Content about Oceania

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.

Last week, iSGTW attended the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC’14) in Leipzig, Germany. The event featured a range of speakers representing a wide variety of research domains. Awards given by PRACE and Germany’s Gauss Centre for Supercomputing highlighted some of the outstanding research on show at the event. And, of course, the new TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers was announced.

With global data output growing rapidly, it is vital that researchers come together to build the social and technical bridges required to enable open sharing of research data. The organization charged with achieving this is the Research Data Alliance (RDA), which recently celebrated its first anniversary.

Last month, the RDA held a plenary meeting in Dublin, Ireland. The 497 attendees at the event engaged in discussion on a wide variety of topics, ranging from the role of publishers and persistent identifiers to heritage data and legal interoperability. Data applications discussed also included geospatial information, marine observation, food production, and urban quality of life indicators.

iSGTW speaks to Mark Parsons, who was recently appointed secretary general of the Research Data Alliance. This global organization celebrates its first anniversary next month and will be holding its third plenary meeting in Dublin, Ireland, from 26-28 March, 2014.

Parsons tells iSGTW why it is important for researchers to share their data and explains how the RDA is seeking to harness enthusiasm within the community to bring about a 'culture change' in the way researchers deal with data. He also argues that the greatest barriers to increased data sharing are often social, rather than technical.

Once fully operational, the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope could produce data at a rate more than 100 times greater than current global internet traffic. Successful handling of this unparalleled data deluge will be key to the project's ability to find answers to some of the most complex puzzles in astronomy.

City lights, sand dunes, and glaciers –oh my! Take a look at NASA’s eye-catching images of Earth from orbit, including true-color satellite images, Earth science visualizations, and time lapses from the International Space Station.

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.

The largest scientific projects in the world, including the Large Hadron Collider or the Square Kilometre Array, still require simple models to help researchers understand the results.