Abstract Much of our current understanding continental topographic evolution is rooted in measuring and predicting the rates at which rivers erode landscape. Flume tank field observations indicate that stochasticity local conditions play important roles determining small scales (e.g., <10 km, thousands years). Obversely, preserved river profiles common shapes atop uplifting topography er...

M icro RNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs that play an important role in the negative regulation of gene expression by suppressing protein translation. Animal genomes contain an abundance of small genes that produce regulatory RNAs of ≈22 nucleotides in length. The Ambros laboratory identified the first miRNAs in 1993 while characterizing a genetic locus involved in the control of developmental timin...

HILE COMPLEXITY IS MOVING into every corner of the physical, chemical, and biological sciences, simplicity, elegance, and economy provide the bedrock criteria for choosing among competing hypotheses. Complexity can be viewed as a branch of mathematics. Simplicity can be viewed as a branch of philosophy or aesthetics. Richard Feynman said, “You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity. ....

ions, Ensembles, and Virtualizations Simplicity and Complexity in Agent-Based Modeling Ian S. Lustick and Dan Miodownik The Unique Analytic Leverage of Agent-Based Modeling Models are analytically focused metaphors. For example, “the moon is a ghostly galleon” is a metaphor. Thinking of the moon as if it were a ghostly galleon evokes particular moods and images associated with the moon and not ...

This paper reviews Pattee's ideas about the symbolic domain as a phenomenon related to the self-simplifying processes of certain hierarchical systems, such as the living. We distinguish the concepts of constraint, record, and symbol to explain how the Semantic Closure Principle, that is to say, the view that symbols are self-interpreted by the cell, emerges. Related to this, the notion of compl...