Informatics

A new proof-of-concept study by researchers from the University of California San Diego succeeded in training computers to “learn” what a healthy versus an unhealthy gut microbiome looks like based on its genetic makeup. Since this can be done by genetically sequencing fecal samples, the research suggests there is great promise for new diagnostic tools…

Imagine a dim light which is insufficiently bright enough to illuminate a room. An amplifier for such a light would increase the brightness by increasing the number of photons emitted. Photonics researchers have created such a high gain optical amplifier that is compact enough to be placed on a chip. The developed amplifier, when used…

Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies and techniques have improved the productivity and accuracy of DNA sequencers. The benefits of Moore’s Law are reducing the cost of the High Performance Computing (HPC) capabilities needed to perform the alignment and other workflow steps on the outputs from NGS sequencing machines. These two trends deliver tremendous benefit to advancing…

A giant, fully operational 16-bit computer that aims to demystify the strange and seemingly magical mechanisms of computation has been built by students and staff from the University of Bristol. The Big Hex Machine, specifically designed to explain how a computer works, has been built out of over 100 specially designed four-bit circuit boards and will…

Atoms, photons, and other quantum particles are often capricious and finicky by nature; very rarely at a standstill, they often collide with others of their kind. But if such particles can be individually corralled and controlled in large numbers, they may be harnessed as quantum bits, or qubits — tiny units of information whose state…

University of Canterbury Distinguished Professor Jack Copeland and UC alumni and composer Jason Long have restored the earliest known recording of computer-generated music, created more than 65 years ago using programming techniques devised by Alan Turing. In 1951, a BBC outside-broadcast unit in Manchester used a portable acetate disc cutter to capture three melodies played by a…

Ford and the Chinese search engine company Baidu will each invest $75 million in Velodyne, a company that makes laser sensors that help guide self-driving cars. Velodyne, based in Morgan Hill, California, says it will use the $150 million investment to expand design and production and reduce the cost of its sensors. The laser sensors…

When scaling down robots to the micrometer scale for tiny tasks such as incising tissue and puncturing retinal veins, minimalism is key. To make smaller, simpler microrobots, researchers at Drexel University have developed a fabrication method which utilizes the minimum geometric requirements for fluid motion — consisting of just two conjoined microparticles coated with bits…

Aalto University scientists have broken the world record by fourteen fold in the energy resolution of thermal photodetection. The record was made using a partially superconducting microwave detector. The discovery may lead to ultrasensitive cameras and accessories for the emerging quantum computer. The first of the two key enabling developments is the new detector design…

Chemists at the Complutense University of Madrid have developed a method that allows brewers to measure the freshness of beer, using a polymer sensor that changes colour upon detecting furfural, a compound that appears when this beverage ages and gives it a stale flavour. The sensor can be controlled from a smartphone app also created…

If you’re looking for a way to use a computer more efficiently, researchers at the University of Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science may have a solution for you. Master’s candidate Jingjie Zheng and Professor Daniel Vogel have recently filed a patent that would allow computer users to trigger different shortcut commands by…

Most people are aware of open-source computer programs. These free programs, accessible by anyone, spread technology to distant corners of the world. Cutting-edge innovations, however, come at a price. As a result, many software companies license their work. These same concerns exist within the seed-development arena. Some plant researchers support the free exchange of new…

Here are just a few excellent online repositories that provide free viewing and downloads of fascinating scientific information, ranging from Einstein transcripts to NASA posters, from personal papers and letters to Feynman lectures, from Darwin manuscripts to high-resolution space program photos, and from diaries to virtual worlds. Nearly 3 Million Astonishing Earth Images NASA has…

These spiky foam wedges, seen here in ESA’s Maxwell test chamber, cover the walls of facilities that simulate the endless void of space. This ‘anechoic’ foam absorbs radio signals, enabling radio-frequency testing without any distorting reflections from the chamber walls. In addition, it also absorbs sound — making these chambers eerily quiet places to work.…