Science, Nov 17, 2000 v290 i5495 p1360 
Coherence and Conservation. (habitat and endangered
species rescue)(Illustration) David J. D. Earn; Simon
A. Levin; Pejman Rohani. 


The paper "Coherence and Conservation" by David J.D.
Earn, et al. presents a mathematical model dealing
with how populations occupying habitat "patches,"
which may or may not be interconnected via
"conservation corridors," can perhaps have predictable
survivability or extinction possibilities. 
Populations with "spatial coherence" or "synchrony"
may have higher extinction probabilities because all
members of the population live in one patch.
The model predicts  coherent oscillations are are
either 1) possible, 2) impossible, or
3) certain, based on different values of variables in
the model.  The model includes a "dispersal pattern"
similar to a cellular automata.  The population model
used is the logistic function.  Global extinction is
more likely when coherent oscillations are present.
The model presented can be used not only to possibly
conserve populations we wish to, but also to eradicate
those we don't want, e.g. diseases, or introduced
species. 

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Science, Jan 7, 2000 v287 i5450 p101 
Equilibrium Regained: From Nonequilibrium Chaos to
Statistical Mechanics. David A. Egolf. 

This paper, "Equilibrium Regained: From Nonequilibrium
Chaos to Statistical Mechanics" discusses the
possibilities of salvageing certain properties of
successful application of Statistical Mechanics to
real world equilibrium systems when the problem under
consideration is "far from equilibrium, strongly
dissipative, deterministic."  Previously it has been
possible to deal with problems varying only a little
from equilibrium.  Due to "large scale computational
studies of a simple, large, chaotic, far from
equilibrium systems," similarities have been seen
between the two types of systems, including the
retention of several "cornerstones of Statistical
Mechanics -- ergodicity, detailed balance, Gibbs
distributions, partition functions, etc..."  This
leads to the conclusion that some of the far from
equilibrium systems can be successfully modeled using
Statistical Mechanics with a touch of chaos.

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Forbes
God, Stephen Wolfram, and Everything Else 
Michael S. Malone, 11.27.00 

This article illustrates the concept of something
complex, intricate, fascinating, and beautiful can
arise from the combination of many simple parts, each
of which follows one of a few simple rules.