news 2013

Think you can figure out a way to unlock one of the biggest secrets of the universe? The recently launched third Gravitational Lensing Accuracy Testing challenge (GREAT3) is giving researchers the opportunity to do just that. GREAT3, which is led by Carnegie Mellon University's Rachel Mandelbaum and UCL's Barnaby Rowe, invites researchers from fields including astrophysics, statistics and machine learning, to test new and existing methods for measuring weak gravitational lensing.

A new app has been developed by researchers at Cardiff University that enables users to measure their understanding of different groups in society. The 'Masquerade' app is based on The Imitation Game (IMGAME); a new research method that can be used to compare societies across space and time. IMGAME is innovative in its combination of collecting quantitative measures as well as qualitative data by asking sociological questions.

Scientists from Plymouth University are beginning to develop computer models of tadpole brains as part of a £1.3 million project to understand how the brain makes the decision to initiate motion. A collaborative project, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), will see the Plymouth team working in conjunction with biologists at the University of Bristol and the University of St Andrews to understand and build computer models of how sensory signals are interpreted by the brain and lead to the initiation of locomotion.

Current chip technology used for purchasing items via credit and debit cards in shops was developed in the mid-1990s. EMVCo, the standard body which manages, maintains and advances EMV Specifications, is in the process of designing the next generation payment technology to meet long-term industry requirements.

New research suggests that companies are leaving themselves open to potentially serious security and legal risks by employees' improper use of corporate mobile devices. Experts from the University of Glasgow looked at a sample of mobile phones returned by the employees from one Fortune 500 company and found that they were able to retrieve large amounts of sensitive corporate and personal information.

With optical fibre networks gradually approaching their theoretical capacity limits, new types of fibres such as multicore fibres have been at the focus of worldwide research to overcome critical capacity barriers, which threaten the evolution of the Internet. The University of Bristol in collaboration with the National Institute of Information and Technology (NICT) have demonstrated successfully for the first time a multicore fibre-based network, which will form the foundation for the future Internet infrastructure.

We may have more in common with pigeons than previously thought, according to research showing both animals' brains are wired in a similar way. A researcher from Imperial College London and his colleagues have developed for the first time a map of a typical bird brain, showing how different regions are connected together to process information.

Scientists determine the difference between human tweeters, those managed by groups of people and automated Twitter accounts based on tweet timings. The researchers, from Imperial College London, found that they could easily tell if humans were responsible for tweets, irrespective of their content, based on when the user's tweet was posted.

A new study has analysed tens of thousands of articles available to readers of online news and created a model to find out 'what makes people click'. The researchers developed a model of "news appeal" based on the words contained in an article's title and text intro, which is what a reader uses when they choose to click on a story.

16 May 2013 Wonder material graphene, when combined with other graphene-like materials, paves the way for vast new areas of scientific discovery and previously unheard-of applications, University of Manchester researchers have revealed. Writing in Nature , a large international team led Dr Roman Gorbachev from The University of Manchester shows that, when graphene placed on top of insulating boron nitride, or 'white graphene', the electronic properties of graphene change dramatically revealing a pattern resembling a butterfly.

University of Nottingham researchers have developed a new predictive tool to help GPs identify and treat patients at risk of stroke. The QStroke algorithm has been shown to be better at predicting risk of primary stroke than current methods among those with atrial fibrillation who may need anticoagulants.

BOSTON - Computer scientists at the University of Birmingham have devised a new set of models, using mobile phone data, for studying the geographic evolution of country-wide epidemics and for understanding and planning the diffusion of information among the population to advise on strategies to avoid spreading the infection further.

Researchers at Cardiff and Bristol Universities will today (Friday 19 April) show how ground-breaking ultra high definition (UHD) technology is making a real difference in remote medical training and diagnosis, with 3D demonstrations on a 'virtual patient'. Already used by trainee radiographers at Cardiff University, UHD technology, using the UK's research and education high-speed data network Janet , has the potential to revolutionise the way medical training is conducted.

Researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Cardiff will today [Friday 19 April] show how groundbreaking ultra high definition (UHD) technology is making a real difference in remote medical training and diagnosis, with 3D demonstrations on a 'virtual patient'. Already used by trainee radiographers at Cardiff University, UHD technology, using the UK's research and education high-speed data network Janet, has the potential to revolutionise the way medical training is conducted.

The use of words with emotional content in books has steadily decreased throughout the last century, according to new research from the Universities of Sheffield, Bristol and Durham. The study, published today in PLOS ONE , also found a divergence between American and British English, with the former being more 'emotional' than the latter.

An international research group has demonstrated a quantum algorithm that performs a true calculation for the first time. Quantum algorithms could one day enable the design of new materials, pharmaceuticals or clean energy devices. The team implemented the 'phase estimation algorithm' - a central quantum algorithm which achieves an exponential speedup over all classical algorithms.