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Being prepared for a pandemic, like COVID-19, depends on the ability to predict the course of the pandemic and the human behaviour that drives spread in the event of an outbreak. Cell phone metadata that is routinely collected by telecommunications providers can reveal changes of behavior in people who are diagnosed with a flu-like illness, while also protecting their anonymity, a new study has found.

Official weather forecasts are being produced faster and more efficiently, thanks to revolutionary technology designed by scientists at the University of Bath. Last updated on Friday 5 February 2021 Official weather forecasts are being produced faster and more efficiently, thanks to revolutionary technology designed by scientists at the University of Bath.

A new smartphone app developed by researchers at UCL and Birkbeck, University of London, is enabling doctors to remotely monitor their patients' progression of Parkinson's symptoms, as reported in a new clinical trial. The findings, published in npj Parkinson's Disease , show that the app can provide clinicians with a more complete picture of a person's condition than they can get from a typically brief medical check-up.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow's School of Mathematics and Statistics have contributed to a major new report on how digital technology could help the UK achieve its net-zero goals. The Royal Society's report, published today, suggests that digital technology, from smart meters to supercomputers, weather modelling and AI, could deliver nearly one third of the carbon emission reductions required by 2030.

A computer vision technology developed by University of Cambridge engineers has now been developed into a free mobile phone app for regular monitoring of glucose levels in people with diabetes. As someone with diabetes, this app makes the whole process easier. I've now forgotten what it was like to enter the values manually, but I do know I wouldn't want to go back to it James Charles The app uses computer vision techniques to read and record the glucose levels, time and date displayed on a typical glucose test via the camera on a mobile phone.

Computer modelling used to forecast Covid-19 mortality contains significant uncertainty in its predictions, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL and the CWI institute in the Netherlands. The authors of the study, performed for the Royal Society's RAMP initiative for Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic, highlighted that however well constructed such models are, they are only ever as robust as the "input" parameters - which include highly uncertain factors relating to how the disease is spread.

Spider webs are engineering marvels constructed by 8 legged experts with 400 million years of accumulated know-how. Much can be learned from the building of the spider's gossamer net and the operation of its sticky trap.  Amazingly, garden cross spiders can regenerate lost legs and use them immediately to build a web that is pitch-perfect, even though the new limb is much shorter than the one it replaced.

An international team of security researchers, including experts from the University of Birmingham, is presenting new side-channel attacks, which use fluctuations in software power consumption to access sensitive data on Intel CPUs. Power side-channel attacks are attacks that exploit fluctuations in power consumption to extract sensitive data such as cryptographic keys.

The welfare of livestock could be improved thanks to a new research project that will use novel artificial intelligence methods combined with behavioural analytics to provide rapid and reliable insights to animal health for farmers across the UK. The team headed by Dr Chris Cormack at QF will run a feasibility study with Professor Andrew Dowsey and animal welfare experts, Dr Siobhan Mullan, Dr Suzanne Held and Professor Michael Mendl at the University of Bristol and Agri-EPI Centre at their South West Dairy Development Centre in Somerset.

SCAMP-5d vision system The University of Manchester, 2020 SCAMP-5d's hardware architecture.

The roar of a lion is one of the most thrilling and captivating sounds of the wild. This characteristic call is typically delivered in a bout consisting of one or two soft moans followed by several loud, full-throated roars and a terminating sequence of grunts.  A team of scientists based in WildCRU at the University of Oxford, well-known for their research involving Cecil the Lion, has teamed up with colleagues in the Department of Computer Science to discover the precise ways in which each lion's roar is distinct, identifiable and trackable.

Violence reduction strategies, which have traditionally focused on pubs and nightclubs, need to be broadened to include places where alcohol is not served if they are to be effective, a new study has suggested. Researchers from Cardiff University's Violence Research Group gathered data from 10 city centres across England and Wales and used machine learning to map the distribution of reported incidents of violent crime against alcohol outlets and, crucially, locations where alcohol is not sold.

Virtual reality software which allows researchers to 'walk' inside and analyse individual cells could be used to understand fundamental problems in biology and develop new treatments for disease.

A new system capable of automatically turning words into molecules on demand will open up the digitisation of chemistry, scientists say. Researchers from the University of Glasgow's School of Chemistry, who developed the system, claim it will lead to the creation of a 'Spotify for chemistry' - a vast online repository of downloadable recipes for important molecules including drugs.

The Government of India's use of nudge theory in the first three months of the pandemic helped to tackle the virus on numerous fronts, a new study suggests. The government urgently needed to buy time and.. bring a deeply divided population together to fight a common struggle Ronita Bardhan India has reported nearly five million COVID-19 cases and well over 80,000 deaths (as of 17 September 2020), making the country one of the worst hit in the world.

The world is one step closer to having a totally secure internet and an answer to the growing threat of cyber-attacks, thanks to a team of international scientists who have created a unique prototype which could transform how we communicate online. The invention led by the University of Bristol, revealed today in the journal Science Advances , has the potential to serve millions of users, is understood to be the largest-ever quantum network of its kind, and could be used to secure people's online communication, particularly in these internet-led times accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Extremely energy-efficient artificial intelligence is now closer to reality after a study by UCL researchers found a way to improve the accuracy of a brain-inspired computing system. The system, which uses memristors to create artificial neural networks, is at least 1,000 times more energy efficient than conventional transistor-based AI hardware, but has until now been more prone to error.

Contract tracing apps used to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are unlikely to be effective without proper uptake and support from concurrent control measures, finds a new study by UCL researchers. The systematic review*, published in Lancet Digital Health , shows that evidence around the effectiveness of automated contact tracing systems is currently very limited, and large-scale manual contact tracing alongside other public health control measures - such as physical distancing and closure of indoor spaces such as pubs - is likely to be required in conjunction with automated approaches.

Researchers at Oxford University, in collaboration with DeepMind, University of Basel and Lancaster University, have created a machine learning algorithm that interfaces with a quantum device and 'tunes' it faster than human experts, without any human input. They are dubbing it 'Minecraft explorer for quantum devices'.

The overwhelming 'Whiteness' of artificial intelligence - from stock images and cinematic robots to the dialects of virtual assistants - removes people of colour from the way humanity thinks about its technology-enhanced future. If the developer demographic does not diversify, AI stands to exacerbate racial inequality Kanta Dihal This is according to experts at the University of Cambridge, who suggest that current portrayals and stereotypes about AI risk creating a "racially homogenous" workforce of aspiring technologists, building machines with bias baked into their algorithms.