Alan Turing Institute to be set up to research big data

The centenary of Turing's birth was marked in June 2012

An institute named after computer pioneer and code-breaker Alan Turing is to be set up, the chancellor announced in his Budget speech on Wednesday.

The Alan Turing Institute will focus on new ways of collecting, organising and analysing large sets of data - commonly known as big data.

The government will provide £42m over five years for the project.

Universities and other interested parties will be able to bid for the funding to set up the institute.

Turing received a posthumous royal pardon last year, following a conviction for homosexual activity.

He worked at Bletchley Park during World War Two, and his work helped accelerate Allied efforts to read German naval messages enciphered with the Enigma machine.

He also contributed some more fundamental work on code-breaking, which was only released to public scrutiny in April 2012.

In 1952 he was convicted for gross indecency, following which he was chemically castrated.

He had been arrested after having an affair with a 19-year-old Manchester man.

The conviction meant he lost his security clearance and had to stop the code-cracking work that had proved vital to the Allies in World War Two.

A pardon was granted in December 2013 under the royal prerogative of mercy after a request by Justice Minister Chris Grayling. Britain leads

Delivering his Budget speech in the House of Commons, the Chancellor, George Osborne, said: "In my maiden speech here in this House, I spoke of Alan Turing, the code-breaker who lived in my constituency, who did more than almost any other single person to win the war, and who was persecuted for his sexuality by the country he helped save.

"I am delighted that he has finally received a posthumous royal pardon.

"Now, in his honour, we will found the Alan Turing Institute to ensure Britain leads the way again in the use of big data and algorithm research.

"I am determined that our country is going to out-compete, out-smart and out-do the rest of the world."

The government said that big data "can allow businesses to enhance their manufacturing processes, target their marketing better, and provide more efficient services".

The think tank Policy Exchange said that the institute was a good idea but government needed to make more use of big data itself.

ORIGINAL: BBC
19 March 2014

These 7 Countries Are Responsible for Over 60 Percent of Global Warming

And guess how the U.S. rates?
Throughout a century of climate-damaging activity, seven countries have emerged as the worst offenders. According to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters, the U.S., China, Russia, Brazil, India, Germany and the UK top the list.

The research, as digested by New Scientist:

Damon Matthews of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and his colleagues calculated national contributions to warming by weighting each type of emission according to the atmospheric lifetime of the temperature change it causes. Using historical data, they included carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and changes in land use – such as deforestation. They also accounted for methane, nitrous oxide and sulphate aerosols. These together account for 0.7 °C of the world’s 0.74 °C warming between 1906 and 2005.

The US is the clear leader, responsible for 0.15 °C, or 22 percent of the 0.7 °C warming. China accounts for 9 percent, Russia for 8 percent, Brazil and India 7 per centeach, and Germany and the UK for 5 percent each.

(Credit: IOP Science)

The above map shows the U.S., Western Europe, Japan and India bloated by their disproportionate contribution to global temperature rise as compared to their size — in this visualization, the blame shouldered by Russia, China and Brazil appears less extreme, while places like Canada, Australia and most of Africa all but disappear.

“It is these very questions of equity and responsibility that currently represent major barriers to progress in international negotiations attempting to set national emissions targets, ” the researchers write, “and yet are critical to resolve as we move forward with climate mitigation efforts.” Of course, as the Onion brilliantly pointed out, 7 billion key individuals are responsible for the global warming crisis — and we’re all equally responsible for working to reduce our contribution to climate change.

ORIGINAL: AlterNet / (Salon.com)
By Lindsay Abrams
January 17, 2014

Lindsay Abrams is an assistant editor at Salon and a former writer and producer for The Atlantic's Health Channel.

The Best Shots Fired in the Oxford Comma Wars

Image credit: Thinkstock

The Oxford comma, so-called because the Oxford University Press style guidelines require it, is the comma before the conjunction at the end of a list. If your preferred style is to omit the second comma in "red, white, and blue," you are aligned with the anti-Oxford comma faction. The pro-Oxford comma faction is more vocal and numerous in the US, while in the UK, anti-Oxford comma reigns. (Oxford University is an outsider, style-wise, in its own land.) In the US, book and magazine publishers are generally pro, while newspapers are anti, but both styles can be found in both media.

The two main rationales for choosing one style over the other are clarity and economy. Each side has invoked both rationales in its favor. Here are some quotes that have served as shots exchanged in the Oxford comma wars.

Pro: "She took a photograph of her parents, the president, and the vice president."

This example from the Chicago Manual of Style shows how the comma is necessary for clarity. Without it, she is taking a picture of two people, her mother and father, who are the president and vice president. With it, she is taking a picture of four people.

Con: "Those at the ceremony were the commodore, the fleet captain, the donor of the cup, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Jones."

This example from the 1934 style book of the New York Herald Tribune shows how a comma before "and" can result in a lack of clarity. With the comma, it reads as if Mr. Smith was the donor of the cup, which he was not.

Pro: "Zinovieff shot over five hundred of the bourgeoisie at a stroke—nobles, professors, officers, journalists, men and women."

George Ives, the author of a 1921 guide to the usage style of the Atlantic Monthly Press, gives this example to show how making the comma before "and" standard practice is more economical. This way, the reader will know for sure that if it's missing, there's a good reason. Here the reading is that there were both men and women among the nobles, professors, officers, and journalists. Without the expectation of the Oxford comma, the reader has to work harder to figure out that men and women aren't two additional groups on the list.

Con: "There are certain places where for the sake of clarity and good form the presence of a comma is obligatory, but on the other hand a too liberal use of this form of punctuation tends to slow up the pace of the reading matter and to create confusion and hesitancy in the mind of the reader."

The 1937 New York Times style guide put economy on the side of the no comma rule. Use when necessary—otherwise, it's just clutter to slow you down. 

Pro: "...use the comma between all members of a series, including the last two, on the commonsense ground that to do so will preclude ambiguities and annoyances at negligible cost."

Wilson Follett, in his 1966 Modern American Usage, advocates for the comma on the grounds that it can't really hurt.

Con: "All those commas make the flag seem rained on. They give it a furled look. Leave them out, and Old Glory is flung to the breeze, as it should be."

This complaint was addressed to Harold Ross, the founding editor of the New Yorker, by James Thurber, who preferred "the red white and blue" to "the red, white, and blue." Ross, a notorious defender of the serial comma, was impressed by Thurber's argument and responded, "write a piece about it, and I'll punctuate the flag any way you want it—in that one piece."

Pro: "This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God"

A probably apocryphal book dedication, this example has been a favorite of pro-Oxford comma language blogs for a while. Without the comma before "and," you get a rather intriguing set of parents.

Con: "The English are rather more careful than we are, and commonly put a comma after the next-to-last member of a series, but otherwise are not too precise to offend a red-blooded American."

H.L. Mencken, who did not use the serial comma himself, implies, in this quote tucked into a supplement to The American Language, that there is something prissy, pedantic, and altogether un-American about the extra comma.

?: "By train, plane and sedan chair, Peter Ustinov retraces a journey made by Mark Twain a century ago. The highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."

Languagehat dug this gem out of a comment thread on the serial comma. It's from a TV listing in The Times. It supports the use of the Oxford comma, but only because it keeps Mandela from being a dildo collector. However, even the Oxford comma can't keep him from being an 800-year-old demigod. There's only so much a comma can do.

ORIGINAL: Mental Floss
Arika Okrent

Why Should We Care About Animals? | Brian May | Oxford Union

Dr Brian May answers an audience members question during Q & A session after his speech "Save The Badgers" (full speech video at the end) - Oxford Union Society

Brian May says that there is no balance in nature only change in nature. He highlights his view is that every ONE animal matters, not just looking at it from a species wide point of view. Any creature that has feeling is worthy of respect and care.
 
ABOUT BRIAN MAY:
Brian May, musician and astrophysicist, is most widely known as the guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer of the rock band Queen.

He was appointed a CBE in 2005 for services to the music industry and for his charity work. He earned a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College in 2007 and is currently serving as the 4th Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.  

Planet Rock voted May the 7th greatest guitarist of all time, and he was ranked at No. 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2012, May was ranked the 2nd greatest guitarist of all time by a Guitar World magazine readers poll.

ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY:
The Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. It has been established for 189 years, aiming to promote debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.

SUBSCRIBE for more speakers ► http://is.gd/OxfordUnion

Sign the Petition to SAVE THE BADGERS @ http://www.save-me.org.uk/

Facebook @ http://fb.me/theoxfordunion

Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/OxfordUnion

Oxford Union Website @ http://www.oxford-union.org/

Why Does EV-Phobia Plague Most British Drivers?

ORIGINAL: Electronic Design

by Paul Whytock in London Calling
Jul. 17, 2013

A majority of British drivers feel that there is insufficient infrastructure when it comes to re-charging electric vehicles

The immediate answer to that question could be they are just plain crazy and simply have no regard for the ecological advantages afforded by electric vehicles (EVs). But that’s not it. The reality is that 62% of Britain's drivers believe national infrastructure falls short in supporting EVs. The sense is that recharging, particularly on long journeys, could be haphazard. In fact, over 70% of drivers surveyed said they had never seen a public EV charger.
Well, they’re right. Let's face it, why would you buy a car that’s much more expensive than a petrol/diesel equivalent, yet becomes an inconvenience when it came to finding vacant charging points?

These reactions came from a survey conducted by Censuswide and Rexel, a distributor of electrical products and services for energy applications. Vehicle range anxiety was a common response throughout in the survey. In some regard, this reflects back to concerns about inadequate numbers of recharging facilities.

But what about the environmental issue? If the UK is to meet its agreed-upon carbon reduction target of at least 80% by 2050, the Government wants 1.7 million EVs to be operating on Britain’s roads by 2020 and 6.3 million by 2030.

However, the apparently EV-phobic attitude of drivers isn’t entirely their fault. The UK Government must shoulder some responsibility for not adequately publicizing certain facts about EV ownership.

For instance, the purchase-cost reluctance highlights a lack of awareness of the incentives available from the Government to encourage EV adoption, such as the plug-in car grant. The grant offers UK-based consumers and businesses 25% off the cost of a qualifying ultra-low emission car, up to a maximum of £5,000.

This is, of course, a positive move. Still, driver doubts remain when it comes to a national recharging infrastructure. There may be 3000 public charging points in the UK, but that’s nowhere near enough to meet demand, especially if the Government plans to reach its target of 1.7 million EV owners by 2020. That works out to one charging point for every 567 EVs…not a viable panacea when it comes to curing EV-phobia.

Hyundai Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Fleet Rolls Into London

ORIGINAL: Earth Techling 

by Nino Marchetti

Hyundai, fresh off a recent deployment of a small number of its ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles to the city of Copenhagen, Denmark to be used there in a municipal fleet, is ramping up distribution as it now turns to London. The historical capital of the United Kingdom, already an ambitious player in the green vehicle space, has as one of its initiatives the three year LHNE (London Hydrogen Network Expansion) project. The South Korean automaker is one of those taking part in this fuel cell station network build out.

Plans call for Hyundai to offer up five ix35 vehicles to the LHNE endeavor. They will be “leased to key public and private fleet users in the capital” and are among the first of 1,000 such fuel cell vehicles the company has committed to producing between now and 2015. Most of them are already allocated for Europe, where the European Commission has established a number of schemes, such as the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), to promote the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier with zero carbon content.

Hyundai has the distinction of its ix35 being the first production fuel cell car in the world. It offers a zero emissions driving experience, a range of up to 369 miles, a 100 MPH maximum top speed and 0-62 MPH acceleration in 12.5 seconds. Its role in the LHNE project consists of being put into daily business use to see how it performs in more real world driving experiences on busy streets.

image via Hyundai

As for what LHNE specifically is, the goal of this government-backed initiative that’s co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board is to create the UK’s first hydrogen powered transport system across London and the South East. It will eventually offer up a series of publicly accessible, fast-fill 700 bar renewable hydrogen fueling stations.

The United Kingdom, like Hyundai, is becoming something of a leader in the hydrogen fuel cell space, seeing its first refueling station open in 2011. London hosts, besides the LHNE, a number of fuel cell buses as well as hydrogen powered black cabs.

“These are early days,” said Kit Malthouse, London Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise and Chairman of the London Hydrogen Partnership, in a statement, “but I am tremendously excited by the prospects of London’s hydrogen future. Hyundai is providing invaluable insights and bringing global experience to the Mayor’s innovative low carbon, low emission transport activities.”

Nature Publishing Index 2012 Global

ORIGINAL: Nature

We are delighted to present the first global overview of high quality research output from the world’s many countries and institutions based on the Nature Publishing Index (NPI), which tracks the number and affiliations of primary research articles published in 18 Nature-branded journals. 

Download PDF [10.6mb]

Created in 2009 to focus on the Asia-Pacific region, the NPI now covers the entire world. Using the Index, we are able to track output by institution and country. The NPI is a unique resource that spans all types of research institutions — not only universities but government research institutes and private sector companies.

What are the most noteworthy messages from this supplement? Unsurprisingly, the United States dominates the rankings, being home to five of the top ten research institutions in the NPI. What is more striking is the rapid rise of China, which has nine institutions in The Top 200 — up from just three a year earlier. China is now clipping the heels of France in the country rankings. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has, as of January 2013, surpassed the University of Tokyo as the top institution in the Asia-Pacific. Despite its dire economic circumstances, Ireland is emerging as a rising star — jumping from 30th to 20th in the NPI between 2008 and 2012. Similarly, Brazil has moved up seven places to 27th. Saudi Arabia and Kenya also stand out as newly emerging players in the Index.

Our interpretations and presentations of the NPI data are not definitive. Users are free to access the NPI online, read the abstracts of the papers on which it is based, and derive their own interpretations of the data (provided they acknowledge the NPI as the source). To that end, we strive to make the Index and the methodology behind it as transparent as possible: the underlying data for the past year can be viewed on the NPI website at nature.asia/publishing-index-global. We hope the analysis presented here will stimulate further use of the NPI by institutions and individuals, and we welcome your feedback.

David Swinbanks
Managing Director, Regional Markets and Science & Medical Communications,
Nature Publishing Group
Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand,
Macmillan Science and Education

Contents
1 Opening. By David Swinbanks
2 The world of science. An overview of a growing world of scientific achievement
4 United States. A player without peer, the undisputed leader continues to dominate
8 United Kingdom- As budget cuts hit blue-sky research, scientists must do more with less
10 Germany. Integration strategies aim to bring more institutions to an elite level
14 Japan. Newly elected president sets science as a top priority
20 France. Education and employment law reforms create divisions in science
24 Five countries to watch. A look at fast risers in the NPI: China, Ireland, Brazil, Kenya and Saudi Arabia
30 A guide to the NPI. How to navigate the index to get the best out of it
32 Global top 200. The great and the good of the world’s research institutions
38 Top 10 countries by journal. Countries show their strength in different disciplines
40 Top 5 institutions by journal. The breakdown reinforces the existence of an elite set of organizations
42 Top 100 countries. The world’s most scientifically productive nations

Interactive graphic
How countries compare

The Nature Publishing Index (NPI) Global ranks countries and institutions according to their output of primary research articles in the 18 Nature research journals. This graphic allows comparison of countries by corrected count or article count in each of the four main subject areas, and in each of the past 5 years. The graphic only includes the top 30 countries overall. The NPI Global supplement lists the Global Top 100.

Article count 2012 All fields

* Mouse over a bar to reveal exact count

© 2013 Nature Japan K.K., trading as Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

The BioBricks Foundation SB6.0:The Sixth International Meeting on Synthetic BiologyJuly 9-11, 2013 at Imperial College, London, UK

ORIGINAL: Biobricks




Biotechnology in the public interest

July 9-11, 2013 | Imperial College, London, UK

Imperial College, London

The BioBricks Foundation SB6.0 Conference is made up of plenary and workshop sessions over three days. Each day will begin at 8 am, sessions will conclude by 6 pm followed by poster sessions on day one and two.

Sign up for the BioBricks mailing list below to get all the latest SB6.0 news.
Digital Conference

Registration for SB6.0 in London has sold out. However, registration for the SB6.0 Digital Conference is open. The Digital Conference will provide high-quality professional videos of all three days of conference sessions. Click here to find out more and register.


SB6.0 has sold out with 750 attendees from 43 countries around the world! You can expect to meet friends and colleagues from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Congo, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.


Digital Conference
Registration for SB6.0 in London has sold out. However, registration for the SB6.0 Digital Conference is open. The Digital Conference will provide high-quality professional videos of all three days of conference sessions within hours of the actual sessions. A live Internet-based video feed of all sessions in the main lecture hall will be provided free to conference attendees and to the public. The high-quality professional videos will be available only through paid registration. Find out more and register for the SB6.0 Digital Conference.

Program

New speakers have been added to the line-up and Lightning Talk speakers have been confirmed.

The full program and schedule will be announced one month prior to the conference.

Find out more program details.


The conference program is taking shape and we are eager to tell you about many interesting people and topics you will see at SB6.0.

Full program details and schedule will be published here one month prior to the conference.

Conference sessions will begin at 9 am and conclude at 6 pm each day. Poster sessions will be 6 – 8 pm on Tuesday, July 9 and Wednesday July 10. On closing day, Thursday July 6, a closing party will be at a nearby campus establishment.

Topics:

• Systematic Engineering design vs biological complexity
• Design and synthetic biology: connecting people and technology
• Lightning talks
• Materials
• Human health
• Modeling as a tool for abstraction for an end
• Living Foundries
• Education and training
• Standards
• Biocontainment and risk
• Energy and sustainability
• Translating Technology, Transcending Industrialisation
• CAD and EDA
• Plants
• Responsible Research and Innovation
• Measuring/Building/Editing
• Toward global health

Speakers, panelists and moderators:

• Christina Agapakis
• Jim Ajioka
• Adam Arkin
• Geoff Baldwin
• Wiebe Bijker
• Matthew Chang
• Jason Chin
• King Chow
• Lionel Clark
• Jim Collins
• Junbiao Dai
• Lord Ara Darzi
• Paulo Paes de Andrade
• Victor de Lorenzo
• Domitilla Del Vecchio
• Douglas Densmore
• Martin Fussenegger
• Michele Garfinkel
• Daisy Ginsberg
• Marcus Graf
• Matthew Harsh
• Jim Haseloff
• Philipp Holliger Farren Isaacs
• Alfonso Jaramillo
• Roman Jerala
• Gyoo Yeol Jung
• Linda Kahl
• Jay Keasling
• Radha Krishnakumar
• Steve Laderman
• Sang Yup Lee
• Suzanne Lee
• Tim Lu
• Vitor Martins dos Santos
• Debra Mathews
• Birger Lindberg Moller
• Ricardo Morbidoni
• Milan Mrksich
• Sarah Munro
• Richard Murray
• Alfred Nordmann
• Carlos Olguin
• Anne Osbourn
• Qi Ouyang
• Richard Owen Sven Panke
• Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra
• Andrew Phillips
• Fiona Raby
• Kent Redford
• Sarah Richardson
• Maria Mercedes Roca
• Hans Roubus
• Herbert Sauro
• Eran Segal
• Reshma Shetty
• Pam Silver
• Christina Smolke
• Guy-Bart Stan
• Molly Stevens
• Tetsuro Toyoda
• Kathleen Vogel
• Chris Voigt
• Wilfried Weber
• Hans Westerhoff
• Jamey Wetmore
• David Willetts
• Xu Xun

More confirmed speakers and the full program will be announced as the conference approaches.

Lightning Talk Speakers:

• Hal Alper
• Jerome Bonnet
• Yizhi Cai
• Yvonne Chen
• Le Cong
• John Dueber
• Maiko Furubayashi
• Daniel Goodman
• Joao Guimaraes
• Patrick Guye
• Narjeskhatoon Habibi
• Jennifer Hallinan
• Premkumar Jayaraman
• Kil-Kwang Kwon
• Joshua Leonard
• Sierin Lim Connor Lynch
• Andreja Majerle
• Piers Millett
• Ron Milo
• Evan Olson
• Darren Platt
• Arthur Prindle
• Ingrid Pultz
• Ithai Rabinowitch
• Krishna Ravi Srinivas
• Daria Solovyeva
• Pasquale Stano
• Danielle Tullman-Ercek
• Jiangyun Wang
• Ilse Wiame
• Peng Yin

Medellín atrae energía creativa de los ingleses

ORIGINAL: El Colombiano

27 de abril de 2013

El Ministro cree que Medellín y Glasgow serán grandes ciudades inteligentes. FOTO JAIME PÉREZ

David Willetts, ministro británico de Universidades y Ciencia, le apuesta a la inclusión en las U, sin límites de edad o estrato social, para ponerlas en motor de desarrollo.

Un país en el que los buenos estudiantes de escasos recursos reciban cartas de felicitación por parte del Gobierno y en el que no sea una novedad ver alumnos mayores de 60 años de edad en las aulas de los campus es el que quiere David Willets, ministro británico de Universidades y Ciencia, quien estuvo esta semana en Medellín.

Este inglés, de mirada escrutadora, oído atento y palabras precisas, es el cerebro detrás de una propuesta educativa que quiere instaurar la universidad como motor del desarrollo de un país cuyas políticas tienden a reducir el gasto público y apuestan por la educación técnica en medio de una golpeada economía. 

Por ello vino a tierras más cálidas, en las que la etiqueta "ciudad más innovadora del mundo" empieza a atraer miradas diferentes a las del escrutinio y el prejuicio, legado del narcotráfico y la violencia, para buscar nuevas maneras de emplear la energía creativa de los ingleses y estrechar la relación entre educación y desarrollo, así como los lazos de cooperación entre ambos países en dichos frentes. 

"Me gustaría ver a investigadores británicos y colombiano trabajando lado a lado, abordando problemas en cuyas soluciones tengamos un interés común -dice Willetts, reforzando sus palabras con gestos precisos de sus manos- podemos, por ejemplo, tratar de comprender juntos la extraordinaria biodiversidad colombiana", añade.

Al respecto habló con el Gobernador de Antioquia, Sergio Fajardo Valderrama, con quien analizó también las fortalezas de nuestro departamento y discutió la manera de dar forma a una relación más estratégica desde la educación.

De ese cruce de ideas nacieron tres conclusiones:

• tratar de crear puentes entre la Universidad de Antioquia y universidades británicas; 
• fomentar el emprendimiento a través de grupos de trabajo con expertos de ambas naciones y 
• hallar la forma en la que Reino Unido pueda contribuir al desarrollo de 80 parques educativos que construirá la Gobernación.

"Tenemos la experiencia y podríamos proveer instalaciones para esos parques educativos -indica el inglés- Podrían ser centros de idiomas o lugares para complementar el aprendizaje en línea con la ayuda de tutores".

Educado para educar 

Más de dos décadas en la política, apostando por aproximaciones académicas y teorías sociales a la hora de trazar sus propuestas, le dejaron como legado el sobrenombre de 'Two Brains' (dos cerebros), una referencia también al tamaño de su cráneo.

"Me imagino que existen peores sobrenombres. 'Dos barbillas' sería mucho peor" respondió alguna vez sonriendo a la periodista Caroline Crampton.

De sus 57 años de edad separó tres (de 2007 a 2010), para ejercer como Secretario de Estado para los Negocios, Innovación y Habilidades del "gabinete sombra" (una figura que garantiza la participación de la oposición en el sistema político inglés), lo que le dio la experiencia para hablar sin tapujos de nuevas formas de educar para el desarrollo.

"Los ingleses, como los colombianos, somos un poco excéntricos y de espíritu libre, por lo que vemos y hacemos las cosas de una manera profundamente diferente, afirma, -sus dedos se juntan y señalan para enfatizar su idea-. De otro lado, el Gobierno tiene un poder muy limitado sobre las universidades, pues les da libertad absoluta para desarrollar sus investigaciones".

Ese consejo y otros más trajo en la bolsa para ofrecer a nuestros gobernantes. De ella extrajo también un argumento que podría dar pistas a Medellín sobre cómo aprovechar más el potencial innovador de sus emprendedores: la amplia experiencia inglesa en el apoyo a empresas emergentes y en la transformación de pequeñas compañías en grandes oportunidades de negocio.

"Al alcalde de Medellín, Aníbal Gaviria Correa, le hablé de una investigación sin precedentes que Reino Unido adelanta en ciudades inteligentes y de la que ustedes pueden aprovechar el increíble flujo de información sobre energía, transporte, medicina, entre otros frentes, que hay en su ciudad, aprovechando los potenciales individuales de su gente, así como las nuevas tecnologías".

A contracorriente 

Tras el fondo azul oscuro de su corbata, tapizado de figuras en tonos tierra regadas desordenadamente sobre la prenda, el Ministro inglés expone trazos de un plan que permiten adivinar a un estratega político que defiende férreamente los intereses de la cartera a su cargo.

Y es que a pesar de que el primer ministro inglés, David Cameron, y el ministro de Negocios y Educación, Matthew Hancock, dejaron claro que la apuesta del Gobierno es favorecer la formación de aprendices, como parte de la estrategia para fortalecer la economía, Willetts se ha asegurado de que los recortes no toquen el presupuesto para las universidades y quiere poner a esas instituciones como núcleo del desarrollo.

"Hemos protegido el presupuesto para la ciencia, que es de 4,6 billones de libras esterlinas anuales, y asegurado apoyo monetario extra para inversión de capital e inversión en tecnología", explica. 

Su trabajo ha permitido que mientras otras carteras ven cómo sus recursos se reducen considerablemente el dinero para las universidades se siga incrementando "a pesar de que este Gobierno tiene un serio problema de liquidez", como él mismo aclara.

"Yo digo a las universidades que por cada libra que pone el Gobierno quiero que ellas encuentren dos libras de inversionistas privados, lo que permitió añadir un billón de libras al sistema en el último año. De ellos, el Gobierno ha puesto 300 millones, mientras que empresas, socios comerciales y hasta la caridad han puesto cerca de 600 millones". 

El resultado: Reino Unido aparece de segundo en el listado mundial de países con mayor calidad en sus claustros universitarios y más fortaleza en sus relaciones comerciales.

Aprobación

Algunas de las propuestas de Willetts lo han hecho blanco de fuertes críticas, entre ellas las de querer llevar a los adultos mayores a la universidad y enviar cartas para animar a estudiantes de escasos recursos con buenos resultados en las pruebas para obtener el Certificado General de Educación Secundaria (Gcse, por sus siglas en inglés), con el fin de animarlos a ir a la universidad.

"Estos estudiantes necesitan que los estimulen, pero requieren más ayuda financiera. En Estados Unidos, cuna de la propuesta original del envío de cartas, un análisis nacional entre estudiantes de secundaria mostró que el 76 por ciento de los que obtuvieron mejores resultados y pertenecían a los estratos bajos, fueron rechazados en las universidades", aseguró la columnista de The Observer, Barbara Ellen. 

La respuesta de Willetts: un abanico de posibilidades. "Hay préstamos y becas, pero creo que lo importante es que somos buenos en la educación en línea, o lo que nosotros llamamos educación combinada, con algunos cursos virtuales y otros presenciales. Es también importante tener universidades con bajos costos en todo el país", explica.

Respecto a su iniciativa de abrir la posibilidad de hacer préstamos para educación superior a personas de cualquier edad, que estuvo hasta hace poco reservada a menores de 54 años, surgen dudas sobre la disposición de las entidades financieras y el mercado laboral para respaldar tal aventura. 

"Estamos rompiendo con la idea de que sólo puedes ir a la universidad si tienes 18 ó 19 años de edad, tras salir de secundaria. Creemos en una sociedad en la que existan las segundas oportunidades", argumenta David Willetts.

Para respaldar su decisión, mantendrá los ojos en las cifras, las cuales indican, por ahora que de 552.240 estudiantes que iniciaban la universidad el año pasado sólo 1940 eran mayores de 60 años de edad. 

"Creo que es lo correcto. Que las universidades estén disponibles para las personas sin importar la edad que tengan, pues muchas personas maduras sueñan con acceder a la educación superior".

OPCIONES

MEDELLÍN BUSCA FORTALECER INTERCAMBIO

El alcalde de Medellín, Aníbal Gavíria Correa, quiere sacar chispas de la simbiosis entre la experiencia de Reino Unido en innovación y el fortalecimiento de la transferencia en tecnología en Medellín.

• Entre las expectativas está la búsqueda de alternativas para mejorar la tecnología en empresas y universidades, fomentar la investigación internacional y sacar adelante los proyectos Ruta N y el distrito tecnológico de Sevilla. 
• Tras invertir cerca de $40 millones para fortalecer el bilingüismo, Medellín quiere la ayuda de Reino Unido para fomentar el uso masivo de las nuevas tecnologías.

EN DEFINITIVA

Abrir la universidad a todos e incrementar la inversión en ciencia y educación superior son las propuestas a contracorriente, en plena crisis europea, del Ministro inglés de Universidades y Ciencia.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Means More Than Just Neat Gadgets - It Could Mean a Greener Future for Everyone

ORIGINAL: Huffungton Post

Dr Alex Rogers (*)

28/03/2013

(*) Reader in Agents, Interaction and Complexity Research Group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton 

Despite a number of false dawns, artificial intelligence (AI) is finally beginning to deliver on some of its early promise. When created as an academic endeavor in the nineteen fifties, predictions of thinking machines with human level intelligence within the next twenty years were common. Unfortunately, it's taken a lot longer than that, and such human level intelligence is still some way off, if achievable at all. 

However, the growth of computer power over the same period has meant that the devices and services that we use every day are now routinely tackling many of the early challenges of AI. Our cameras and smart phones locate faces in images and focus accordingly. Social networking websites recognize our friends in these same images and automatically tag them. Our cars can already park themselves and automatically brake when they recognize pedestrians stepping into the road, and prototype fully autonomous self-driving cars are clocking up miles on real roads. Meanwhile, closer to that original vision of human level intelligence, last year Watson, a supercomputer built by IBM, famously beat human players on the quiz show Jeopardy!, and is now being re-tasked to train medical doctors. Meanwhile Google's founder, Larry Page, has argued that the company will eventually become an artificial intelligence, and has recruited many of the world's top AI scientists to work toward this goal. 

Despite this progress, one area where there has been very little deployment of AI technologies is in our homes. Like AI itself, the vision of a smart home, full of autonomous devices that learn what we want and automatically take care of household chores has a long history, and still seems to many like science fiction. Unlike our gadgets and cars, which tend to be replaced relatively frequently, our homes are updated only rarely, and smart home appliances, such as autonomous vacuum cleaners, are largely seen as novelties rather than necessities. 

However, new concerns about ever rising energy costs, and the impact of carbon emissions from domestic energy use on climate change, are beginning to change this. Last year, Nest Labs, founded by the creator of the iPod, launched the Nest Learning Thermostat, which combines iPod-like cool design with smart algorithms that learn the householders' preferences, and automatically recognize when the home is unoccupied, adjusting the heating or cooling system appropriately. 

At the University of Southampton, we're trying to make the same sort of analysis available to people who aren't yet willing or able to go out and spend money on new gadgets. The Electronics and Computer Science department where I work, one of the world's largest and most successful electronics and computer science departments, can uniquely tackle both the hardware and the AI challenges in this space. Our system, named MyJoulo, aims to reduce your heating bill by providing personalised advice on your home's energy consumption. It uses a small, simple to use, Joulo logger which measures the temperature at the thermostat every two minutes for a week. When this data is uploaded to the MyJoulo website, smart AI algorithms are used to build a mathematical model of how the home responds to heat and how the home's occupants are using the heating system. Using additional external temperature data from the internet, we can then calculate the energy savings that will be achieved by turning down the thermostat or changing timer settings, and can spot homes which leak heat most rapidly. By building a representative map of the UK building stock, the MyJoulo project will ultimately be able to identify particularly leaky homes, and prioritise interventions such as the installation of better insulation. 

Such smart technologies applied within the home are likely to be essential if the UK is to reach its ambitious target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. MyJoulo represents a first step along this path, potentially reducing the millions of Kilowatt hours of energy wasted per year, and saving households money at the same time. 

To become part of the MyJoulo project, and to find out how to reduce your energy bill, order your own Joulo logger for free from www.myjoulo.com (Available to UK residents only).

Register for an account with us and we'll send you a free
Joulo logger.

Place your Joulo logger on top of the thermostat in your home, and it will log the temperature continuously for one week.

Upload the data from the logger here, and you'll receive personalised advice on how you can reduce your heating bill.

UK breeding bird population shrinks by more than 44 million since 1966

ORIGINAL: The Guardian

Caroline Davies. The Guardian, 

Monday 19 November 2012

House sparrows among birds to take brunt in decline blamed on changes in land use, coastal management and weather

State of the UK's Birds 2012 report says the house sparrow population is now around 10 million – 20 million fewer than in 1966. Photograph: Ray Kennedy/RSPB

The UK has lost more than 44 million breeding birds in less than half a century, including an average of 50 house sparrows every hour, according to a report.

Scientists estimate the number of nesting birds has plummeted from 210 million in 1966 to 166 million today. The shocking statistics are contained in the State of the UK's Birds 2012 report, published on Monday, and charting the ups and downs of the nation's bird populations.

One of the biggest losers is the house sparrow, with a population of around 10 million – 20 million fewer than in 1966, when the first reliable all-species bird monitoring scheme was conducted – despite numbers starting to increase in the last 10 years.

There has been a steep decline in willow tits, especially since the 1990s, with the species all but disappearing from most of the UK, and only the Midlands and Yorkshire boasting sizeable populations. Lesser spotted woodpeckers are now too few to monitor properly, as are arctic skuas. The report estimates there could be as few as 1,500 pairs each of the three species left in the UK.

The populations of farmland bird species is now less than half what it was in 1970, according to the report, which draws on data from leading organisations including the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology(BTO), the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Birdlife International, as well as government agencies.

Experts say breeding birds have vanished from the British countryside at an average rate of one pair every minute.

Changes in land use and management of the coastal waters are believed to have contributed to the losses. In some cases, birds have found it difficult to locate suitable places to nest, or to forage for food in the summer or winter.

Cold weather has impacted, too, and is believed to have had a startling effect on the wren. Still the UK's most numerous bird, an average of 835 wrens have been lost each day since 2000. The reasons behind the house sparrow decline are still not fully understood.

Two of the UK's seaducks – the velvet scoter and the long-tailed duck – are now considered threatened with extinction globally.

However, bitterns, corncrakes and nightjars have shown steady recovery in numbers, thought to be due to conservation measures to protect them.

There have been winners as well as losers. The chaffinch has increased at a rate of 150 individuals a day over the period.

The collared dove, whose numbers were very low as the species only started nesting in the UK in 1955, has seen its numbers explode to around 1 million pairs.

The closely related turtle dove, which in 1966 was widespread with around 140,000 breeding pairs, however, has been decimated. Today there are thought to be just 14,000 nesting pairs.

The report, which also examined bird populations of the UK's overseas territories, highlighted concern over the northern rockhopper penguin, found on the remote south Atlantic volcanic islands of Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island. Once to be found in their millions, the numbers of the distinctive penguins have crashed, with food resources, disease and predation all being possible causes.

Mark Eaton, an RSPB scientist, said of the report: "It is shocking to think we've lost one in five of the individual birds that we had in the 1960s, especially when you think that the 44 million birds we have lost since 1966 is equivalent to the current adult human population of England and Wales."

Richard Hearn, from the WWT, said: "Sea duck numbers in Europe have crashed and they urgently need conservation.

"Velvet scoter overwintering in the UK have gone from several thousand birds to less than 100 in just a few years, and the picture for the long-tailed duck is similar. Several other species have also shown large declines.

"By tying our findings with similar reports from the Baltic and elsewhere, we're getting a clearer understanding of the problem, but to be effective we need all countries to work more closely together."

La cámara digital más potente del mundo abre los ojos y recoge las primeras imágenes a la caza de la energía oscura

ORIGINAL: Red Renata

Viernes, 28 de Septiembre de 2012 12:57

Tras ocho años de trabajo, los científicos de la colaboración internacional DES (Dark Energy Survey, Cartografiado para la energía oscura) han dado a conocer las primeras imágenes del cielo del hemisferio sur realizadas por la DECam, la Cámara para la energía oscura más potente diseñada hasta la actualidad. Durante cinco años, el cartografiado creará imágenes detalladas en color de una octava parte de la esfera celeste, o 5000 grados cuadrados, para descubrir y medir 300 millones de galaxias, 100 000 cúmulos de galaxias y 4000 supernovas.

DECAM. Foto por DES

Hace ocho mil millones de años, la luz procedente de lejanas galaxias inició su viaje hacia la Tierra. El 12 de septiembre de 2012, esa antiquísima luz estelar terminó su camino en la cima de una montaña en Chile, donde la recién terminada cámara para la energía oscura (DECam, por sus siglas en inglés), la máquina de cartografiado del cielo más poderosa jamás creada, la capturó y almacenó por primera vez. Esa luz podría contener la respuesta a uno de los mayores misterios de la Física: por qué la expansión del universo se acelera.

Los científicos de la colaboración DES (DarkEnergySurvey, o cartografiado para la energía oscura) anunciaron esta semana que DECam, el resultado de ocho años de planificación y construcción realizado por científicos, ingenieros y técnicos de tres continentes, ha recibido su primera luz. Las primeras imágenes del cielo del hemisferio sur fueron recogidas por esta cámara, de 570 megapíxeles, el 12 de septiembre.

El consorcio español de DES, formado por el CIEMAT en Madrid y el IFAE (Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies) y el ICE (Institut de Ciències de l’Espai; IEEC/CSIC, Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) en Barcelona, y con participación adicional de investigadores de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, ha tenido una gran responsabilidad en la construcción y puesta en funcionamiento de DECam.

Se ha encargado del diseño, la verificación y la construcción de toda la electrónica de alta velocidad que contiene DECam, además de diseñar e implementar el programa informático que hace posible orientar con precisión el telescopio y producir simulaciones a gran escala del Universo, que permiten probar los métodos de análisis científico. Además del Consorcio español, en la colaboración DES participan científicos de EE UU, Reino Unido, Brasil, Alemania y Suiza. La colaboración internacional está liderada por Fermilab, en EE UU. La cámara se ha instalado en el telescopio Víctor M. Blanco en el Observatorio de Cerro Tololo, en Chile. Con esta cámara, que tiene, aproximadamente, el tamaño de una cabina telefónica, los físicos y astrónomos investigarán el misterio de la energía oscura, la fuerza que se cree que causa que el universo se expanda cada vez más rápido.

Aerial photograph of CTIO, Cerro Tololo, Chile. Featuring Blanco 4-meter and SMARTS telescopes. Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF.

“La energía oscura es el descubrimiento más sorprendente que se ha producido en la física en los últimos veinte años, y solamente puede explicarse si existe nueva física más allá de las teorías actuales. Si conseguimos descubrir la naturaleza de la energía oscura será una revolución en el conocimiento del Universo. El proyecto DES se concibió para avanzar en la resolución de este problema, y ahora, tras un gran esfuerzo de diseño y construcción, comenzamos la aventura”, declaró Eusebio Sánchez, investigador responsable del proyecto en el CIEMAT.

DECam es el instrumento de cartografiado más poderoso, capaz de ver luz de más de 100.000 galaxias a más de 8 mil millones de años luz en cada exposición. El mosaico de 64 CCD que contiene la cámara tiene una sensibilidad sin precedentes a la luz roja, y junto con el enorme espejo colector de luz del telescopio Blanco (que mide 4 metros de diámetro), permitirá a los científicos desarrollar investigaciones que van desde el estudio de los asteroides de nuestro Sistema Solar hasta la comprensión del origen y destino del Universo.

“Con la cámara de DES podremos conocer por primera vez la distribución de galaxias en un volumen que es una fracción importante del Universo observable. Esto nos permitirá determinar de una vez por todas la geometría local del Universo y el contenido de materia y energía responsable de su evolución. El descubrimiento del agente responsable de la expansión acelerada marcaría un hito histórico, que nos permitiría conectar el origen y el destino del Universo”, matizó Juan García-Bellido, investigador de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Los científicos de la colaboración DES realizarán el cartografiado de galaxias más grande jamás propuesto, y analizarán estos datos para realizar cuatro pruebas sobre la energía oscura, estudiando cúmulos de galaxias, supernovas, la distribución de galaxias a gran escala y el efecto lente gravitacional débil sobre dichas galaxias. Esta será la primera vez que estos cuatro métodos se utilizan simultáneamente en un único experimento.

El cartografiado se espera que empiece en diciembre, tras la verificación completa de la cámara, y aprovechará las extraordinarias condiciones atmosféricas de los andes chilenos para proporcionar imágenes con la mejor resolución jamás vista en un cartografiado astronómico de gran campo.

Distribuido por el Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) y la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), en representación de la colaboración DES.

Contacto

Unidad de Comunicación y RR PP del CIEMAT

Avda. Complutense, 40. 28040 Madrid

Tfno.: 913460822 Correo-e: ucrp@ciemat.es

BBC documentary, Museum of Life

ORIGINAL: BBC documentary, Museum of Life

Broadcast (2010)

• What happens behind the scenes at the Museum?
• Why is it important to preserve the 70 million specimens in the collections?
• And how relevant is the research of Museum scientists to today's challenges, like biodiversity loss and the spread of tropical disease?

The BBC documentary, Museum of Life, will answer these questions, and many more.

Museum of Life gives viewers an inside look at the Natural History Museum and some of the 300 or more scientists who work here. Cameras follow them on collecting expeditions around the world, as they hunt for dinosaur fossils and study the biodiversity of remote areas. But there are also plenty of discoveries to be made at the Museum itself, including hidden store rooms full of specimens, and high tech science facilities, such as the DNA labs. Find out about the huge variety of plants and animals that scientists study here, and why they are important for conservation efforts today.

About the presenters: As a young man, Jimmy Doherty (Jimmy's Farm, Jimmy Doherty in Darwin's Garden, Jimmy's Global Harvest) worked as a volunteer at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. Now he returns to join the Museum scientists and find out how much has changed. He is joined by engineer Kate Bellingham (Tomorrow's World), doctor of tropical medicine Chris van Tulleken (Medicine Men), conservationist Liz Bonnin (Bang Goes the Theory) and zoologist Mark Carwardine (Last Chance to See).

Museum Of Life 1/6 Museum In A Modern World (BBC)

Museum Of Life 2/6 Digging Up The Past 

Museum Of Life 3/6 Creatures Great & Small

Museum Of Life 4/6 Discovery (BBC)

Museum Of Life 5/6 Power Of Insects (BBC)

Museum Of Life 6/6 Collection For The Future (BBC)