Bestselling science author James Gleick (_Chaos_, _Faster_, _Genius_) recalls the many achievements of Claude Shannon, father of information theory and accomplished scientist at Bell Labs and MIT. Shannon died in Massachusetts early in 2001.

Published in the December 30 issue of the New York Times Magazine.

'Bit Player' -- James Gleick on Claude Shannon | NYT

Dutch researchers authored this article, which appears in the December 6 issue of the journal _Nature_.

... soluble semiconductive polymers in microelectronic devices ...

Here we describe an active-matrix display with 64 x 64 pixels, each driven by a thin-film transistor with a solution-processed polymer semiconductor. In a significant step towards low-cost flexible displays, this polymer-dispersed liquid-crystal arrangement gives a reflective, low-power display with paper-like contrast, which can handle 256 grey levels while being refreshed at video speed.

Plastic transistors in active-matrix displays

The News Focus section of this week's issue of the journal Science has several brief, timely articles related to proteomics. (Note that a subscription is required for these items.) Here are the article titles:

High-Speed Biologists Search for Gold in Proteins
Proteomics 2.0: The View Ahead
A Proteomics Upstart Tries to Outrun the Competition
Searching for Recipes for Protein Chips
Gene and Protein Patents Get Ready to Go Head to Head
Rockefeller's Star Lured to San Diego Company
A Physicist-Turned-Biologist

Proteomics featured in Dec 7 issue of Science

* constantly updated news and feature articles
* topic-based 'dossiers' with news, 'policy briefs' and links to other sites
* regional gateways on Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East
* opinion articles by leading experts and commentators

SciDev.Net: news, views and information about science, technology and development

Here we describe a programmable finite automaton comprising DNA and DNA-manipulating enzymes that solves computational problems autonomously.

Programmable and autonomous computing machine made of biomolecules

The Institute for Genomic Research, based in Maryland, is sponsoring a series of lectures on the future of science. The series begins on Thursday, November 29, with a talk by Hans Moravec of CMU. It continues through at least May 2002 with talks by Bill Cheswick of Lumeta (author of _Firewalls and Internet Security_) and Ralph Merkle of Zyvex (and _The Diamond Age_ fame), among others.

Defining the Boundaries of 21st Century Science

"The program would be administered by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health," said Kurzweil. "It would have a budget equaling the current budget for NSF and NIH."

Kurzweil proposes national defense program for GNR

"A philosopher by training, Daniel C. Dennett is known as the leading proponent of the computational model of the mind. He has made significant contributions in fields as diverse as evolutionary theory, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, animal studies, computer science among others. Never one to avoid a good fight, he has clashed with such noted thinkers as John Searle, Roger Penrose, and Stephen Jay Gould. In this regard, Dennett is emblematic of the third culture intellectual.The strength of the third culture is precisely that it can tolerate disagreements about which ideas are to be taken seriously. There is no canon or accredited list of acceptable ideas. Unlike previous intellectual pursuits, the achievements of the third culture are not the marginal disputes of a quarrelsome mandarin class: they affect the lives of everybody on the planet."

Published on November 19 at edge.org.

The Computational Perspective: A Talk With Daniel Dennett

Watts's novel approach is relevant to many problems that deal with network connectivity and complex systems' behaviour in general [...] This fascinating exploration will be fruitful in a remarkable variety of fields, including physics and mathematics, as well as sociology, economics, and biology."

Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness

This book shows how, by rather simple models, we can gain remarkable insights into the behavior of complex systems. It is devoted to the discussion of functional self-organization in large populations of interacting active elements. The possible forms of self-organization in such systems range from coherent collective motions in the physical coordinate space to the mutual synchronization of internal dynamics, the development of coherently operating groups, the rise of hierarchical structures, and the emergence of dynamical networks. Such processes play an important role in biological and social phenomena. The authors have chosen a series of models from physics, biochemistry, biology, sociology and economics, and will systematically discuss their general properties. The book addresses researchers and graduate students in a variety of disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, biology and the social sciences."

ISBN 3-540-42164-5. (You can buy it from Amazon and Fatbrain.)

From Swarms to Societies: Models of Complex Coherent Action