[tt] Complexity Digest 2008.36 (text version -2)
Eugen Leitl
<eugen at leitl.org> on
Fri Sep 5 12:58:13 UTC 2008
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Subject: Complexity Digest 2008.36 (text version -2)
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Complexity Digest 2008.36 4-Sept-2008
Archive: [1]http://www.comdig.org, European Mirror: [2]http://www.comdig.de
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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
www.comdig.de/GMLetter.html
_________________________________________________________________
01. Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S., NY Times
02. Human Behaviour: Share And Share Alike, Nature
02.01. Battle Of The Sexes May Set The Brain, Nature
03. The Early Years: Preschool Influences On Mathematics Achievement, Science
04. The Odds It Will Kill You? See New Charts, NY Times
04.01. How Much Risk Can You Handle? Making Better Investment Decisionse,
ScienceDaily
05. Social Learning Strategies And Predation Risk, Proc. Biol. Sc.
06. War And The Evolution Of Belligerence And Bravery, Proc. Biol. Sc.
07. Archaeology: Ancient Earthmovers Of The Amazon, Science
07.01. Archaeology: The Western Amazon's "Garden Cities", Science
08. Developmental Biology: Neuron Research Leaps Ahead, Science
08.01. New Insights On New Neurons, Science News
09. Memory Trick Shows Brain Organization, ScienceDaily
09.01. Number Forms In The Brain, J. Cog. Neurosc.
09.02. Physiological Society Meeting: Learning Under Anesthesia, Science
10. New Role For Natural Killers!, Innovations-report
10.01. Loss Of Sleep, Even For A Single Night, Increases Inflammation In The
Body, Science Daily
11. Scientists Discover Why Flies Are So Hard To Swat, ScienceDaily
12. Systems Biology: Reverse Engineering The Cell, Nature
12.01. Plant Science: The "Invisible Hand" Of Floral Chemistry, Science
13. New Study Shows Solar System is Unique, The Future of Things
14. Mighty Hurricanes Get Mightier, Science News
15. Gaming Evolves, NY Times
16. Massive $208 Million Petascale Computer Gets Green Light, NetworkWorld
16.01. MIT Develops Network Analysis Tool: Maps Likely Hacking Routes,
vnunet.com
16.02. Stanford's 'Autonomous' Helicopters Teach Themselves To Fly, PhysOrg.com
17. It's Likely That Times Are Changing, Science News
18. Scientists Grow 'Nanonets' Able To Snare Added Energy Transfer, Science
Daily
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. Soft Europe, Hard Europe, theTrumpet.com
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference Announcements
20.04. Other Announcements
_________________________________________________________________
01. Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S. , NY Times
Excerpts: The era of the American Internet is ending. Invented by American
computer scientists during the 1970s, the Internet has been embraced around the
globe. During the network's first three decades, most Internet traffic flowed
through the United States. In many cases, data sent between two locations
within a given country also passed through the United States. Engineers who
help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United
States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of
the Internet; it has no central point of control.
* [4] Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S., John Markoff, 08/08/29,
NYTimes
[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/business/30pipes.html?th&emc=th
_________________________________________________________________
02. Human Behaviour: Share And Share Alike , Nature
Excerpts: The happy tendency to share resources equitably - at least with
members of one's own social group - is a central and unique feature of human
social life. It emerges, it seems, in middle childhood. Recent experiments
have shown that chimpanzees do not take advantage of cost-free opportunities to
deliver food to other members of their group. Nor do they prevent others from
getting food when they could easily do so. In most situations, our nearest
primate relatives seem to be focused exclusively on the food that they
themselves might get.
* [5] Human Behaviour: Share And Share Alike, Michael Tomasello, Felix
Warneken, 08/08/28, DOI: 10.1038/4541057a, Nature 454, 1057-1058
[5] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/full/4541057a.html
_________________________________________________________________
02.01. Battle Of The Sexes May Set The Brain , Nature
Excerpts: A tug-of-war between the mother's and father's genes in the
developing brain could explain a spectrum of mental disorders from autism to
schizophrenia, (...). We believe that psychiatric illness may be less to do
with the genes a mother and father pass down, and more to do with which genes
they program for expression. By our hypothesis, a hidden battle of the sexes -
where a mother's egg and a father's sperm engage in an evolutionary struggle to
turn gene expression up or down - could play a crucial part in determining the
balance or imbalance of an offspring's brain.
* [6] Battle Of The Sexes May Set The Brain, Christopher Badcock, Bernard
Crespi, 08/08/28, DOI: 10.1038/4541054a, Nature 454, 1054-1055
[6] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/full/4541054a.html
_________________________________________________________________
03. The Early Years: Preschool Influences On Mathematics Achievement , Science
Excerpts: The advantages of home learning environment (HLE) and preschool are
apparent years later in children's math achievement. (...) The HLE, preschool
effectiveness, and primary school effectiveness all showed significant effects
on children's mathematics achievement at age 10 (P < 0.001).Total variance
accounted for was 22%. (...) The HLE had low correlations with parents'
socioeconomic status or education (r = 0.28 to 0.32) and showed independent
effects slightly less than mother's education but greater than father's
education and family income. This indicates that what parents do is as
important as who parents are.
* [7] The Early Years: Preschool Influences On Mathematics Achievement, Edward
C. Melhuish, Kathy Sylva, Pam Sammons, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda
Taggart, Mai B. Phan, Antero Malin, 08/08/29, Science : 1161-1162.
[7] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1161
_________________________________________________________________
04. The Odds It Will Kill You? See New Charts , NY Times
Excerpts: Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company New risk charts in
a paper published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute provide a
broader perspective than most of the risk calculators on the Internet, because
they cover the risks for 10 different causes of death, and for all causes
combined, while differentiating by age and between smokers, nonsmokers and
former smokers. At first glance, it may appear that smokers and nonsmokers die
of heart disease at the same rate, but a 35-year-old male smoker is seven times
as likely to die of heart disease as a nonsmoker the same age. The numbers
begin to converge as some smokers survive the more common smokers' diseases,
and by age 75, their rate of death from heart disease is almost the same as
nonsmokers'.
* [8] The Odds It Will Kill You? See New Charts, Nicholas Bakalar, 08/09/01,
NYTimes
[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/health/02stat.html
_________________________________________________________________
04.01. How Much Risk Can You Handle? Making Better Investment Decisionse ,
ScienceDaily
Excerpts: Many Americans make investment decisions with their retirement funds.
But they don't always make informed judgments. A new (...) introduces a new too
l
that investors can use to choose investments based on their financial goals and
risk attitudes. (...) developed a tool, which they call the Distribution
Builder. With brief training, people can use the Distribution Builder to better
understand their investment goals and trade-offs. (...) Since many employees
make retirement investment decisions without understanding the complex picture
of their own risk preferences, the Distribution Builder is a novel way for
people to uncover their preexisting preferences. (...)
* [9] How Much Risk Can You Handle? Making Better Investment Decisions,
2008/08/26, ScienceDaily & University of Chicago Press Journals
* Contributed by [10] Atin Das
[9] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080822160349.htm
[10] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
05. Social Learning Strategies And Predation Risk , Proc. Biol. Sc.
Excerpt: Animals can acquire information from the environment privately, by
sampling it directly, or socially, through learning from others. Generally,
private information is more accurate, but expensive to acquire, while social
information is cheaper but less reliable. Accordingly, the costly information
hypothesis?predicts that individuals will use private information when the
costs associated with doing so are low, but that they should increasingly use
social information as the costs of using private information rise. While
consistent with considerable data, this theory has yet to be directly tested in
a satisfactory manner. We tested this hypothesis by giving minnows (Phoxinus
phoxinus) a choice (...).
* [11] Social Learning Strategies And Predation Risk: Minnows Copy Only When
Using Private Information Would Be Costly, M. M. Webster , K. N. Laland,
2008/08/26, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.0817, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences
* Contributed by [12] Atin Das
[11]
http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/r376220u49884twn/?p=249eacf7a4e440c4bd
30ea5f2c901508&pi=7
[12] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
06. War And The Evolution Of Belligerence And Bravery , Proc. Biol. Sc.
Excerpt: Tribal war occurs when a coalition of individuals use force to seize
reproduction-enhancing resources, and it may have affected human evolution.
Here, we develop a population-genetic model for the coevolution of costly male
belligerence and bravery when war occurs between groups of individuals in a
spatially subdivided population. Belligerence is assumed to increase an actor's
group probability of trying to conquer another group. An actor's bravery is
assumed to increase his group's ability to conquer an attacked group. We show
that the selective pressure on these two traits can be substantial even in
groups of large size, (...).
* [13] War And The Evolution Of Belligerence And Bravery, L. Lehmann , M. W.
Feldman, 2008/08/26, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.0842, Proceedings B: Biological
Sciences
* Contributed by [14] Atin Das
[13]
http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/265804865t1v2l46/?p=249eacf7a4e440c4bd
30ea5f2c901508&pi=6
[14] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
07. Archaeology: Ancient Earthmovers Of The Amazon , Science
Excerpts: The forested western Amazon was once thought barren of complex human
culture. But researchers are now uncovering enigmatic earthworks left by large,
organized societies that once lived and farmed here. (...) Shaped like circles,
diamonds, hexagons, and interlocking rectangles, the geoglyphs are 100 to 350
meters in diameter and outlined by trenches 1 to 7 meters deep. Many are
approached by broad earthen avenues, some of them 50 meters wide and up to a
kilometer long.
* [15] Archaeology: Ancient Earthmovers Of The Amazon, Charles C. Mann,
08/08/29, Science : 1148-1152.
[15] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1148
_________________________________________________________________
07.01. Archaeology: The Western Amazon's "Garden Cities" , Science
Excerpts: (...) finding a set of urban settlements startlingly similar to
Howard's garden cities--built in the forests of the south-central Amazon as
early as 1250 C.E. The paper identifies dozens of densely packed "towns,
villages, and hamlets" covering perhaps 30,000 square kilometers--an area the
size of Belgium--in the headwaters of the Xingu River. The settlements, built
by indigenous peoples, were tied together by "well-planned road networks" and
embedded in a matrix of agricultural land.
* [16] Archaeology: The Western Amazon's "Garden Cities", Charles C. Mann,
08/08/29, Science : 1151.
[16] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1151
_________________________________________________________________
08. Developmental Biology: Neuron Research Leaps Ahead , Science
Excerpts: Technologies that reprogram adult dermal cells into motor neurons
should advance our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. (...) Dimos et
al. not only demonstrate that human neural cells--in particular,
disease-related neural cells--can be generated from induced pluripotent stem
cells, but also that the method can be successfully applied to fibroblasts
derived from elderly patients, a key issue for age-dependent disorders (like
most of the neurodegenerative diseases). Moreover, the study shows the
feasibility of producing large numbers of induced pluripotent stem cells from a
small skin biopsy.
* [17] Developmental Biology: Neuron Research Leaps Ahead, Robert H. Brown Jr.,
08/08/29, Science : 1169-1170.
[17] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1169
_________________________________________________________________
08.01. New Insights On New Neurons , Science News
Excerpts: Two studies on mice shed light on the role of neurogenesis in memory,
olfactory sensing and antidepressant efficacy. Most of the brain does fine wit
h
its original brain cells, but parts involved in smelling and remembering
sometimes need some new recruits. In mice, new neurons are needed to remember
mazes and keep their scent-sensing organs plump (but aren't necessary for
detecting smells), a new study shows. Another recent study demonstrates that
some antidepressants require neurogenesis - the creation of fresh neurons - to
work.
* [18] New Insights On New Neurons, Tina Hesman Saey, 08/08/31, ScienceNews
[18]
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36056/title/New_insights_on_new_neur
ons
_________________________________________________________________
09. Memory Trick Shows Brain Organization , ScienceDaily
Excerpts: A simple memory trick has helped show UC Davis researchers how an
area of the brain called the perirhinal cortex can contribute to forming
memories. The finding expands our understanding of how those brain areas that
form memories are organized. The brain puts together different items -- the
what, who, where and when -- to form a complete memory. It was previously
thought that this association process occurred entirely in a brain structure
called the hippocampus, but this appears not to be the case, said (...). "We
want to know how the brain areas that encode memory are organized," Ranganath
said. (...)
* [19] Memory Trick Shows Brain Organization, 2008/08/31, ScienceDaily &
University of California - Davis
* Contributed by [20] Atin Das
[19] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080828220519.htm
[20] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
09.01. Number Forms In The Brain , J. Cog. Neurosc.
Excerpts: Mental images of number lines, Galton's number forms?(NF), are a
useful way of investigating the relation between number and space. Here we
report the first neuroimaging study of number-form synesthesia, investigating
10 synesthetes with NFs going from left to right compared with matched
controls. (...) revealed no difference in brain activation during a task
focused on number magnitude but, in a comparable task on number order,
synesthetes showed additional activations (...), suggesting that NFs are
essentially ordinal in nature. Our results suggest that there are separate but
partially overlapping neural circuits for the processing of ordinal and
cardinal numbers, (...).
* [21] Number Forms In The Brain, J. Tang , J. Ward , B. Butterworth, Sep.
2008, Online 2008/08/12, DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20120, Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience
* Contributed by [22] Pritha Das
[21] http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn.2008.20120
[22] mailto:prithadas01 at yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________
09.02. Physiological Society Meeting: Learning Under Anesthesia , Science
Excerpts: Summary: Rodents commit the odors of other rodents' meals to the
brain as preferred foods using a process known as olfactory learning. At the
Physiological Society meeting, researchers reported that this scent-based
social learning occurs even when mice are knocked out by anesthesia. (...)
scent-based social learning occurs even when mice are knocked out by
anesthesia. After Nicol fed a mouse coriander-scented food and had it breathe
onto the nose of an anesthetized comrade, the unconscious mouse preferred
coriander-scented food when it woke up.
* [23] Physiological Society Meeting: Learning Under Anesthesia, Lauren Cahoon,
08/08/29, Science: 1153.
[23] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1153a
_________________________________________________________________
10. New Role For Natural Killers! , Innovations-report
Excerpts: Scientists (...) have discovered a new role for a population of white
blood cells, which may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and
cancer. Natural Killer (or NK) cells are abundant white blood cells that were
recognised over 30 years ago as being able to kill cancer cells in the test
tube. Since that time, a role for NK cells in activating other white blood
cells (including T?lymphocytes and phagocytes) and in directing how the
immune system responds to a wide range of infections has also been established.
However, (...) has now demonstrated that NK cells also make chemicals that
inhibit immune responses. (...)
* [24] New Role For Natural Killers!, 2008/08/28, Innovations-report
* Contributed by [25] Atin Das
[24]
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/role_natural_kille
rs_116865.html
[25] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
10.01. Loss Of Sleep, Even For A Single Night, Increases Inflammation In The
Body , Science Daily
Excerpts: Loss of sleep, even for a few short hours during the night, can
prompt one's immune system to turn against healthy tissue and organs. (...) The
findings suggest a good night's sleep can ease the risk of both heart disease
and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. Specifically, the
researchers measured the levels of nuclear factor (NF)-£eB, a transcription
factor that serves a vital role in the body's inflammatory signaling, in
healthy adults.
* [26] Loss Of Sleep, Even For A Single Night, Increases Inflammation In The
Body, 08/09/02, ScienceDaily
[26] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080902075211.htm
_________________________________________________________________
11. Scientists Discover Why Flies Are So Hard To Swat , ScienceDaily
Excerpts: Over the past two decades, Michael Dickinson has been interviewed by
reporters hundreds of times (...). One question from the press has always
dogged him: Why are flies so hard to swat? "Now I can finally answer," says
Dickinson, (...). (...) have determined the secret to a fly's evasive
maneuvering. Long before the fly leaps, its tiny brain calculates the location
of the impending threat, comes up with an escape plan, and places its legs in
an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction. All of
this action takes place within about 100 milliseconds after the fly first spots
the swatter. (...)
* [27] Scientists Discover Why Flies Are So Hard To Swat, 2008/08/29,
ScienceDaily & California Institute of Technology
* Contributed by [28] Atin Das
[27] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080828135901.htm
[28] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
12. Systems Biology: Reverse Engineering The Cell , Nature
Excerpts: Borrowing ideas that were originally developed to study electronic
circuits, two reports decipher how yeast reacts to changes in its environment
by analysing the organism's responses to oscillating input signals. (...) Using
the microfluidics set-up, they were therefore able to measure the
transcriptional response of galactose-utilizing genes to oscillations of
glucose concentration at different frequencies. They found that the yeast
reacts strongly to slow oscillations in glucose levels, but weakly to fast
oscillations.
* [29] Systems Biology: Reverse Engineering The Cell, Nicholas T. Ingolia,
Jonathan S. Weissman, 08/08/28, DOI: 10.1038/4541059a, Nature 454, 1059-1062
[29] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/full/4541059a.html
_________________________________________________________________
12.01. Plant Science: The "Invisible Hand" Of Floral Chemistry , Science
Excerpts: Volatile compounds help flowering plants balance attracting
pollinators and maximizing overall reproductive success. (...) The presence of
nicotine decreased the time hummingbirds and hawkmoths spent drinking from
individual flowers but increased the number of flowers visited, presumably to
satisfy the caloric demands of hovering flight. Conversely, birds and moths
visited fewer flowers for longer periods when nectar lacked nicotine, which
suggests that the pollinators' interests are best served by extended visits to
a few nectar-rich flowers ( [30] 6). Responses to plants lacking benzyl acetone
were more ambiguous.
* [31] Plant Science: The "Invisible Hand" Of Floral Chemistry, Robert A.
Raguso, 08/08/29, Science : 1163-1164.
[30] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1163#ref6
[31] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1163
_________________________________________________________________
13. New Study Shows Solar System is Unique , The Future of Things
Excerpts: Research conducted by a team of North American scientist shows our
solar system is special, contrary to the accepted theory that it is an average
planetary system. Using computer simulations to follow the development of
planets, it was shown that very specific conditions are needed for a
proto-stellar disk to evolve into a solar system-like planetary system. The
simulations show that in most cases either no planets are created, or planets
are formed and then migrate towards the disk center and acquire highly
elliptical orbits.
* [32] New Study Shows Solar System is Unique, 08/09/01, The Future of Things
[32]
http://thefutureofthings.com/news/1295/new-study-shows-solar-system-is-unique.h
tml
_________________________________________________________________
14. Mighty Hurricanes Get Mightier , Science News
Excerpts: The strongest North Atlantic hurricanes, such as 2005's Wilma
(seen in visible light at left and in false color denoting cloud heights at
right), have been getting even stronger in recent years, a new analysis
suggests.Full Story Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team The researchers
found that the largest increases in cyclone peak winds were in the North
Atlantic and eastern North Pacific oceans, regions where sea surface
temperatures had warmed from 1981 to 2006. Cyclones are essentially heat
engines that extract power from warm seas, says Kossin. The larger the
temperature difference between the ocean surface and the upper atmosphere, the
larger a cyclone can become, he notes.
* [33] Mighty Hurricanes Get Mightier, Sid Perkins, 08/08/03, ScienceNews
[33]
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36155/title/Mighty_hurricanes_get_mi
ghtier
_________________________________________________________________
15. Gaming Evolves , NY Times
Excerpts: The game begins with single-cell microbes and follows them
through their evolution into intelligent multicellular creatures, like the
Tiktaalik. Unlike the typical shoot-them-till-they're-all-dead video game,
Spore was strongly influenced by science, and in particular by evolutionary
biology. Mr. Wright will appear in a documentary next Tuesday on the National
Geographic Channel, sharing his new game with leading evolutionary biologists
and talking with them about the evolution of complex life. Evolutionary
biologists like Dr. Near and Dr. Prum, who have had a chance to try the game,
like it a great deal. But they also have some serious reservations. The
step-by-step process by which Spore's creatures change does not have much to do
with real evolution.
* [34] Gaming Evolves, Carl Zimmer, 08/09/01, NYTimes
[34] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/science/02spor.html?ref=science
_________________________________________________________________
16. Massive $208 Million Petascale Computer Gets Green Light , NetworkWorld
Excerpts: The 200,000 processor core system known as [35] Blue Waters got the
green light recently as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its
[36] National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) said it has
finalized the contract with IBM to build the world's first sustained [37]
petascale computational system. Blue Waters is expected to deliver sustained
performance of more than one petaflop on many real-world scientific and
engineering applications. (...) Blue Waters will be based on what researchers
called PERCS ( [38] Productive, Easy-to-use, Reliable Computing System). (...)
According to the [39] NSF the system may be used to study complex processes
like the interaction of the Sun's coronal mass ejections with the Earth's
magnetosphere and ionosphere; the formation and evolution of galaxies in the
early universe; understanding the chains of reactions that occur with living
cells; and the design of novel materials.
* [40] Massive $208 Million Petascale Computer Gets Green Light, 08/09/02,
NetworkWorld
[35] http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/BlueWaters
[36] http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
[37]
http://research.microsoft.com/~gray/papers/Petascale%20computational%20systems.
pdf
[38] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Productivity_Computing_Systems
[39]
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109850&org=OCI&from=news
[40] http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/32152
_________________________________________________________________
16.01. MIT Develops Network Analysis Tool: Maps Likely Hacking Routes ,
vnunet.com
Excerpts: MITs Lincoln Laboratory has developed a network mapping tool that
enables managers to track likely hacking routes. The tool, dubbed NetSPA for
Network Security Planning Architecture, scans the network architecture, the
individual computers it connects and a list of likely vulnerabilities to
generate a threat mitigation program. "It's a matter of what the attacker can
get to and in what order," says (...) "If you spend time patching
vulnerabilities the attacker can't get to first, you've left your network
exposed longer." The software also suggests the quickest way to block off holes
effectively and ways to configure the network (...).
* [41] MIT Develops Network Analysis Tool: Maps Likely Hacking Routes, I.
Thomson, 2008/08/30, vnunet.com
* Contributed by [42] Atin Das
[41] http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2225023/mit-develops-network-analysis
[42] mailto:dasatin at yahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
16.02. Stanford's 'Autonomous' Helicopters Teach Themselves To Fly ,
PhysOrg.com
Excerpts: Computer Science Professor Andrew Ng (center) and his graduate
students Pieter Abbeel (left) and Adam Coates have developed an artificial
intelligence system that enables these helicopters to perform difficult
aerobatic stunts on the their own. The "autonomous" helicopters teach
themselves to fly by watching the maneuvers of a radio control helicopter flown
by a human pilot. So the researchers had Oku and other pilots fly entire
airshow routines while every movement of the helicopter was recorded. As Oku
repeated a maneuver several times, the trajectory of the helicopter inevitably
varied slightly with each flight. But the learning algorithms created by Ng's
team were able to discern the ideal trajectory the pilot was seeking. Thus the
autonomous helicopter learned to fly the routine better - and more consistently
- than Oku himself.
* [43] Stanford's 'Autonomous' Helicopters Teach Themselves To Fly, 08/09/01,
PhysOrg.com
[43] http://www.physorg.com/news139501522.html
_________________________________________________________________
17. It's Likely That Times Are Changing , Science News
Excerpts: But suppose you are studying the universe as a whole, attempting to
formulate the laws of quantum gravity that rule the cosmos. There is no wall
enclosing the universe on which to hang a clock, no external timekeeper to
gauge the whenness of being. Yet quantum physics requires time to tell the
universe what to do - time is necessary for things to happen. (...) But when
deriving that math to begin with, there's no way to know in advance which part
corresponds to the master cosmic clock. You have to choose something to
represent time from within your equations, Albrecht notes. "Your first job is
to identify what you mean by time," he says.
* [44] It's Likely That Times Are Changing, Tom Siegfried, 08/08/03,
ScienceNews
[44]
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/35992/title/It's_Likely_That_Times_A
re_Changing
_________________________________________________________________
18. Scientists Grow 'Nanonets' Able To Snare Added Energy Transfer , Science
Daily
Excerpts: Researchers at Boston College report creating nanonets, pictured
here magnified 50,000 times. The novel nano-scale structure was grown from
titanium and silicon in a two-dimensional network of wires that resembles flat,
rectangular netting. (Credit: Angewandte Chemie International) By creating
nanonets, the team conquered a longstanding engineering challenge in
nanotechnology: creating a material that is extremely thin yet maintains its
complexity, a structural design large or long enough to efficiently transfer an
electrical charge. (...) Basic nano structures are commonly created in zero or
one dimension, such as a dot composed of a small number of atoms. The most
complex structures grow in three dimensions - somewhat resembling the branches
of a tree. Working in 2D, Wang's team produced a web that under a microscope
resembles a tree with all branches growing in the same perpendicular direction
from the trunk.
* [45] Scientists Grow 'Nanonets' Able To Snare Added Energy Transfer,
08/09/03, ScienceDaily
[45] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080902171153.htm
_________________________________________________________________
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
_________________________________________________________________
19.01. Soft Europe, Hard Europe , theTrumpet.com
Excerpts: "The terms of the agreement were that the Palestinian organizations
could even maintain armed bases of operation in the country," he wrote, "and
they had freedom of entry and exit without being subject to normal police
controls, because they were 'handled' by the secret services." Similar deals
existed between these groups and the governments of France and Britain. This
ugly truth typifies a cancerous, self-preserving opportunism that infects much
of Europe to this day. It masquerades in moralistic rhetoric and political
correctness - respect for the religion and culture of Muslims and such. But in
truth, it's just naked fear.
* [46] Soft Europe, Hard Europe, Joel Hilliker, 08/09/03, theTrumpet.com
[46] http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=5485.3799.0.0
_________________________________________________________________
20. Links & Snippets
_________________________________________________________________
20.01. Other Publications
- Why Did The Squirrel Cross The Road?, 2008/08/29, Innovations-report
- Cell Removal Technique Could Lead To Cheaper Drugs, 2008/08/28,
Innovations-report
- Evolutionary Conservation Of Mechanisms For Neural Regionalization,
Proliferation And Interconnection In Brain Development, 2008/08/27, Biological
Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0337
- Eyes Evolved For 'X-Ray Vision': Forward-facing Eyes Allow Animals To 'See
Through' Clutter In The World, 2008/08/29, ScienceDaily & Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute
- Antidepressants Need New Nerve Cells To Be Effective, Researchers Find,
2008/08/30, ScienceDaily & UT Southwestern Medical Center
- Using Brain Imaging To Extract The Structure Of Complex Events At The
Rational Time Band, Sep. 2008, Online 2008/08/12, Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20108
- Household Technology Adoption, Use, And Impacts: Past, Present, And Future,
Sep. 2008, online 2008/05/22, Information Systems Frontiers, DOI:
10.1007/s10796-008-9098-z
- The Determinants Of Volatility On The American Crude Oil Futures Market, Jun.
2008, Online 2008/08/06, OPEC Energy Review, DOI: 10.1142/S0218348X08003995
- Geophysics: When Seamounts Subduct, 08/08/29, Science : 1165-1166. Data from
an array of seismometers on the sea floor show the complex pattern of
earthquakes around subducted seamounts.
- Redox-Active Antibiotics Control Gene Expression and Community Behavior in
Divergent Bacteria, 08/08/29, Science : 1203-1206. In addition to an antiseptic
function, phenazines¡Xpigmented antibiotics made by bacteria¡Xorganize colony
structure by activating a superoxidative stress regulator.
- Amyloid-£] Dynamics Correlate with Neurological Status in the Injured Human
Brain, 08/08/29, Science : 1221-1224. After brain injury of normal people, the
amount of an Alzheimer's disease peptide decreases in the extracellular fluid
of the brain, returning to normal with recovery.
_________________________________________________________________
20.02. Webcast Announcements
[47]
Can Ants Solve Traffic Jams?, Danielle Parsons, Slatev.com, 08/07/22
As roads and highways become ever more clogged, Danielle Parsons tells us how
researchers are studying ways to learn from nature's own traffic-flow experts:
ants.
7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02
[48]
Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007
[49] World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 08/01/22-27
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
[50] An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
[51]
Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
[52]
Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming
Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
[53]
Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
[54]
ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life,
Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
[55]
T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, [56] The Washington Center
for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), [57]
Podcast
[58] 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
[59] Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and
Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC,
05/05/16-19
[60] 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
[61]
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
[47] http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1681718043 target=new
[48] http://webcast.in2p3.fr/RNSC/ target=new
[49]
http://gaia.world-television.com/wef/worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2008/Targe
t=new
[50] http://www.complexsys.org/news.htm target=new
[51] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05ISF/index.html target=new
[52] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/ONCECS05/ target=new
[53] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/CSS05/ target=new
[54] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/ECAL2005/ target=new
[55] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/Sanders0508/Sanders0508.mov target=new
[56] http://www.complexsys.org/ target=new
[57] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/Sanders0508/Sanders.mp3
[58] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05NASPSA/ target=new
[59] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/05UCS/ target=new
[60] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/Nicolis05/Target=new
[61] http://complexity.vub.ac.be/~comdig/ECCS04/Target=new
_________________________________________________________________
20.03. Conference Announcements
Intl Conf DEscribing COmplex Systems (DECOS), Zadar,
Croatia, 08/09/03-07
BICS Conference - Emergence in Complex Systems,
Bath, UK, 08/09/09-11
5th European
Conference on Complex Systems, Jerusalem, Israel, 08/09/14-19
EPOS 2008, III Edition of Epistemological Perspectives on Simulation, Lisbon,
Portugal, 08/10/02-03
1st Intl Conf on the Evolution and Development of the Universe, Paris, France,
08/10/08-09
International Congress on Complex Thought, Hermosillo , Sonora , Mexico,
08/10/21-24
What Is Computation? (How) Does Nature Compute? - 2008 Midwest NKS Conference,
Bloomington, IN, 08/10/30-11/02
2nd Intl Congress of Complex Systems in Sport (2nd ICCSS) and 10th European
Workshop of Ecological Psychology. (10th EWEP), Funchal, in Madeira Island,
Portugal, 08/11/05-08
2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on
Web Intelligence (WI-08), Sydney, Australia, 08/12/09-12
COMPLEX'2009, First Intl Conf on Complex Systems: Theory and Applications,
Shanghai, China, 09/02/23-25
Models and Simulations 3 Conference, Charlottesville, USA 09/03/05-07
2009 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, Nashville, Tennessee,
USA,09/03/30-04/02
2009 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life
IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and
Computational Biology (CIBCB 2009)
IEEE Workshop on Evolving and Self-Developing Intelligent Systems (ESDID 2009)
IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Agents (IA 2009)
IEEE Workshop on Organic Computing (OC 2009)
IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium (SIS 2009)
IEEE Workshop on Evolvable and Adaptive Hardware (WEAH 2009)
_________________________________________________________________
20.04. Other Announcements
[62] PhD Studentship in Unconventional Computing or Cellular Automata,
University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, Deadline: 08/10/01
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
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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
[62]
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/VB307/PhD_Studentship_in_Unconventional_Computing_or
_Cellular_Automata/
target=new
_________________________________________________________________
[63]Complexity Digest is an independent publication available to
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