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Content about scientific software

February 6, 2013
Simulations: The dark side

What happens when the limits of particular simulations are reached? Read about Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics methods and the ways you can keep your simulations from venturing over into the dark side.

February 6, 2013
Standing on the shoulders of software developers

Last week's SciencePAD workshop, held at CERN, examined ways to ensure scientific software stays citable and sustainable over the long term.

January 23, 2013
New models help reveal details of supernova and remnants

In their initial phases of research on supernovae, two scientists at the University of Texas at Arlington, US, are trying something new – using SNSPH computer code to develop 3D simulations of a core-collapse supernova evolving into remnants.

January 16, 2013
Using computational models to develop patient-specific treatments

Current medical practice lacks the ability to fully assess the risk of rupture for an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Likewise, many key parameters vary widely among people. Using the resources of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, US, Ender Finol is developing computational models that help determine when surgical intervention is necessary.

November 28, 2012
How can computational science surpass the software error plateau?

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.

November 21, 2012
Next-generation computer chips based on macaque brain?

A monkey for a computer brain anyone? Image courtesy International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

November 7, 2012
Satellites, servers, and story-telling help disaster rapid response

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.

October 17, 2012
Next-generation electronics could self-heal

September 26, 2012
Globus Online launches new website for European researchers

The popular file-sharing tool comes to Europe with a new site aimed at fulfilling the specific needs of EU-based researchers.

 

August 22, 2012
Olympic sprinter gains speed with simulations

With all the world record-breaking performances this summer, at the London 2012 Olympic Games, some athletes used computer simulations to give themselves the competitive edge.

August 1, 2012
Big science needs Mickey Mouse models

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.

August 1, 2012
Can the world’s problems be solved by computation?

On 21 June 2012, 12 winners of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair awards competition, organized by the Society For Science and The Public, in the US, visited CERN. Their achievements include a visualization tool that could help reduce global CO2 and a faster code to solve non-linear equations – their average age was 17 years old. We caught up with four whose projects were driven by computing.

July 4, 2012
Weather forecasts in 2030

How accurate will the weather person be in 18 years time? Director-general of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts envisions possible future.

May 2, 2012
‘One-stop shop’ saves time & money for life sciences

A new project connects life science researchers with software developers, enabling faster and more accurate computations to be done.

April 4, 2012
Computer code for cleaner coal

"Coal gasification" is a cleaner way to extract energy from coal. But it's also complex—so complex that it's difficult to model and difficult to validate models of the process.

April 4, 2012
Engineers enlist weather model to optimize offshore wind plan

By running a sophisticated weather model on supercomputers, environmental engineers have defined optimal placement of a grid of four wind farms off the US East Coast. The model successfully balances production at times of peak demand and significantly reduces costly spikes and zero-power events.

April 4, 2012
Open Software for Open Science

A new initiative called ScienceSoft hopes to assist scientific communities in their search for the software they need to carry out their research.

March 28, 2012
Does computation threaten the scientific method?

Bug-free code is an impossibility. So, how can researchers know when the bugs in their code are minor, with no real impact, or show-stoppers that completely change the entire result?

December 21, 2011
The Tevatron's enduring computing legacy

Few laypeople think of computing innovation in connection with the Tevatron particle accelerator, which shut down earlier this year. Mention of the Tevatron inspires images of majestic machinery, or thoughts of immense energies and groundbreaking physics research, not circuit boards, hardware, networks, and software.

Yet over the course of more than three decades of planning and operation, a tremendous amount of computing innovation was necessary to keep the data flowing and physics results coming. Those innovations will continue to influence scientific computing and data analysis for years to come.

November 30, 2011
Computers that generate scientific hypotheses

Scientists are developing a computer that can read vast amounts of scientific literature, make connections between facts and develop hypotheses.

November 30, 2011
Identifying a protein treasure trove with the grid

Today’s biologists face a difficult problem: their treasure trove of protein structures is exciting, but of little use if they don’t know what those proteins are for.

The Protein Data Bank, where data about proteins with known structures are stored, contains millions of proteins that scientists can freely access. But in most cases, the biological purpose of those proteins is unknown.

November 2, 2011
A match made in Sweden

Swedish researchers have developed a computer model that is better at matching transplant candidates to living donors than traditional methods, and as a result could improve long-term survival rates for transplant recipients.

Weight, gender, age, blood group (of both donor and recipient), and the time when no blood flows to the heart during a transplant are just some of the numerous variables that can affect a patient’s survival chances after transplantation.