Month: March 2017

Complexity of lakes in a latitudinal gradient

•The usefulness of quantitative indicators of ecological complexity is evaluated.
•Chaos should not be confused with complexity.
•Light and temperature cause different ranges of complexity in the gradient.
•Homoeostasis variation is related to the seasonal changes and transitions.
•Autopoiesis reveals groups with higher and lower degree of autonomy.

Nelson Fernández, José Aguilar, C.A. Piña-García, Carlos Gershenson

Ecological Complexity
Volume 31, September 2017, Pages 1–20

Source: www.sciencedirect.com

From Matter to Life

“From Matter to Life: Information and Causality”
Edited by Sara Imari Walker, Paul C. W. Davies and George F. R. Ellis
Cambridge University Press, 2017

Recent advances suggest that the concept of information might hold the key to unravelling the mystery of life’s nature and origin. Fresh insights from a broad and authoritative range of articulate and respected experts focus on the transition from matter to life, and hence reconcile the deep conceptual schism between the way we describe physical and biological systems. A unique cross-disciplinary perspective, drawing on expertise from philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, and cognitive and social sciences, provides a new way to look at the deepest questions of our existence. This book addresses the role of information in life, and how it can make a difference to what we know about the world. Students, researchers, and all those interested in what life is and how it began will gain insights into the nature of life and its origins that touch on nearly every domain of science.

Cambridge University Press access to PDFs: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316584200
Cambridge University Press hardcopy listing: http://bit.ly/2mcjB2t
Amazon listing: http://amzn.to/2n3Ap9i

Source: www.cambridge.org

Human migration

In today’s polarized political environment, public discussion about refugees and migrants has become heated and muddled. Nature examines the facts around migration and the increasing use of technology to monitor people’s mobility. And we talk to scientists about their experiences and concerns when moving between, and living and working in, other countries.

Source: www.nature.com

The need for a translational science of democracy

The bitterly factious 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign was the culmination of several trends that, taken together, constitute a syndrome of chronic ailments in the body politic. Ironically, these destructive trends have accelerated just as science has rapidly improved our understanding of them and their underlying causes. But mere understanding is not sufficient to repair our politics. The challenge is to build a translational science of democracy that maintains scientific rigor while actively promoting the health of the body politic.

Michael A. Neblo, William Minozzi, Kevin M. Esterling, Jon Green, Jonathon Kingzette, David M. J. Lazer

Science 03 Mar 2017:
Vol. 355, Issue 6328, pp. 914-915
DOI: 10.1126/science.aal3900

Source: science.sciencemag.org

The mobility of elite life scientists: Professional and personal determinants

•We use a dataset of 10,051 elite life scientists to study the predictors of mobility.
•Scientists with more publications and NIH funding are more likely to move.
•Recent NIH funding is associated with a lower likelihood of moving.
•The quality of the peer environment is an important influencer of mobility.
•Scientists, especially mothers, are less likely to move when children are adolescent.

The mobility of elite life scientists: Professional and personal determinants

Pierre Azoulay, Ina Ganguli, Joshua Graff Zivin

Research Policy
Volume 46, Issue 3, April 2017, Pages 573–590

Source: www.sciencedirect.com