Content about computer science

With access to significantly more computational power, researchers can provide more accurate earthquake predictions with the potential to save lives and minimize property damage. Read about advances in developing code to cut both research times and energy costs in simulating seismic hazards.

The University of Texas at Austin and TACC competed against the top supercomputing centers and universities to claim one of the most advanced systems in the world — and won. The prize, an estimated $50 million-plus investment over a four-year period.

How do scientists use supercomputers to predict complex things like weather, climate, earthquakes, and the formation of galaxies? Watch this video to see how supercomputers handle mathematical modeling.

With the year almost over we look back at the debates, controversies, and achievements in the world of science and computing. Read our countdown of iSGTW’s most popular stories of 2012. 

Due to the complexity of modern computational science, increasing software errors in code are causing the retraction of research papers in major journals. Now, the RunMyCode project offers a platform to reproduce a published paper's code and data that may be the key to not only reduce errors, but could open the door to better quality science across all research fields.

Extracting new knowledge from big data science is such a problem that projects are now underway which may transform research publishing and find relationships too complex for the human mind to see alone.

When natural disasters and human conflicts strike, who are you going to call? Geographic information systems analysts, that's who. They provide a rapid frontline service to turn satellite imagery into information that helps internally displaced people.

Researchers are using the latest next-gen sequencing and a supercomputer to analyze unusual Geranium genomes, which are natural mutants, evolving many times faster than their plant peers. This could impact research on genetically-modified foods.

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2012 was awarded last week to Serge Haroche and David Wineland, for their ground-breaking experimental methods to measure and manipulate individual quantum systems. Wineland and his colleagues' work holds promise for the creation of practical quantum computers.

With the IEEE International Conference on eScience 2012 under a week away, iSGTW caught up with Ian Foster, general chair and moderator of the event. We get his opinions on the key areas of focus of the program, the challenges being addressed, and what attendees should watch out for.

The iSGTW team is in Prague this week for the 2012 EGI Technical Forum. Make sure you don't miss a thing by following our live tweets from the event.