Content about Latin America

The Merlin smartphone app has the solution to your bird watching mysteries. Now, Merlin Bird Photo ID takes it one step farther, identifying birds from uploaded photos. Crowd sourcing and artificial intelligence come together to answer a frequently asked question: What bird is that?

Scientists have collected wildlife audio samples for many years, and there are many databases of these sounds in existence. BioAcoustica distinguishes itself through tight integration with a cyberinfrastructure for performing analyses.

At the recent Internet2 Global Summit iSGTW sat down with George Komatsoulis to talk about the state of distributed research and the NIH Commons, a scalable virtual environment to provide high-performance computing and data storage for bio-medical research. When implemented, the Commons will create a marketplace for digital bio-medical resources, driving down costs and democratizing access.

Seismologists have always relied on surface observation to piece together models of what they thought Earth’s interior looked like. These models served them well for years, but they were unable to map out the planet’s interior with certainty, until now. A team of scientists is using the powerful US Titan supercomputer to do just that.

Big data opens doors previously closed to researchers, yet the volume of data sends scientists looking for analytical tools to bring order from the informational cacophony. Prior to tools like Bioconductor, there were few options for working with quantitative data types; a discordant score for deciphering the human genetic code was the result.

Today, genomic analysis machines create a common language for users, and build a worldwide community to foster developers from among subject matter experts. These instruments make beautiful music from a mass of genomic information.

To keep up with growing demand from its network of users, RNP, the Brazilian national research and education network, has turned to a hybrid, community, federated cloud to supply its services. The hybrid model allows RNP to act as a public (commercial) contract broker for low-risk services. Through the community model, universities and research institutes can offer their own data center infrastructure — either fully or partially — to the national cloud.

Sara Pittonet Gaiarin speaks to José Luiz Ribeiro Filho, director of services and solutions for RNP, on behalf of EU Brazil Cloud Connect. He explains more about the organization’s plans...
 

Cloudscape Brazil 2014 was held on 20 October 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event took a practical look at some of the major barriers to the adoption of cloud computing, exploring pathways for closer collaboration between Brazil and Europe on issues of common interest. High on the agenda was the ambition to shape cloud developments in Brazil and Europe by bringing insights into both current market trends and the challenges slowing down mainstream adoption, as well as into the cloud services and best practices to address them.

For roughly two decades, scientists have struggled to understand the ratio of lithium isotopes found within the bellies of the oldest stars in the universe. Now, with the aid of high-performance computing, an international group of researchers has put this cosmic problem to rest.

Warp drives aren’t just the stuff of science fiction. Researchers inspired by Star Trek are currently working to make the dream of interstellar travel for human civilization a reality – one day. While the kinks are being worked out, distributed computing may help address the multi-dimensional issues of warp travel.

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.