excerpts: Spiral Galaxy ESO 269-57. (European Southern Observatory) It
would be tidier, somehow, to lose the enigmatic dark matter, and exciting to
discover a successor to Einstein's relativity. As George Bernard Shaw said in
1930, ˇ§Ptolomy invented a universe and it lasted 2000 years. Newton invented a
universe and it lasted 200 years. Now Dr. Einstein has invented a new universe,
and no one knows how long this one is going to last.ˇ¨

* [5] Searching For The Dark Side, Chris Lintott, 07/03/11, NYTimes

[5] http://acrosstheuniverse.blogs.nytimes.com/?th&emc=th

_________________________________________________________________

02. Connections: Control Without Hierarchy , Nature

Excerpts: Understanding how particular natural systems operate without central
control will reveal whether such systems share general properties. Because most
of the dynamic systems that we design, from machines to governments, are based
on hierarchical control, it is difficult to imagine a system in which the parts
use only local information and the whole thing directs itself. To explain how
biological systems operate without central control ˇX embryos, brains and
social-insect colonies are familiar examples ˇX we often fall back on metaphors
from our own products, such as blueprints and programmes.

* [6] Connections: Control Without Hierarchy, Deborah M. Gordon, 07/03/08, DOI:
10.1038/446143a, Nature 446, 143

[6] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7132/full/446143a.html

_________________________________________________________________

02.01. Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems , Cogprints

Excerpt: Complex systems are usually difficult to design and control. There are
several particular methods for coping with complexity, but there is no general
approach to build complex systems. In this thesis I propose a methodology to
aid engineers in the design and control of complex systems. This is based on
the description of systems as self-organizing.(...)

* [7] Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems, [8] Carlos Gershenson,
2007/03/07, Cogprints. PhD Thesis, Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary
Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
* Contributed by [9] Carlos Gershenson

[7] http://cogprints.org/5442/
[8] http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/
[9] http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/

_________________________________________________________________

03. Start-Up Fervor Shifts to Energy in Silicon Valley , NY Times

Excerpts: It is no secret that venture capitalists have begun pouring billions
into energy-related start-ups with names like SunPower, Nanosolar and
Lilliputian Systems. (...) The same silicon used to make computer chips
converts sunlight into electricity on solar panels, while the bioscience used
to make new drugs can be employed to develop better ethanol processing.

* [10] Start-Up Fervor Shifts to Energy in Silicon Valley, Matt Richtel,
07/03/14, NYTimes

[10] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/technology/14valley.html

_________________________________________________________________

04. Augmented Reality , Technology Review

Excerpts: Boxes appear on the phone's screen, highlighting known businesses
and landmarks, such as the Empire State Building. The user can click one of
these boxes to download information about that location from the Web. In
Nokia's mobile-augmented-reality prototype, a user can point a phone's camera
at a nearby building; the system calculates the building's location and uses
that information to identify it. Credit: Jean Probert The team added a GPS
sensor, a compass, and accelerometers to a Nokia smart phone. Using data from
these sensors, the phone can calculate the location of just about any object
its camera is aimed at. Each time the phone changes location, it retrieves the
names and geographical co?rdinates of nearby landmarks from an external
database. The user can then download additional information about a chosen
location from the Web--say, the names of businesses in the Empire State
Building, the cost of visiting the building's observatories, or hours and menus
for its five eateries.

* [11] Augmented Reality, Erika Jonietz, 07/03/12, Technology Review

[11] http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18291/

_________________________________________________________________

04.01. Animation Tool Puts You In The Frame, Or The Game , New Scientist

Excerpts: The movements of an actor (left) can be pasted onto detailed
laser scans of other people (right) (Image: Edilson de Aguiar/Max Planck
Institute for Computer Science A 3D animation technique that could take the
hard work out of acting has been developed by German researchers. It allows a
high-resolution 3D scan of one person to be pasted on to another person's
movements. (...) They can directly animate 3D laser scans of people using the
motion of another individual collected using motion capture or using the
pre-programmed motion of another character. The scans can be taken in less than
a minute and are accurate to millimetres.

* [12] Animation Tool Puts You In The Frame, Or The Game, Tom Simonite,
07/03/12, NewScientist.com

[12]
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11363-animation-tool-puts-you-in-the-
frame-or-the-game.html

_________________________________________________________________

05. Neuron Control , Technology Review

Excerpts: Credit: Elaine Kurie Karl Deisseroth's genetically engineered
"light switch," which lets scientists turn selected parts of the brain on and
off, may help improve treatments for depression and other disorders. (...)
Intensive treatments, such as electro?convulsive therapy, can literally save
such patients' lives, but often at the cost of memory loss, headaches, and
other serious side effects. Deisseroth, who is both a physician and a
bioengineer, thinks he has a better way: an elegant new method for controlling
neural cells with flashes of light.

* [13] Neuron Control, Emily Singer, 07/03/12, Technology Review

[13] http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/18289/

_________________________________________________________________

06. Odor Cues During Slow-Wave Sleep Prompt Declarative Memory Consolidation ,
Science

Excerpts: In humans, a new memory formed in the presence of an odor is
consolidated faster when the odor is used to induce neural activity in the
hippocampus during subsequent sleep. Sleep facilitates memory consolidation. A
widely held model assumes that this is because newly encoded memories undergo
covert reactivation during sleep. We cued new memories in humans during sleep
by presenting an odor that had been presented as context during prior learning,
and so showed that reactivation indeed causes memory consolidation during sleep
.

* [14] Odor Cues During Slow-Wave Sleep Prompt Declarative Memory
Consolidation, Bj?rn Rasch, Christian B?chel, Steffen Gais, Jan Born,
07/03/09, Science : 1426-1429.

[14] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5817/1426

_________________________________________________________________

06.01. Neuroscience: Hunting for Meaning After Midnight , Science

Excerpts: Once the volunteers entered slow-wave sleep, the researchers gave
some of them a puff of rose-scented air. They'd previously given some of the
subjects a whiff of rose during their initial training session with the cards,
reasoning that the odor would reactivate memories of the training session in
these subjects without waking them. Indeed, functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) scans in sleeping subjects revealed that the odor activated the
hippocampus in those who had experienced it previously, even though the EEG
showed no disruptions in the subjects' slumber.

* [15] Neuroscience: Hunting for Meaning After Midnight, Greg Miller, 07/03/09,
Science : 1360-1363.

[15] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5817/1360

_________________________________________________________________

06.02. Biological Basis For Teenage Mood Swings Found , Medical News Today

Excerpts: A new US study has revealed that teenage mood swings may be explained
by biological changes in the adolescent brain. (...) Mood swings and anxiety,
often caused by stress, are well known characteristics of puberty. A
physiologist at the State University of New York, Sheryl Smith, and her
research colleagues experimented on female adolescent mice and showed that
their brains respond to stress in a different way to adults and pre-pubescent
individuals.

* [16] Biological Basis For Teenage Mood Swings Found, 07/03/12, Medical News
Today

[16] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=65035

_________________________________________________________________

06.03. Scriptural Violence Can Foster Aggression , Nature

Excerpts: Elements of religious texts seem to inspire bad behaviour.(...) But
for both groups = whether the students were based in the Netherlands or the
United States, and believed in God or not - the trend was the same: those who
were told that God had sanctioned the violence against the Israelite were more
likely to act aggressively in the subsequent exercise. (...) "People often use
God as a justification for committing violent acts," (...).

* [17] Scriptural Violence Can Foster Aggression, Heidi Ledford, 07/03/08, DOI:
10.1038/446114b, Nature 446, 114-115

[17] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7132/full/446114b.html

_________________________________________________________________

07. To Buy Or Not To Buy: What You Decide Affects How You'll Feel Next Time ,
Innovations-report

Excerpts: Consumers spend substantial proportions of their expenditures on
products they had not intended to buy. Correspondingly, marketers spend
billions of dollars every year trying to create moments of purchase
serendipity. But how do consumers feel after they've been confronted with
temptation? A new article (...) investigates the mixed emotions that result
from unexpected shopping opportunities - such as surprise sales - and explores
whether these emotions affect our response to tempting offers in the future.
(...) People felt happy and a little guilty when they bought the item. When
they resisted the impulse purchase, they were proud. (...)

* [18] To Buy Or Not To Buy: What You Decide Affects How You'll Feel Next Time,
2007/03/09, Innovations-report
* Contributed by [19] Atin Das

[18] http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/studies/report-80529.html
[19] mailto:dasatin@...

_________________________________________________________________

07.01. Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark On The Brain , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: University College London researchers have found the first
physiological evidence that invisible subliminal images do attract the brain's
attention on a subconscious level. (...) subliminal advertising, now banned in
the UK but still legal in the USA, certainly do leave their mark on the brain.
Using fMRI, the study looked at whether an image you aren't aware of -- but one
that reaches the retina -- has an impact on brain activity in the primary visua
l
cortex, part of the occipital lobe. Subjects' brains did respond to the object
even when they were not conscious of having seen it. (...)

* [20] Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark On The Brain, 2007/03/09,
ScienceDaily & University College London
* Contributed by [21] Atin Das

[20] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308121938.htm
[21] mailto:dasatin@...

_________________________________________________________________

08. Evolutionary Biology: The Elvis Paradox , Nature

Excerpts: Evidence for a universal driver of evolution across all timescales
could mean that the venerable paradox of stasis is dead. (...) Estes and
Arnold1 evaluate the degree to which six evolutionary models fit the observed
data. All of these models are based on 'adaptive landscapes' ˇX an analytical
framework that relates mean phenotypes (mean body size, for instance) to the
expected mean fitness (that is, number of offspring) of a population (Box 1).
Evolution on such landscapes tends towards 'hill climbing', where the mean
phenotype of the population moves towards that which maximizes population
fitness (a local fitness peak)8, 9.

* [22] Evolutionary Biology: The Elvis Paradox, Andrew Hendry, 07/03/08, DOI:
10.1038/446147a, Nature 446, 147-149

[22] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7132/full/446147a.html

_________________________________________________________________

08.01. Evidence Of 'Mafia' Behavior In Cowbirds: "The Sopranos" Have Some
Competition , Innovations-report

Excerpts: Cowbirds have long been known to lay eggs in the nests of other
birds, which then raise the cowbirds' young as their own. Sneaky, perhaps, but
not Scarface. Now, (...) study finds that cowbirds actually ransack and destroy
the nests of warblers that don't buy into the ruse and raise their young. (...)
"It's the female cowbirds who are running the mafia racket at our study site,"
said Hoover(...). "Our study shows many of them returned and ransacked the nest
when we removed the parasitic egg." (...)

* [23] UF Study First To Document Evidence Of 'Mafia' Behavior In Cowbirds:
"The Sopranos" Have Some Competition -- Brown-Headed Cowbirds., 2007/03/07,
Innovations-report
* Contributed by [24] Atin Das

[23] http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/studies/report-80323.html
[24] mailto:dasatin@...

_________________________________________________________________

08.02. Prey Synchronize Their Vigilant Behaviour With Other Group Members ,
Proc. Biol. Sc.

Excerpt: It is generally assumed that an individual of a prey species can
benefit from an increase in the number of its group's members by reducing its
own investment in vigilance. But what behaviour should group members adopt in
relation to both the risk of being preyed upon and the individual investment in
vigilance? Most models assume that individuals scan independently of one
another. (...) Our results confirmed that the proportion of time an individual
spent in vigilance decreased with group size. However, the time during which at
least one individual in the group scanned the environment (collective vigilance
)
increased. (...)

* [25] Prey Synchronize Their Vigilant Behaviour With Other Group Members, O.
Pays , P.-C. Renaud , P. Loisel , M. Petit , J.-F. Gerard , P. J. Jarman,
2007/03/06, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.0204, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences
* Contributed by [26] Atin Das

[25]
http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/(e3gyegaq4a2ora55jph5dk45)/app/home/contribu
tion.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,3,21;journal,1,321;linkingpublicationresu
lts,1:102024,1
[26] mailto:dasatin@...

_________________________________________________________________

08.03. Social Tolerance Allows Bonobos To Outperform Chimpanzees On A
Cooperative Task , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: In experiments designed to deepen our understanding of how
cooperative behavior evolves, researchers have found that bonobos, a
particularly sociable relative of the chimpanzee, are more successful than
chimpanzees at cooperating to retrieve food, even though chimpanzees exhibit
strong cooperative hunting behavior in the wild. The work suggests that some
social tendencies or emotions that are adaptive under certain
circumstances--such as aggression during competition for mates--can hinder the
potential for problem solving under other circumstances, such as sharing of a
food resource. (...)

* [27] Social Tolerance Allows Bonobos To Outperform Chimpanzees On A
Cooperative Task, 2007/03/09, ScienceDaily & Cell Press
* Contributed by [28] Atin Das

[27] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308121928.htm
[28] mailto:dasatin@...

_________________________________________________________________

09. Evolution of Robustness to Noise and Mutation in Gene Expression Dynamics ,
arXiv

Excerpt: Phenotype of biological systems needs to be robust against mutation in
order to sustain themselves between generations. On the other hand, phenotype o
f
an individual also needs to be robust against fluctuations of both internal and
external origins that are encountered during growth and development. Is there a
relationship between these two types of robustness, one during a single
generation and the other during evolution? Could stochasticity in gene
expression have any relevance to the evolution of these robustness? (...)

* [29] Evolution of Robustness to Noise and Mutation in Gene Expression
Dynamics, Kunihiko Kaneko, 2007/03/01, DOI: q-bio.PE/0703005, arXiv
* Contributed by [30] Carlos Gershenson

[29] http://uk.arXiv.org/abs/q-bio.PE/0703005
[30] http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/

_________________________________________________________________

09.01. Yacht Voyage Yields Array Of New Genes , Boston.com

Excerpts: A yacht voyage that genome pioneer Craig Venter took around the world
has turned up a startling array of new genes and new gene families, his team
reported yesterday. They have found genes that help microbes use the sun's
energy in new ways, genes that help them use nitrogen, and genes that protect
organisms from ultraviolet light, they reported. Writing in the Public Library
of Science Journal PLoS Biology, Venter's team said they had identified more
than 6 million new proteins.

* [31] Yacht Voyage Yields Array Of New Genes, Maggie Fox, 07/03/14,
Reuters/Boston.com

[31]
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/14/yacht_voyage_y
ields_array_of_new_genes/

_________________________________________________________________

10. Evolution: Robot Suggests How The First Land Animals Got Walking , Science

Excerpts: Salamandra robotica is a triathlete. She walks. She crawls. She
swims. One of very few robots capable of multiple modes of locomotion, this
salamanderlike machine has demonstrated that it may have been relatively easy
for early animals to take their first steps on land. From a neurological
perspective, inducing a transition from swimming to walking is unexpectedly
straightforward, explains Auke Ijspeert, a physicist at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

* [32] Evolution: Robot Suggests How The First Land Animals Got Walking,
Elizabeth Pennisi, 07/03/09, Science : 1352-1353.

[32] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5817/1352a

_________________________________________________________________

10.01. Robo-salamander Goes Swimming , News@Nature

Excerpt: A. Herzog / Biologically Inspired Robotics Group, EPFL Auke
Jan Ijspeert (...) and his team made the robot to help test their theories on
the evolution of walking: that famous moment when the first 'fish' scurried up
onto land. The robotic creature helps to confirm their notion that the
transition between swimming and walking can be quite simple.

* [33] Robo-salamander Goes Swimming, Emma Marris, 2007/03/08, DOI:
10.1038/Robo-salamander Goes Swimming, News@Nature
* VIDEO - [34] Robo-salamander crawling into the sea.
* Contributed by [35] Carlos Gershenson

[33] http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070305/pf/070305-9_pf.html
[34] http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070305/multimedia/070305-9.mpg
[35] http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/

_________________________________________________________________

10.02. From Swimming To Walking With A Salamander Robot Driven By A Spinal Cord
Model , Science

Excerpts: Ijspeert's group developed a mathematical model of this transition,
from which they concluded that the limbs' central pattern generator interfered
with the other neural network's ability to set up the S-waves. This
interference produced the slower body bending necessary for walking. Only when
the limb's central pattern generator was shut down was the salamander's other
network of nerve cells free to fire as fast as needed to generate swimming or,
on land, crawling.

* [36] From Swimming To Walking With A Salamander Robot Driven By A Spinal Cord
Model, Auke Jan Ijspeert, Alessandro Crespi, Dimitri Ryczko, Jean-Marie
Cabelguen, 07/03/09, DOI: 10.1126/science.1138353, Science 315 (5817), 1416

[36] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;315/5817/1416

_________________________________________________________________

11. Robot That Roams The Body To Seek And Destroy Cancer , Daily Mail

Excerpts: The robot measures 2cm in length by 1cm in diameter and can
deliver drugs, collect data and treat affected body parts with a range of
different attachments The idea of a beetle moving around inside your body
may be the stuff of horror films. But scientists believe an insect-shaped robot
could be a major weapon in the fight against cancer. The device, just under an
inch long, is designed to be inserted into the body through a small incision.
Once inside, doctors can control its movements and direct it to areas where
investigations are needed.

* [37] Robot That Roams The Body To Seek And Destroy Cancer, 07/03/09, Daily
Mail

[37]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_ar
ticle_id=440948&in_page_id=1774&ito=1490/

_________________________________________________________________

12. Living Long On Less? Mouse And Human Cells Respond To Slim Diets , Science
News

Excerpts: Scientists have known since the 1930s that mice and other animals
live 30 to 50 percent longer when placed on a diet that's low in calories yet
nutritionally complete. (...) During the 6-month study, participants in both
calorie-restricted groups showed a 20 to 35 percent increase in the number of
mitochondria in their muscle cells and a 60 percent decrease in DNA damage. The
mitochondria appeared to become more youthful and efficient.

* [38] Living Long On Less? Mouse And Human Cells Respond To Slim Diets,
Patrick L. Barry, 07/03/10, Science News

[38] http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070310/fob1.asp

_________________________________________________________________

12.01. Cocoa Nutrient For 'Lethal Ills' , BBC News

Excerpts: Natural cocoa has a bitter taste A nutrient in cocoa called
epicatechin appears to lower the risk of four common killer diseases, work
suggests. (...) Epicatechin, a type of flavonoid, is also found in teas, wine,
chocolate and some fruit and vegetables. One of its actions is thought to be
through elevating levels of nitric oxide in the blood, which helps relax the
blood vessels and improves blood flow.

* [39] Cocoa Nutrient For 'Lethal Ills', Michelle Roberts, 07/03/11, BBC News

[39] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6430777.stm

_________________________________________________________________

13. Far More Mutations Than Thought Involved In Cancer

Excerpts: Far more mutations than thought involved in cancer A magnified
(20x) stained section of a clear cell renal cancer. A painstaking scan of the
DNA of tumor cells shows hundreds of previously unsuspected genes are involved
in cancer, researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that offers new ways to
fight the disease. REUTERS/Dr Bin Teh, Van Andel Research Institute/Handout
"This is a lot larger number of cancer genes than we really expected to find,"
added the Sanger Institute's Dr. Andrew Futreal, who also worked on the study,
published in this week's issue of the journal Nature. "I would have guessed it
would have been no more than 10, probably, given what we knew." The researchers
chose a family of genes that are known to be involved in cancer, the kinases.
Kinases are the basis of some of the new targeted cancer therapies that have
had stunning results in a small number of patients.

* [40] Far More Mutations Than Thought Involved In Cancer, 07/03/07, Scientific
American

[40]
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=960C30FA8429C4BEDEE945D
0896D2351

_________________________________________________________________

14. Meteorology: A Dose Of Dust That Quieted An Entire Hurricane Season? ,
Science

Excerpts: The 2006 season was normal, and no hurricanes came anywhere near the
United States or the Caribbean. Now two climatologists are suggesting that dust
blown across the Atlantic from the Sahara was pivotal in the busted forecasts.
The dust seems to have suppressed storm activity over the southwestern North
Atlantic and Caribbean by blocking some energizing sunlight, they say. (...)
But, unremarked by forecasters, an unusually heavy surge of dust began blowing
off North Africa and into the western Atlantic at the 1 June beginning of the
official hurricane season.

* [41] Meteorology: A Dose Of Dust That Quieted An Entire Hurricane Season?,
Richard A. Kerr, 07/03/09, Science : 1351.

[41] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5817/1351a

_________________________________________________________________

14.01. Inverse Relations Between Amounts Of Air Pollution And Orographic
Precipitation , Science

Excerpts: Measurements over several decades in central China show that air
pollution has dramatically reduced precipitation from ascending air masses in
hilly regions. Particulate air pollution has been suggested as the cause of
the recently observed decreasing trends of 10 to 25% in the ratio between hilly
and upwind lowland precipitation, downwind of urban and industrial areas. We
quantified the dependence of this ratio of the orographic-precipitation
enhancement factor on the amounts of aerosols composed mostly of pollution in
the free troposphere, based on measurements at Mt. Hua near Xi'an, in central
China.

* [42] Inverse Relations Between Amounts Of Air Pollution And Orographic
Precipitation, Daniel Rosenfeld, Jin Dai, Xing Yu, Zhanyu Yao, Xiaohong Xu,
Xing Yang, Chuanli Du, 07/03/09, Science : 1396-1398.

[42] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5817/1396

_________________________________________________________________

15. Not-So-Perma Frost - Warming Climate Is Taking Its Toll On Subterranean Ice
, Science News

Excerpts: TOP VIEW. Permafrost, depicted in various shades of purple,
underlies about one-fourth of the Northern Hemisphere's land area. The darker
the purple, the greater the percentage of local landscape that permafrost
underlies. Intl. Permafrost Assn. and P. Rekacewicz/UNEP/GRID-Arendal
Permafrost serves as a stable foundation for much of the Arctic's
infrastructure, including pipelines, roads, buildings, and bridges. In many
areas, that frozen ground also contains huge amounts of organic material, which
could readily decompose and send carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the
atmosphere if the permafrost thaws (...) Whatever the rate of permafrost loss,
Earth's rapidly warming climate will continue to gnaw at the long-frozen soil
that serves as the bedrock of the Arctic. The carbon dioxide that will probably
be released in the process will only tend to accelerate the permafrost's
disappearance.

* [43] Not-So-Perma Frost - Warming Climate Is Taking Its Toll On Subterranean
Ice, Sid Perkins, 07/03/10, Science News

[43] http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070310/bob10.asp

_________________________________________________________________

16. Superconductivity Two Decades On , Nature

Excerpts: And the scientific field has also slowed. Although more than 100
superconducting cuprate materials have been discovered, the record for
superconductivity remains at 164 K, about halfway between absolute zero and
room temperature. The theoretical understanding of the material is incomplete
as well, says physicist Douglas Scalapino of the University of California,
Santa Barbara. Although many researchers believe that electrons pairs underlie
superconductivity even in these new materials, no one knows how the electrons
bind together. "We don't understand what causes it," he says.

* [44] Superconductivity Two Decades On, Geoff Brumfiel, 07/03/08, DOI:
10.1038/446120a, Nature 446, 120

[44] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7132/full/446120a.html

_________________________________________________________________

16.01. Room-Temperature Quantum Hall Effect In Graphene , Science

Excerpts: The quantum Hall effect, usually seen near 0 degrees kelvin, occurs
at room temperature within single graphene sheets, in which the charge carriers
behave as massive relativistic particles. (...) This is due to the highly
unusual nature of charge carriers in graphene, which behave as massless
relativistic particles (Dirac fermions) and move with little scattering under
ambient conditions (5, 6).

* [45] Room-Temperature Quantum Hall Effect In Graphene, K. S. Novoselov, Z.
Jiang, Y. Zhang, S. V. Morozov, H. L. Stormer, U. Zeitler, J. C. Maan, G.
S. Boebinger, P. Kim, A. K. Geim, 07/03/09, DOI: 10.1126/science.1137201,
Science : 1379.

[45] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5817/1379

_________________________________________________________________

17. Materials Science: Silicon Life Forms , Nature

Excerpts: A simple chemical reduction process has been used to replicate
intricate natural networks of silica at a relatively low temperature. The
equally elaborate product is made of silicon = electronics' golden boy. On page
172 of this issue, Bao et al.5 provide a powerful new tool for modifying
biologically derived or inspired materials. They show how intricate glass
skeletons, obtained from common algae, can be converted into silicon while
maintaining their complex structure. Silicon is arguably the 'gold standard'
among electronic materials, and this approach is akin to the magic touch of a
modern Midas.

* [46] Materials Science: Silicon Life Forms, David J. Norris, 07/03/08, DOI:
10.1038/446146a, Nature 446, 146-147

[46] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7132/full/446146a.html

_________________________________________________________________

17.01. Applied Physics: Oxide Electronics Emerge , Science

Excerpts: Emergent phenomena ( [47] 2, [48] 3) in condensed matter cannot be
understood in terms of simple interactions between pairs of particles. Examples
of such phenomena are magnetic excitations in low-dimensional materials,
superconductivity in "heavy electron" magnets, and fractionally charged
particles in a two-dimensional electron gas. A traditional route to
understanding these kinds of emergent states is to create them in new
materials. In this way, one can study states with different characteristics and
either test theoretical descriptions of such states or realize entirely new
states of matter.

* [49] Applied Physics: Oxide Electronics Emerge, Arthur P. Ramirez, 07/03/09,
DOI: 10.1126/science.1138578, Science 315 (5817), 1377

[47] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;315/5817/1377#ref2
[48] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;315/5817/1377#ref3
[49] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;315/5817/1377

_________________________________________________________________

17.02. Gold Nanorods Assemble Themselves Into Rings , EurekAlert

Excerpts: Rice University chemists have discovered that tiny building blocks
known as gold nanorods spontaneously assemble themselves into ring-like
superstructures. This finding, which will be published as the inside cover
article of the March 19 international edition of the chemistry journal
Angewandte Chemie, could potentially lead to the development of novel
nanodevices like highly sensitive optical sensors, superlenses, and even
invisible objects for use in the military.

* [50] Gold Nanorods Assemble Themselves Into Rings, B.J. Almond,
balmond@..., 07/03/08, EurekAlert

[50] http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/ru-gna030907.php

_________________________________________________________________

18. A Smarter Web , Technology Review

Excerpts: Already, these techniques are helping developers stitch together
complex applications or bring once- inaccessible data sources online. Semantic
Web tools now in use improve and automate database searches, helping people
choose vacation destinations or sort through complicated financial data more
efficiently. It may be years before the Web is populated by truly intelligent
software agents automatically doing our bidding, but their precursors are
helping people find better answers to questions today.(...)

* [51] A Smarter Web, John Borland, 07/03/12, Technology Review

[51] http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18306/

_________________________________________________________________

18.01. Peering into Video's Future , Technology Review

Excerpts: In P2P networks, by contrast, there are no central servers: each
user's PC exchanges data with many others in an ever-shifting mesh. This means
that servers and their overtaxed network connections bear less of a burden;
data is instead provided by peers, saving bandwidth in the Internet's core. If
one user leaves the mesh, others can easily fill the gap. And adding users
actually increases a P2P network's power.

* [52] Peering into Video's Future, Wade Roush, 07/03/12, Technology Review

[52] http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18284/

_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks





_________________________________________________________________

19.01. US Struggles To Ensure Funds Aid Fight Against Bioterrorism , Boston.com

Excerpts: More than five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the
government cannot show how the $5 billion given to public health departments
has better prepared the country for a bioterrorism attack or flu pandemic.
Congress responded to the 2001 strikes and anthrax-tainted letters sent to
lawmakers by putting much more money toward emergency preparedness. State
health departments typically get tens of millions of dollars per year to
prepare for bioterrorism; it was in the hundreds of thousands before Sept. 11,
2001.

* [53] US Struggles To Ensure Funds Aid Fight Against Bioterrorism, 07/03/11,
Boston.com

[53]
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/11/us_struggles_t
o_ensure_funds_aid_fight_against_bioterrorism/

_________________________________________________________________

19.02. Governing Terror: The State Of Emergency Of Biopolitical Emergence ,
Int. Poli. Sociol.

Excerpt: This paper argues that western security practices are as biopolitical
as they are geopolitical. Explaining that biopolitical security practices
revolve around "life" as species existence, the paper explores how
biopoliticized security practices secure by instantiating a general economy of
the contingent throughout all the processes of reproductive circulation that
impinge upon species existence. For this reason, "Governing Terror" does not
merely reference the massive global security effort that is now devoted to
governing terror. It observes how western security practices are themselves now
also governed by a widespread fear of terror. (...)

* [54] Governing Terror: The State Of Emergency Of Biopolitical Emergence, M.
Dillon, Mar. 2007, DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-5687.2007.00002.x, International
Political Sociology
* Contributed by [55] Pritha Das

[54] http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-5687.2007.00002.x
[55] mailto:prithadas01@...

_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets





_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications




- Algorithmic Information Theory: a Brief Non-technical Guide to the Field,
2007/03/06, arXiv, DOI: cs.IT/0703024
- Bill Gates 'Anxious' About US Tech Leadership: Maintaining US Technology
Competitiveness Requires More Tech Workers, 2007/03/08, vnunet.com
- Worldwide Surfers Hit 747m In January: Global Internet Audience Up 10 Per
Cent, 2007/03/07, vnunet.com
- Human Pubic Lice Acquired From Gorillas Gives Evolutionary Clues, 2007/03/08,
Innovations-report
- On Detection Of Multi-Band Chaotic Attractors, 2007/03/06, Proceedings A:
Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2007.1826
- Radial Structure Of The Internet, 2007/02/13, Proceedings A: Mathematical,
Physical and Engineering Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2007.1820
- Rats Capable Of Reflecting On Mental Processes, 2007/03/09, ScienceDaily &
University of Georgia
- Climate Change: Could It Be Random?, 2007/03/09, ScienceDaily & Salk
Institute
- The Halfway House: Democracy, Complexity, And The Limits To Markets In Green
Political Economy, Feb. 2007, Environmental Politics, DOI:
10.1080/09644010601073648
- Motivation, Emotion, And Their Inhibitory Control Mirrored In Brain
Oscillations, 2006/12/04, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, DOI:
10.1016/j.neubiorev.2006.10.004
- The Supermarket Revolution In Developing Countries: Policies To Address
Emerging Tensions Among Supermarkets, Suppliers And Traditional Retailers, Dec.
2006, The European Journal of Development Research, DOI:
10.1080/09578810601070613
- Mafia Cowbirds: Do They Muscle Birds That Don't Play Ball? , 07/03/10,
Science News,
A new test offers the best evidence yet that cowbirds retaliate against birds
that resist their egg scams.


_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements



[56] World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 07/01/24-28


TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006


Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de
Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03

Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006,
Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05

6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30


Artificial Life X,
10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington,
IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07


6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18

Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
[57] An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
[58]
Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25

[59]
Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming
Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23

[60]
Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14

[61]
ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life,
Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9

[62]
T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, [63] The Washington Center
for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), [64]
Podcast


[65] North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity
2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida,
05/06/09-11

[66] Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and
Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC,
05/05/16-19

[67] 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

[68]
1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7


>From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela
(1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20



Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium,
04/05/26-28


International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21


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



[56]
http://gaia.world-television.com/wef/worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2007/Targe
t=new
[57] http://www.complexsys.org/news.htm target=new
[58] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05ISF/index.html target=new
[59] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/ONCECS05/ target=new
[60] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/CSS05/ target=new
[61] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/ECAL2005/ target=new
[62] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/Sanders0508/Sanders0508.mov target=new
[63] http://www.complexsys.org/ target=new
[64] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/Sanders0508/Sanders.mp3
[65] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05NASPSA/ target=new
[66] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05UCS/ target=new
[67] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/Nicolis05/Target=new
[68] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/ECCS04/Target=new

_________________________________________________________________

20.03. Conference Announcements





Unconventional Computation: Quo Vadis?, Santa Fe, NM, 07/03/20-23



Complex Social Systems Course
at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United
Kingdom, 07/03/20-28


NEXUS for Change, Bowling Green, Ohio, 07/03/22-23



Intl Conf on Morphological Computation, Venice, Italy, 07/03/26-28



Narrative Techniques for Business, Seattle, 07/03/26, Boston, 07/03/29



American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2007 Conference,
Urbana IL, 07/03/29-04/01




Storytelling and Complexity in Human Systems, Las Vegas, NV, USA,
07/03/31-04/01


4th Lake Arrowhead Conference on Human Complex Systems,
Lake Arrowhead, CA, 07/04/25-29



Intl Conf on Morphological Computation, Venice Italy, 07/03/26-28



Capturing Business Complexity with Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation
Useful, Usable, and Used Techniques - A Course on Business Applications,
Argonne Natl Lab, Woodridge, IL, 07/04/16-20

Complexity and Organizational Resilience
,
The Village, Pohnpei, Micronesia, 07/05



9th GEF -The World Festival of Creativity in Schools, Sanremo ITALY,
07/05/02-06



UCS 2007 - Understanding Complex Systems, Urbana-Champaign, Ill, 07/05/14-17



Intl Conf On Network Science, 2007 (NetSCi07),
New York City, 07/05/20-25

2nd Intl Conf on Built Environment Complexity - Embracing complexity thinking
in built environments, Cape Town South Africa, 07/05/21-25


ECO 2007 Summit: Ecological Complexity and Sustainability: Challenges and
Opportunities for 21st-Century Ecology, Beijing, China, 07/05/22-27


2007 IEEE/ICME Intl Conf on Complex Medical Engineering-CME2007, Beijing,
China, 07/05/23-27



Analysis and Control of Complex Networks, Milan, Italy, 07/05/24-26



The 7th Intl Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex Systems, Beijing,
07/05/27-30


2nd Intl Wkshp on Engineering Emergence in Decentralised Autonomic Systems
EEDAS 2007, Jacksonville, Fl, 07/06/11-15


7th conf
SYMMETRY IN NONLINEAR MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS, Kiev, Ukraine, 07/06/24-30


Summer School In Complexity Science, London, UK, 07/07/08-17



2007 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2007), London, UK,
07/07/07-11




Evolutionary Computation and Multi-Agent Systems and Simulation Workshop
(ECoMASS-2007), London, England, 07/07/07




22nd European Conference on Operational Research
EURO XXII, Prague, Czech Republic, 07/07/08-11



SASO 2007 - First IEEE Intl Conf Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems
, Boston, Mass., USA, 07/07/09-11



IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning 2007,
Imperial College London, 07/07/11-13


NKS 2007 Wolfram Science Conference,
Burlington, VT, 07/07/13-15



Complex Change Webinar: Planning in the Midst of Chaos, 07/07/17



Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences
17th Annual Intl Conf,
Orange, Ca, USA, 07/07/27-29



ICCM 2007 - 8th Intl Conf on Cognitive Modeling, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
07/07/27-29


Natural Complexity: Data and Theory in Dialogue, Cambridge, UK, 07/08/13-17


ECAL 2oo7 - 9th European Conference on Artificial Life
, Lisbon, Portugal, 07/09/10-14



ECAL 2007 Workshop on Machine Epigenesis , Lisbon, Portugal, 07/09/10



European Conference on Complex Systems 2007 (ECCS'07) , Dresden, Germany,
07/10/01-05



2007 IEEE/WIC/ACM Intl Joint Conf on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent
Technology (WI-IAT'07), Silicon Valley, USA, 07/11/02-05



Theory In Cognitive Neuroscience,
Wildbad Kreuth (Bavaria), Germany, 07/11/04-07



7th Intl Conf on Epigenetic Robotics:
Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems
, Piscataway, NJ, 07/11/05-07



KSS 2007 - 8th Intl Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Sciences, Ishikawa
prefecture, Japan, 07/11/05-07






_________________________________________________________________

20.04. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements




[69]
EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION IN PRACTICE
Series in Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer Verlag,

Chapter proposal due 07/02/04



Call for Papers:
Special Issue of the Artificial Life journal on the Evolution of Complexity,




Chaos and Complexity
Resources for Students and Teachers, 06/03/01





[69] http://seal.tst.adfa.edu.au/~ayang/ECP/ TARGET=new

_________________________________________________________________

[70]Complexity Digest is an independent publication available to
organizations that may wish to repost [71]ComDig to their own mailing
lists. [72]ComDig is published by [73]Dean LeBaron and edited by
[74]Gottfried J. Mayer.
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a note to
[75]subscriptions@....

[70] http://www.comdig.org/
[71] http://www.comdig.org/
[72] http://www.comdig.org/
[73] http://www.deanlebaron.com/index.html
[74] http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/g/x/gxm21/
[75] mailto:subscriptions@...

----- End forwarded message -----
--
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE