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THE MYSTERY OF COLONIES. "Colonies are like organisms, but unlike anything in the non-biological world, with respect to their degree of integration and cooperation for the good of the whole. The key question then is an evolutionary one. How did this organismal degree of cooperation evolve, given that the Darwinian norm is closer to a struggle of all against all? http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098220300811X View in LinkedIn

TOBACCO DIVERSIFICATION is the next theme. It is often difficult to determine the Dutch Doll ownership pyramid, as companies change their names, and hide behind shells and holding companies. What is clear, though, is that tobacco has married fast food. Both are experts on physiologically irrelevant pleasure stimulation with big health consequences. View in LinkedIn

GREATER THAN THE SUM. "Dumb parts, properly connected into a swarm, yield smart results." (Kevin Kelly). The fact is, there is no such thing as dumb parts. https://scholar.google.es/scholar?start=40&q=swarm+intelligence&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 View in LinkedIn

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES. Slime mould and researcher set to play piano duet http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2015/feb/09/slime-mould-and-researcher-set-to-play-piano-duet View in LinkedIn

CONUNDRUM. "How complex biological diversity can arise from seemingly simple strands of DNA is one of the most pertinent of questions confronting 21st century biologists." https://lnkd.in/d42MTRa View in LinkedIn

WORLD TOBACCO ATLAS. A valuable resource. https://lnkd.in/dMNkueZ View in LinkedIn

OPEN INNOVATION. "Groups of individuals can be surprisingly adept at predicting future events and solving complex problems, and often outperform smart individuals or experts. This phenomenon, known as ‘swarm intelligence’ or ‘the wisdom of crowds’, has been extensively studied and inspired many applications in human societies." https://lnkd.in/d5UvDeJ View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT IN NATURE: a pause in our ongoing theme of tobacco. The last Fragment in nature touched on quorum sensing (QS) in bacteria. Bacteria clearly seem to form selfless societies. This Fragment deals with QS in insect colonies, with a supposedly higher level of complexity of the individual. The same selfless societies seem to occur. View in LinkedIn

ALTRIA GROUP BOARD OF DIRECTORS have current or former senior ties to Citigroup, Travelers, TIAA-CREF, RJR Nabisco, Coca-Cola, General Motors, MillerCoors, and Frito-Kay, and the U.S. treasury. Now you know who runs junk food and tobacco. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altria View in LinkedIn

TOBACCO AND JUNK FOOD OWNERSHIP. "By the close of 1995 Morris's portfolio of brands included 68 that reported sales of over $100 million. Of those 68, six non-tobacco products--Kraft, Miller, Jacobs, Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House, and Post--passed the $1 billion mark." http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/72/Philip-Morris-Companies-Inc.html View in LinkedIn