Summaries | Headlines

Virtual Game Helps Children Escape Realities Of Burn Unit (October 11, 2007) -- Nurses and physicians are using the latest technology to help young burn victims endure the extreme pain of dressing changes and wound care. Instead of traditional distraction devices, such as books ... > full story

'Network' Approach Identifies Potential Breast Cancer Susceptibility Gene (October 11, 2007) -- Like a crossword-puzzle solver who uses the letters in some answers to figure out others, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an international group of collaborators have used data on ... > full story

How To Predict The Future Of The Past Tense (October 11, 2007) -- Verbs evolve and homogenize at a rate inversely proportional to their prevalence in the English language, according to a formula developed by Harvard University mathematicians who've invoked ... > full story

Storing Data On Atomic Roundabouts (October 11, 2007) -- Scientists have demonstrated the existence of right-handed and left-handed "magnetic vortices". They believe that this physical phenomenon could eventually lead to the construction of faster and more ... > full story

Microgrid Allows Simultaneous Study Of Multiple Variables (October 11, 2007) -- Scientists have developed a method for correlating the results of microscopic imaging techniques in a way that could lead to improved understanding, diagnosis and possibly treatment of a variety of ... > full story

Light Shed On Light-emitting Nanodevice (October 11, 2007) -- Nanotechnology researchers have unraveled some of the fundamental physics of a material that holds promise for light-emitting, flexible ... > full story

How Ferroelectric Computer Memory Works (October 11, 2007) -- Chemists and engineers have performed multiscale modeling of ferroelectric domain walls and provided a new theory of behavior for domain-wall motion, the "sliding wall" that separates ferroelectric ... > full story

Home Fire Sprinklers Score 'A' In Cost-benefit Study (October 11, 2007) -- Sometimes life-saving technologies seem beyond the reach of the average person. If you put residential fire sprinklers in that category, think again. Economists ran the numbers. Their benefit-cost ... > full story

Quantum Mechanics Predicts Unusual Lattice Dynamics Of Vanadium Metal Under Pressure (October 11, 2007) -- Theoretical calculations have illuminated a totally new type of high-pressure structural phase transition in Vanadium. These findings could lead us to the next breakthrough in superconducting ... > full story

New Mathematical Model Unravels The Mechanics Of Microbe Reproduction (October 11, 2007) -- In process that is shrouded in mystery, rod-shaped bacteria reproduce by splitting themselves in two. By applying advanced mathematics to laboratory data, scientists have solved a small but important ... > full story

Video Conferencing Could Help Resolve Conflicts At Work And At Home (October 11, 2007) -- The latest video technology could help to resolve conflicts between employees at work, neighbors or even family members, according to researchers. At present, conciliators and mediators are called in ... > full story

'Watermarks' Can Identify Pirated Internet Videos (October 10, 2007) -- For centuries, watermarks have protected written documents from forgery. Now their digital brothers are to prevent videos from being released in the Internet before their television premieres. ... > full story

< more recent summaries | earlier summaries >

Computing -- Originally, the word computing was synonymous with counting and calculating, and a science that deals with the original sense of computing mathematical ... > full article

Bioterrorism -- Bioterrorism is terrorism using germ warfare, an intentional human release of a naturally-occurring or human-modified toxin or biological ... > full article

Virtual reality -- Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily ... > full article

Quantum mechanics -- Quantum mechanics is a fundamental branch of theoretical physics that replaces Newtonian mechanics and classical electromagnetism at the atomic and subatomic levels. It is the underlying framework of ... > full article

Introduction to quantum mechanics --

Quantum mechanics is a physical science dealing with the behaviour of matter and energy on the scale of atoms and subatomic particles / waves. It also forms the basis for the contemporary ... > full article

Statistics -- Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, from ... > full article

Probability theory -- Probability theory is the mathematical study of phenomena characterized by randomness or uncertainty. More precisely, probability is used for modelling situations when the result of an experiment, ... > full article

Bioinformatics -- Bioinformatics and computational biology involve the use of techniques including applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, chemistry and biochemistry to ... > full article

Data mining -- Data mining, also known as knowledge-discovery in databases (KDD), is the practice of automatically searching large stores of data for patterns. To do this, data mining uses computational techniques ... > full article

Artificial intelligence --

The modern definition of artificial intelligence (or AI) is "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes ... > full article

Global climate model -- General Circulation Models (GCMs) are a class of computer-driven models for weather forecasting, understanding climate and projecting climate change, where they are commonly called Global Climate ... > full article

Global Positioning System -- The Global Positioning System, usually called GPS, is the Earth's only fully-functional satellite navigation system. A constellation of more than two dozen GPS satellites broadcasts precise timing ... > full article

Robotic surgery -- Robotic surgery is the use of robots in performing surgery. Three major advances aided by surgical robots have been remote surgery, minimally invasive surgery, and unmanned surgery. Major potential ... > full article

Alan Turing -- Alan Mathison Turing (June 23, 1912 - June 7, 1954) was a British mathematician, logician, and cryptographer. Turing is often considered to be a father of modern computer science. Turing provided an ... > full article

Charles Babbage -- Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 - 18 October 1871) was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a ... > full article

John von Neumann -- John von Neumann (December 28, 1903 - February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-German mathematician and polymath who was a pioneer of the modern digital computer and the application of operator theory to ... > full article

Albert Einstein -- Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 to April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He was the author of the general theory of ... > full article

Robot --

A robot is a mechanical or virtual, artificial agent. It is usually an electromechanical system, which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own. The ... > full article

Quantum dot -- A quantum dot is a semiconductor nanostructure that confines the motion of conduction band electrons, valence band holes, or excitons (bound pairs of conduction band electrons and valence band holes) ... > full article

Quantum tunnelling -- Quantum tunnelling (or tunneling) is the quantum-mechanical effect of transitioning through a classically-forbidden energy state. Consider rolling a ball up a hill. If the ball is not given enough ... > full article