[tt] Complexity Digest 2008.02 (text version -2)

Sat Jan 12 13:59:40 UTC 2008

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Complexity Digest 2008.02 10-Jan-2008

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"I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen
Hawking, 2000
_________________________________________________________________
PDF files of our annual editions are available at
www.comdig.de/AnnualEditions.html

A letter from Gottfried Mayer to our readers and friends is at
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_________________________________________________________________

01. Free Journal-Ranking Tool Enters Citation Market - Database Offers
On-The-Fly Results., Nature
01.01. The Web Impact Of Open Access Social Science Research, Lib. & Info. Sc.
Res.
01.02. PISA Results Scoured for Secrets to Better Science Scores, Education
Week
02. Complexity Meets Development - A Felicitous Encounter On The Road Of Life,
Interdis. Descrip. Complex Sys.
02.01. Complexity Of Social Stability: A Model-To-Model Analysis Of
Yugoslavia's Decline, Interdis. Descrip. Complex Sys.
03. Neuroscience: Love Hangover, Nature
03.01. The Genetics of Language, Technology Review
04. Mathematical Tools For Forecasting Stock Market Work For Ecology Too,
ScienceDaily
05. Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs, Innovations-report
06. Insects' 'Giant Leap' Reconstructed By Founder Of Sociobiology,
ScienceDaily
06.01. Two Explosive Evolutionary Events Shaped Early History Of Multicellular
Life, ScienceDaily
07. Walk Soft: Nerve Rewiring Restores Most Movement Post-Spinal Injury,
Scientific American
08. Sparse Optical Microstimulation In Barrel Cortex Drives Learned Behaviour
In Freely Moving Mice, Nature
08.01. Behavioural Report Of Single Neuron Stimulation In Somatosensory Cortex,
Nature
09. Brain Imaging Shows If You Are Thinking Of Familiar Object, ScienceDaily
10. New Task: Malaria Drug Might Inhibit Some Cancers, Science News
10.01. Down's Syndrome: Paradox Of A Tumour Repressor, Nature
11. Medical Breakthrough For Organ Transplants And Cardiovascular Diseases By
Flemish Researchers, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology news release
12. Next Steps For Stem Cells - New Methods To Reprogram Adult Cells Could
Create Novel Models Of Disease., Technology Review
13. Small Lifestyle Changes Can Boost Longevity, U.S. News and World Report
13.01. Author Comes to Natural Food's 'Defense', NPR-TOTN
14. Scientists Use Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2, WIRED
14.01. Biofuels on a Big Scale, Science Now
15. Life At The Jolt: New Insights Into Fuel Cell That Uses Bacteria To
Generate Electricity, Innovations-report
16. Warp and Woof, Science
16.01. Don't Alienate Yourself: SETI at Home Needs You!, EE Times
17. Effects Of Acoustic Waves On Stick-Slip In Granular Media And Implications
For Earthquakes, Nature
18. Plumbing Carbon Nanotubes, PhysOrg.com
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks 
19.01. Local Militants in Pakistan Add to Qaeda Threat, NY Times
19.02. Oil At $100 Vs The 'War On Terror', Asia Times
20. Links & Snippets 
20.01. Other Publications 
20.02. Webcast Announcements 
20.03. Conference Announcements 
20.04. Other Announcements 

_________________________________________________________________

01. Free Journal-Ranking Tool Enters Citation Market - Database Offers
On-The-Fly Results. , Nature

Excerpts: A new Internet database lets users generate on-the-fly citation
statistics of published research papers for free. The tool also calculates
papers' impact factors using a new algorithm similar to PageRank, the algorithm
Google uses to rank web pages. The open-access database is collaborating with
Elsevier, the giant Amsterdam-based science publisher, and its underlying data
come from Scopus, a subscription abstracts database created by Elsevier in
2004.

* [4] Free Journal-Ranking Tool Enters Citation Market - Database Offers
On-The-Fly Results., Declan Butler, 08/01/02, DOI: 10.1038/451006a, Nature 451,
6

[4] http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080102/full/451006a.html

_________________________________________________________________

01.01. The Web Impact Of Open Access Social Science Research , Lib. & Info. Sc.
Res.

Excerpts: For a long time, Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) journal
citations have been widely used for research performance monitoring of the
sciences. For the social sciences, however, the Social Sciences Citation Index?
(SSCI? can sometimes be insufficient. Broader types of publications (e.g.,
books and non-ISI journals) and informal scholarly indicators may also be
needed. This article investigates whether the Web can help to fill this gap.
The authors analyzed 1530 citations (...). About 19% of the Web citations
represented formal impact equivalent to journal citations, and 11% were more
informal indicators of impact. (...)

* [5] The Web Impact Of Open Access Social Science Research, [6] K. Kousha,  M.
Thelwall, Dec. 2007, online 2007/10/25, DOI: 10.1016/j.lisr.2007.05.003, Librar
y
& Information Science Research
* Contributed by [7] Pritha Das

[5]
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5R-4PX16VS-1&_user=
10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2007&_rdoc=5&_fmt=summary&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%
23toc%236577%232007%23999709995%23676063%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=6577&_s
ort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=17&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&m
d5=146372153967d5bc0b793ab2931b48fb
[6] mailto:kkoosha at ut.ac.ir 
[7] mailto:prithadas01 at yahoo.com

_________________________________________________________________

01.02. PISA Results Scoured for Secrets to Better Science Scores , Education
Week

Excerpts: - Public posting of school test scores. Students in schools where
student-achievement data are regularly made public in some way scored an
average of 3.5 scale-score points higher than those in schools that do not make
student-performance results public.  -Time on learning. Students scored 8.8
scale-score points higher, on average, for each additional hour of instruction
per week. Across all the OECD countries, however, only 28.7 percent of
students, on average, spend four or more hours a week in science class. -
School science activities. For each additional unit on this scale, which
includes activities such as science fairs and science clubs, student
achievement scores rose by 2.9 scale-score points. (...)

* [8] PISA Results Scoured for Secrets to Better Science Scores, Debra Viadero,
08/01/09, Education Week

[8]
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/01/09/17science.h27.html?tmp=1683282126

_________________________________________________________________

02. Complexity Meets Development - A Felicitous Encounter On The Road Of Life ,
Interdis. Descrip. Complex Sys.

Excerpts: (...) Although many new ideas popped up after WW II, none proved
satisfactory. These included alleged "silver bullets" (...). By happy
coincidence, a new discipline called complexity began to emerge in the mid
1980's. Out of it has come a new kind of economics which is not only congruent
with current thinking about development but also provides useful advice in the
design and management of development programs, including those related to
poverty. Meanwhile the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (USA) is trying a new
approach (...) the one most compatible with a vision of Puerto Rican society as
a complex system. (...)

* [9] Complexity Meets Development - A Felicitous Encounter On The Road Of
Life, L. L. Smith, 5(2), 2007, Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems
* Contributed by [10] Pritha Das

[9] http://indecs.znanost.org/2007/indecs2007-pp151-160.html
[10] mailto:prithadas01 at yahoo.com

_________________________________________________________________

02.01. Complexity Of Social Stability: A Model-To-Model Analysis Of
Yugoslavia's Decline , Interdis. Descrip. Complex Sys.

Excerpts: In this paper a model-to-model analysis is described which compares a
model of ethnic mobilisation with a model of hierarchy decline. Even though the
two models are not concerned with the same or at least a similar target, they
are related by empirical findings: e.g. the decline of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia was predominantly driven by processes of ethnic mobilisation. This
appears to be a more general pattern, not restricted to this specific example.
Hence, both models can be regarded as describing two related aspects of one and
the same social process. (...) Instead, in this paper a theoretical framework i
s
elaborated (...).

* [11] Complexity Of Social Stability: A Model-To-Model Analysis Of
Yugoslavia's Decline, M. Neumann, 5(2), 2007, Interdisciplinary Description of
Complex Systems
* Contributed by [12] Pritha Das

[11] http://indecs.znanost.org/2007/indecs2007-pp92-111.html
[12] mailto:prithadas01 at yahoo.com

_________________________________________________________________

03. Neuroscience: Love Hangover , Nature

Excerpts: In many species, males have developed strategies to safeguard their
genetic material from dilution by that of competing males. Fruitflies achieve
this by altering the behaviour of their partners.  (...) in the fruitfly
Drosophila melanogaster a component of seminal fluid, known as sex peptide,
leads to increased egg-laying by the mated female and behavioural changes that
reduce the likelihood of her re-mating. How sex peptide triggers such a complex
array of effects was unknown.

* [13] Neuroscience: Love Hangover, Leslie C. Griffith, 08/01/03, DOI:
10.1038/451024a, Nature 451, 24-25

[13] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7174/full/451024a.html

_________________________________________________________________

03.01. The Genetics of Language , Technology Review

Excerpts:     Locating Language: The neural circuitry for speech and language
is typically localized in the left hemisphere of the brain, along a region
called the Sylvian fissure that stretches from Broca's area to Wernicke's.
Researchers are searching for the genes that wire these regions and produce the
uniquely human capacity for speech. Broca's area, highlighted above in green, i
s
associated with speech and language output. Wernicke's area, highlighted in red
,
is associated with language comprehension. Credit: John MacNeill     Researcher
s
are beginning to crack the code that gives humans our way with words.(...) Whil
e
behavioral genetics compares the genes of people with different abilities,
evolutionary biology compares the genes of different species. Researchers use
this data to determine what limits other species' communication skills and what
expanded ours so dramatically that language became one of our defining
characteristics. Geschwind's own forays into evolutionary bi ology have led him
to look at DNA in the brains of chimpanzees, monkeys, and even songbirds. (...)

* [14] The Genetics of Language, Jon Cohen, 08/01, Technology Review

[14] http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19843/

_________________________________________________________________

04. Mathematical Tools For Forecasting Stock Market Work For Ecology Too ,
ScienceDaily

Excerpts: Animal populations and the stock market are hard to forecast. Both
are generated by complicated, interdependent systems. Unlike financial stocks,
where trades are meticulously recorded, scientists began estimating animal
populations only a few decades ago. But a new technique makes it possible to
use the same tools some banks use to forecast the stock market and apply them
to ecology. The newly developed "Dewdrop Regression" can forecast fish
populations with 3% the data previously required through other methods, (...).
Returning to academia and ecology, "I realized that even great ecologists were
working with time series only a few tens of points long," Sugihara said. (...)

* [15] Mathematical Tools For Forecasting Stock Market Work For Ecology Too,
2008/01/05, ScienceDaily
* Contributed by [16] Atin Das

[15] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080104171618.htm
[16] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in

_________________________________________________________________

05. Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs , Innovations-report

Excerpt: Asteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around
the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new book argues that the mightiest
creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much
less dramatic force ?biting, disease-carrying insects. An important
contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs, experts say, could have been the
rise and evolution of insects, especially the slow-but-overwhelming threat
posed by new disease carriers. And the evidence for this emerging threat has
been captured in almost lifelike-detail ?many types of insects preserved in
amber that date to the time when dinosaurs disappeared. (...)

* [17] Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs, 2008/01/07,
Innovations-report
* Contributed by [18] Atin Das

[17]
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-100757.html
[18] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in

_________________________________________________________________

06. Insects' 'Giant Leap' Reconstructed By Founder Of Sociobiology ,
ScienceDaily

Excerpts: (...) Wilson's article surveys recent evidence that the high level of
social organization called "eusociality," found in some Hymenoptera (and rarely
in other species), is a result of natural selection on nascent colonies of
species possessing features that predispose them to colonial life. Wilson
concludes that these features, principally progressive provisioning of larvae
and behavioral flexibility that leads to division of labor, allow some species
to evolve colonies that are maintained and defended because of their proximity
to food sources. (...)

* [19] Insects' 'Giant Leap' Reconstructed By Founder Of Sociobiology,
2008/01/04, ScienceDaily
* Contributed by [20] Atin Das

[19] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080102083749.htm
[20] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in

_________________________________________________________________

06.01. Two Explosive Evolutionary Events Shaped Early History Of Multicellular
Life , ScienceDaily

Excerpt: Scientists have known for some time that most major groups of complex
animals appeared in the fossils record during the Cambrian Explosion, a
seemingly rapid evolutionary event that occurred 542 million years ago. Now
Virginia Tech paleontologists, using rigorous analytical methods, have
identified another explosive evolutionary event that occurred about 33 million
years earlier among macroscopic life forms unrelated to the Cambrian animals.
They dubbed this earlier event the "Avalon Explosion." The discovery suggests
that more than one explosive evolutionary event may have taken place during the
early evolution of animals. (...)

* [21] Two Explosive Evolutionary Events Shaped Early History Of Multicellular
Life, 2008/01/04, ScienceDaily
* Contributed by [22] Atin Das

[21] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080103144451.htm
[22] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in

_________________________________________________________________

07. Walk Soft: Nerve Rewiring Restores Most Movement Post-Spinal Injury ,
Scientific American

Excerpts:     After Cutting The Cord: Scientists showed that intrinsic spine
neurons can substitute for long nerve fibers (which connect directly to the
brain) that are severed in spinal cord injury to restore waling ability.    
When nerves connecting the brain and spinal cord are severed, rerouting signals
through local nerve cells can make movement possible again Often spinal cord
injuries result in the severing of the long nerve fibers connecting the brain
to the spinal cord, disrupting one's ability to walk, among other things. But
even with the primary top-to-bottom signal highway rendered out of order, the
nervous system can, over time, reroute itself, finding neural detours and side
streets that restore movement, (...).

* [23] Walk Soft: Nerve Rewiring Restores Most Movement Post-Spinal Injury,
Nikhil Swaminathan, 08/01/06, Scientific American

[23] http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=nervous-system-restores-movement

_________________________________________________________________

08. Sparse Optical Microstimulation In Barrel Cortex Drives Learned Behaviour
In Freely Moving Mice , Nature

Excerpts: Electrical microstimulation can establish causal links between the
activity of groups of neurons and perceptual and cognitive functions. However,
the number and identities of neurons microstimulated, as well as the number of
action potentials evoked, are difficult to ascertain. To address these issues
we introduced the light-gated algal channel channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2)
specifically into a small fraction of layer 2/3 neurons of the mouse primary
somatosensory cortex.

* [24] Sparse Optical Microstimulation In Barrel Cortex Drives Learned
Behaviour In Freely Moving Mice, Daniel Huber,  Leopoldo Petreanu,  Nima
Ghitani,  Sachin Ranade,  TomáHromádka,  Zach Mainen ,  Karel Svoboda,
08/01/03, DOI: 10.1038/nature06445, Nature 451, 61-64

[24] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7174/full/nature06445.html

_________________________________________________________________

08.01. Behavioural Report Of Single Neuron Stimulation In Somatosensory Cortex
, Nature

Excerpts: Understanding how neural activity in sensory cortices relates to
perception is a central theme of neuroscience. Action potentials of sensory
cortical neurons can be strongly correlated to properties of sensory stimuli
and reflect the subjective judgements of an individual about stimuli.
Microstimulation experiments have established a direct link from sensory
activity to behaviour, suggesting that small neuronal populations can influence
sensory decisions. However, microstimulation does not allow identification and
quantification of the stimulated cellular elements.

* [25] Behavioural Report Of Single Neuron Stimulation In Somatosensory Cortex,
Arthur R. Houweling ,  Michael Brecht, 08/01/03, DOI: 10.1038/nature06447,
Nature 451, 65-68

[25] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7174/full/nature06447.html

_________________________________________________________________

09. Brain Imaging Shows If You Are Thinking Of Familiar Object , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: A team of Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists and
cognitive neuroscientists, combining methods of machine learning and brain
imaging, have found a way to identify where people's thoughts and perceptions
of familiar objects originate in the brain by identifying the patterns of brain
activity associated with the objects. (...) A dozen study participants envelope
d
in an MRI scanner were shown line drawings of 10 different objects -- five tool
s
and five dwellings --one at a time and asked to think about their properties.
Just and Mitchell's method was able to accurately determine which of the 10
drawings a participant was viewing (...).

* [26] Brain Imaging Shows If You Are Thinking Of Familiar Object, 2008/01/04,
ScienceDaily
* Contributed by [27] Atin Das

[26] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080102222813.htm
[27] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in

_________________________________________________________________

10. New Task: Malaria Drug Might Inhibit Some Cancers , Science News

Excerpts: In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers in Tanzania distributed millions
of doses of chloroquine to children as part of a 5-year malaria-prevention
project. While the study yielded only mixed results against that disease, the
researchers noticed a striking drop in cases of Burkitt's lymphoma, a blood
cancer. (...) Enter chloroquine, which targets cancerous cells that make excess
myc protein and stalls autophagy in those cells. In experiments on mice with a
hyperactive myc gene - a model of Burkitt's lymphoma - animals given
chloroquine survived 265 days on average, while mice without it lived 98 days.

* [28] New Task: Malaria Drug Might Inhibit Some Cancers, Nathan Seppa,
08/01/05, ScienceNews

[28] http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080105/fob3.asp

_________________________________________________________________

10.01. Down's Syndrome: Paradox Of A Tumour Repressor , Nature

Excerpts: Having three copies of chromosome 21 reduces the incidence of solid
tumours in people with Down's syndrome. Studies in mice provide clues to why,
and highlight a complex gene-function relationship. (...) This observation
suggests a gene-dosage effect, in which the copy number of a particular gene
correlates with the magnitude of its physiological effects. Consequently, the
authors propose that the effect of three copies of chromosome 21 on tumour
number is distinct from that of a typical tumour-suppressor gene, which affects
tumour growth only by its presence or absence and not by its dosage.

* [29] Down's Syndrome: Paradox Of A Tumour Repressor, David W. Threadgill,
08/01/03, DOI: 10.1038/451021a, Nature 451, 21-22

[29] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7174/full/451021a.html

_________________________________________________________________

11. Medical Breakthrough For Organ Transplants And Cardiovascular Diseases By
Flemish Researchers , Flanders Institute for Biotechnology news release

Excerpts: (...) have studied the role of the PHD1 oxygen meter. To do this,
they used 'knock-out' mice that were unable to produce PHD1. They found that
blocking an artery in these mice - thus obstructing the oxygen supply to the
muscle - did not lead to the death of the surrounding muscular tissue. This was
a very surprising result, since the muscle received too little oxygen to surviv
e
under normal circumstances.

* [30] Medical Breakthrough For Organ Transplants And Cardiovascular Diseases
By Flemish Researchers, 08/01/08, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology news
release

[30] http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/vfi-mbf_1010408.php

_________________________________________________________________

12. Next Steps For Stem Cells - New Methods To Reprogram Adult Cells Could
Create Novel Models Of Disease. , Technology Review

Excerpts: The technique creates cells that are genetically matched to an
individual, meaning that it's now possible to create novel cell models that
capture all the genetic quirks of complex diseases. "Being able to have human
cells with human disease in a dish accessible for testing is a real boon to
technology and to science," (...). While animal models exist for many human
diseases, they typically only incorporate certain aspects of the disease and
can't capture the complexity of human biology. In addition, some disorders
known to have a significant genetic component, such as autism, have proved
difficult to model in animals.

* [31] Next Steps For Stem Cells - New Methods To Reprogram Adult Cells Could
Create Novel Models Of Disease., Emily Singer, 08/01/07, Technology Review

[31] http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20007/

_________________________________________________________________

13. Small Lifestyle Changes Can Boost Longevity , U.S. News and World Report

Excerpts: Not smoking, exercising, moderate drinking, eating veggies could add
14 years, study says. (...) Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the
Medical Research Council looked at 20,000 men and women, aged 45-79, who filled
out a questionnaire about the four health behaviors. The participants, none of
whom had known cancer or heart or circulatory disease, filled out the
questionnaire between 1993 and 1997 and were followed until 2006. For each of
the four healthy lifestyle behaviors, a participant received one point.

* [32] Small Lifestyle Changes Can Boost Longevity, 08/01/08, U.S. News and
World Report

[32]
http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/080108/small-lifestyle-changes
-can-boost-longevity.htm

_________________________________________________________________

13.01. Author Comes to Natural Food's 'Defense' , NPR-TOTN

Excerpts: Fortunately for everyone playing this game, scientists can find an
antioxidant in just about any plant-based food they choose to study. Yet as a
general rule it's a whole lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary
cereal than on a raw potato or a carrot, with the perverse result that the most
healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section,
silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over in Cereal the Cocoa Puffs and
Lucky Charms are screaming their newfound "whole-grain goodness" to the rafters
.
Editor's Note: Food is a complex system in how it interacts with our body and
much more than the sum of its nutrients.

* [33] Author Comes to Natural Food's 'Defense', 08/01/04, NPR-TOTN

[33] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17850369

_________________________________________________________________

14. Scientists Use Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2 , WIRED

Excerpts:     Sandia researcher Rich Diver checks out the solar furnace which
will be the initial source of concentrated solar heat for converting carbon
dioxide to fuel. Eventually parabolic dishes will provide the thermal energy.
Photo: Randy Montoya / Sandia National Laboratories    Researchers at Sandia
National Laboratories in New Mexico have found a way of using sunlight to
recycle carbon dioxide and produce fuels like methanol or gasoline. "It's a
heat engine," Stechel said. "But instead of doing mechanical work, it does
chemical work." Lab experiments have shown that the process works, Stechel
said. The researchers hope to finish a prototype by April. The prototype will
be about the size and shape of a beer keg. It will contain 14 cobalt ferrite
rings, each about one foot in diameter and turning at one revolution per
minute.

* [34] Scientists Use Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2, Chuck Squatriglia,
08/01/04, WIRED

[34] http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/S2P

_________________________________________________________________

14.01. Biofuels on a Big Scale , Science Now

Excerpts:     Future fuel? Farmed switchgrass can be grown on millions of
hectares of marginal land ill suited for agricultural crops. CREDIT: IMAGE
COURTESY OF USDA-ARS     On paper, making biofuels from switchgrass and other
perennials that need not be replanted seems like a no-brainer. Use the sun's
energy to grow the crop, and then convert it to liquid fuels to power our cars
without the need for gasoline. But so far, experiments with these "cellulosic"
crop-based fuels have only been conducted on small scales, leaving open the
question of how feasible the strategy is. Now, the first large-scale study
shows that switchgrass yields more than five times the energy needed to grow,
harvest, and transport the grass and convert it to ethanol.

* [35] Biofuels on a Big Scale, Robert F. Service, 08/01/07, ScienceNOW

[35] http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/107/1

_________________________________________________________________

15. Life At The Jolt: New Insights Into Fuel Cell That Uses Bacteria To
Generate Electricity , Innovations-report

Excerpts: Researchers at the Biodesign Institute are using the tiniest
organisms on the planet 'bacteria' as a viable option to make electricity. In a
new study (...) have gained critical insights that may lead to commercializatio
n
of a promising microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology. "We can use any kind of
waste, such as sewage or pig manure, and the microbial fuel cell will generate
electrical energy," said (...). Unlike conventional fuel cells that rely on
hydrogen gas as a fuel source, the microbial fuel cell can handle a variety of
water-based organic fuels. (...)

* [36] Life At The Jolt: New Insights Into Fuel Cell That Uses Bacteria To
Generate Electricity, 2008/01/07, Innovations-report
* Contributed by [37] Atin Das

[36]
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-100762.html
[37] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in

_________________________________________________________________

16. Warp and Woof , Science

Excerpts: (...) a clear night is actually ablaze with specks of light. For a
long time, we thought those isolated stars were the whole story. But
researchers now realize that they are embedded in a filamentary structure of
matter both dark and visible, called the cosmic web. In this issue, a News
feature and three Perspectives bring us up to date on just what we know about
the cosmic web and what we still want to know.

* [38] Warp and Woof, David Voss ,  Robert Coontz, 08/01/04, DOI:
10.1126/science.319.5859.46, Science : Vol. 319. no. 5859, p. 46

[38] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/319/5859/46

_________________________________________________________________

16.01. Don't Alienate Yourself: SETI at Home Needs You! , EE Times

Excerpts: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) needs you--your
computer, that is. SETI is drowning in radio signals from other worlds, thanks
to the recent addition of seven new receivers to the world's largest radio
telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Now, with 40-times more radio frequency (RF)
coverage, plus the ability to detect the polarization of RF signals, there will
be 500-times more data streaming in--finally giving it the ability to detect
other intelligent civilizations, according to SETI, a quest that has so far
gone begging since 1978.

* [39] Don't Alienate Yourself: SETI at Home Needs You!, R. Colin Johnson,
08/01/03, EE Times

[39] http://eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205207815

_________________________________________________________________

17. Effects Of Acoustic Waves On Stick-Slip In Granular Media And Implications
For Earthquakes , Nature

Excerpts: It remains unknown how the small strains induced by seismic waves can
trigger earthquakes at large distances, in some cases thousands of kilometres
from the triggering earthquake, with failure often occurring long after the
waves have passed. (...) To understand the physics of dynamic triggering
better, as well as the influence of dynamic stressing on earthquake recurrence,
we have conducted laboratory studies of stick-slip in granular media with and
without applied acoustic vibration. Glass beads were used to simulate granular
fault zone material, (...).

* [40] Effects Of Acoustic Waves On Stick-Slip In Granular Media And
Implications For Earthquakes, Paul A. Johnson,  Heather Savage,  Matt Knuth, 
Joan Gomberg ,  Chris Marone, 08/01/03, DOI: 10.1038/nature06440, Nature 451,
57-60

[40] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7174/full/nature06440.html

_________________________________________________________________

18. Plumbing Carbon Nanotubes , PhysOrg.com

Excerpts: Scientists have determined how to connect carbon nanotubes together
like water pipes, a feat that may lead to a whole new group of
bottom-up-engineered nanostructures and devices. (...) "Our method could allow
longer carbon nanotubes to be created, and even nanotubes with multiple
branches,"(...) (...) first split a single carbon nanotube by bridging it
across two electrodes and applying a high current. This caused the middle
section of the nanotube to become gradually narrower until it eventually split,
resulting in two nanotubes with equal diameters and closed, or capped, ends. 

* [41] Plumbing Carbon Nanotubes, Laura Mgrdichian, 08/01/07, PhysOrg.com

[41] http://physorg.com/news118920838.html

_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks 

_________________________________________________________________

19.01. Local Militants in Pakistan Add to Qaeda Threat , NY Times

Excerpts: "Al Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and
attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people," Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates told reporters in Washington on Dec. 21. The expansion of
Pakistan's own militants, with their fortified links to Al Qaeda, presents a
deeply troubling development for the Bush administration and its efforts to
stabilize this volatile nuclear-armed country.

* [42] Local Militants in Pakistan Add to Qaeda Threat, Carlotta Gall,
07/12/30, NYTimes

[42] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/world/asia/30pakistan.html?ref=world

_________________________________________________________________

19.02. Oil At $100 Vs The 'War On Terror' , Asia Times

Excerpts: The choice - as deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage would
reportedly inform Pakistan's intelligence director after the September 11
attacks - was simple: Join the fight against al-Qaeda or "be prepared to be
bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age". The price of a barrel of
crude oil was, then, still under $20.  From that day to this, from the edge of
the $20-barrel of oil to the edge of the $100 barrel, the "war on terror" would
be the organizing principle for the Bush administration as it shook off "the
constraints", "took off the gloves", loosed the Central Intelligence Agency,
and sent the US military into action; as it went, in short, for the Stone Age
jugular.

* [43] Oil At $100 Vs The 'War On Terror', Tom Engelhardt, 08/01/11, Asia Times

[43] http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA11Ak02.html

_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets 

_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications 

- US To Issue Wireless Passports: Privacy Groups Raise Fears Over ID Theft,
2008/01/04, vnunet.com
- Nasa Hitches Ride On Google Jet: 10-Hour Flight To Study Quadrantids Meteor
Shower, 2008/01/04, vnunet.com
- Copy Number Variation May Stem From Replication Misstep, 2008/01/03,
Innovations-report
- On The Theory Of Advective Effects On Biological Dynamics In The Sea. III.
The Role Of Turbulence In BiologicalPhysical Interactions, 2008/12/18,
Proceedings A: Math., Phy. & Engg. Sc., DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2007.0251
- A New Focus In The Science Of Networks: Towards Methods For Design,
2008/12/11, Proceedings A: Math., Phy. & Engg. Sc., DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2007.0050
- Learning To Forgive May Improve Well-Being, 2008/01/04, ScienceDaily
- Organic Chua's Circuit, Sep. 2007, International Journal of Bifurcation and
Chaos, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127407018841
- NEWS: Untangling the Celestial Strings, 08/01/04, Science : 47-49. In an
effort that weaves together astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology, scientists
are mapping the filamentary framework that gives shape to the cosmos.
- Science and the Next U.S. President, 08/01/04, Science 319 (5859), 22 How do
the candidates view science? Sometimes it's hard to tell from the campaign
trail, but they have offered opinions on topics from evolution to global
warming., DOI: 10.1126/science.319.5859.22
- Twinkle, Twinkle: Dark Matter May Have Lit Up First Stars, 08/01/05,
ScienceNews, The earliest stars in the universe might have been fueled by dark
matter instead of nuclear fusion.
- Reading the Repeats: Cells transcribe telomere DNA, 08/01/05, ScienceNews,
Scientists have discovered that human cells make RNA transcripts of telomeres,
the repetitive DNA at the ends of chromosomes, a finding that could have
implications for understanding aging and cancer.
- Not So Spineless, 08/01/05, ScienceNews, Looking for personalities in
animals, even among spiders and insects, could add new twists to ideas about
evolution and explain some odd animal behavior.

_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements 

 7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02

 [44] 
Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007

 [45] 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
 [46] An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
 [47] 
Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25

 [48] 
Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming
Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23

 [49] 
Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14

 [50] 
ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, 
Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9

 [51] 
T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, [52] The Washington Center
for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), [53]
Podcast 

 [54] 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

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

 [56] 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

 [57] 
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

[44] http://webcast.in2p3.fr/RNSC/ target=new
[45]
http://gaia.world-television.com/wef/worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2007/Targe
t=new
[46] http://www.complexsys.org/news.htm target=new
[47] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05ISF/index.html target=new
[48] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/ONCECS05/ target=new
[49] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/CSS05/ target=new
[50] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/ECAL2005/ target=new
[51] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/Sanders0508/Sanders0508.mov target=new
[52] http://www.complexsys.org/ target=new
[53] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/Sanders0508/Sanders.mp3
[54] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05NASPSA/ target=new
[55] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05UCS/ target=new
[56] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/Nicolis05/Target=new
[57] http://www.comdig2.de/Conf/ECCS04/Target=new

_________________________________________________________________

20.03. Conference Announcements 

 [58] 
Evolution and Physics Concepts, Models and Applications,
Bad Honnef, Germany, 08/01/21-23

The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee,
USA, 08/03/01-03

The 3rd Intl Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15

19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), 
Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28 

2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and
Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28

[59] 
Nexus for Change II, 
Bowling Green, OH, 08/03/29-04/01

[60] 
2nd Applied Neuroscience Meeting, Monterrey, Mexico, 08/04/03-06

[61] 
Fumee 1 - 1St Futures Meeting - Understanding Anticipatory Systems, Rovereto
(Italy), 08/04/10-12

1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity,  Garden City, NY, USA,
08/04/10-12

[62] 
CHAOS2008
Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference, Chania, Crete,
Greece, 08/06/03-06

[63] International Conference on Chaos, Complexity & Conflict, Omaha, NE,
08/06/05-07

Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Tenth Annual... Applying Systems Biology, San
Francisco, CA, 08/06/09-11

[64] 
9th Intl Mathematica Symposium, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 08/06/20-24

 [65] 
The 14th Intl Conf on Auditory Display (ICAD), Paris, France, 08/06/24-27

The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI
2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02

>From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive
Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12

Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21

[66] 
1st Intl Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Synchronization 
(INDS?8), Klagenfurt, Austria, 08/07/18-19

[67] 
8th Intl Conf on Epigenetic Robotics:
Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems, Brighton, UK,
08/07/31-08/02

[58] http://www.virtualknowledgestudio.nl/staff/andrea-scharnhorst/heraeus.php
TARGET=new
[59] http://www.nexusforchange.org/ TARGET=new
[60] http://www.appliedneuroscience.nl TARGET=new
[61] http://www.mitteleuropafoundation.org/events.html TARGET=new
[62] http://www.asmda.net/chaos2008/ TARGET=new
[63] http://law.creighton.edu/wernerInstitute/complexityconference/ TARGET=new
[64] http://www.ims08.org/ TARGET=new
[65] http://http://icad08.ircam.fr TARGET=new
[66] http://inds08.uni-klu.ac.at/ TARGET=new
[67] http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org TARGET=new

_________________________________________________________________

20.04. Other Announcements 

" 
Wolfram Research is Now the Official Math Brain 
Trust for the Hit CBS Series NUMB3RS. 07/10/05

 A short notice from Dean LeBaron
Dear ComDig Readers,

Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you --
as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge
of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and
given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that,
in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other
frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary
applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them.

Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist.
With Gottfrieds permission, I am posting this note with information, below,
about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since
Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude.

I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to
time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his
progress with great interest and hope.

Dean LeBaron

Publisher, Complexity Digest

Bank Information:

If your contribution is made by check:

Please mail the check, payable to Gottfried Mayer? to:

Manufacturers & Traders Trust

2080 Western Avenue

20 Mall

Guilderland, NY 12084 USA

(on the back of the check, please write: For Deposit Only: Account # 983 338
3814?

If your contribution is made by wire:

Manufacturers & Traders Trust

2080 Western Avenue

20 Mall

Guilderland, NY 12084 USA

SWIFT Code# MANTUS33

UID: 209 791

ABA routing # 022 00 00 46 [for US wire transfers]

Account # 983 338 3814

Ref. Gottfried Mayer

Intl Master of Science in Methods For Management Of Complex Systems - Academic
Year 2007-2008, Institute for Advanced Study, Pavia, Italy, 08/01/01

  News notes on 
Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) 
for July 2007 are now available on-line, 07/08/04

National Humanities Center Launches Humanities/Sciences Website, 07/04, As part
of its ongoing Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity: The Human & The Humanities?pr
oject (ASC), the National Humanities Center makes public a new website for
the initiative which significantly expands the potential pool of humanists and
scientists engaged in the exploration and examination of topics surrounding the
question of human being.

_________________________________________________________________

[68]Complexity Digest is an independent publication available to
organizations that may wish to repost [69]ComDig to their own mailing
lists. [70]ComDig is published by [71]Dean LeBaron and edited by
[72]Gottfried J. Mayer.
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a note to
[73]subscriptions at comdig.org.

[68] http://www.comdig.org/
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[71] http://www.deanlebaron.com/index.html
[72] http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/g/x/gxm21/
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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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