Informatics

A NIMS-Ehime University joint research team succeeded in discovering new materials that exhibit superconductivity under high pressures using materials informatics (MI) approaches (data science-based material search techniques). This study experimentally demonstrated that MI enables efficient exploration of new superconducting materials. MI approaches may be applicable to the development of various functional materials, including superconductors. Superconducting…

Advances in high-throughput, next-generation technologies mean that pharmaceutical R&D now demands the management of vast quantities of data. This information is increasingly diverse and comes from multiple sources, spanning the entire drug discovery and development process. Connecting laboratory instruments and systems remains a challenge as organizations look to streamline data sharing at every stage. Digital…

The rise of genomics, the shift from considering genes singly to collectively, is adding a new dimension to medical care; biomedical researchers hope to use the information contained in human genomes to make better predictions about individual health, including responses to therapeutic drugs. A new computational tool developed through a collaboration between the University of…

NEC Corporation and Tohoku University applied new technologies developed by NEC, which use AI to predict the characteristics of unknown materials, to the joint development of cutting edge thermoelectric conversion technology known as a thermoelectric (TE) device*1 using spin current*2, and achieved 100 times better thermoelectric conversion efficiency over the course of approximately 1 year. These…

A novel, high-frequency electronic chip potentially capable of transmitting tens of gigabits of data per second — a rate that is orders of magnitude above the fastest internet speeds available today — has been developed by engineers at the University of California, Davis. Omeed Momeni, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC…

Many people who use computers and other digital devices are aware that all the words and images displayed on their monitors boil down to a sequence of ones and zeros. But few likely appreciate what is behind those ones and zeros: microscopic arrays of “magnetic moments” (imagine tiny bar magnets with positive and negative poles).…

Some scientists dream about big data. The dream bridges two divided realms. One realm holds lofty peaks of number-crunching scientific computation. Endless waves of big data analysis line the other realm. A deep chasm separates the two. Discoveries await those who cross these estranged lands. Unfortunately, data cannot move seamlessly between Hadoop (HDFS) and parallel…

Dell Technologies, the world’s largest privately-controlled technology company, brings out of stealth its venture practice, Dell Technologies Capital. Since its inception a few years ago, Dell Technologies Capital has been an active investor in more than 70 early-stage startups, with the mission of  helping founders and their teams develop innovative technology solutions and bring them to…

Under a collaborative partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy, a new automated measurement system developed at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will ensure quality production of plutonium-238 while reducing handling by workers. NASA has funded ORNL and other national laboratories to develop a process that will restore U.S.…

Research published Wednesday in Nature Scientific Reports lays out a theoretical map to use ferroelectric material to process information using multivalued logic – a leap beyond the simple ones and zeroes that make up our current computing systems that could let us process information much more efficiently. The language of computers is written in just two symbols…

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…