A paper published in the IOP journal Inverse Problems develops an algorithm that can take a sample of pollutants in a body of water and determine the rate at which the pollutant entered the body of water, and where the pollutant came from.
Carnival of Mathematics 88
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of June, is now online at cp’s mathem-o-blog. The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own Aperiodical. For more information about the Carnival of Mathematics, click here.
Turing centenary Turing Test results
A Turing Test – the biggest ever staged, according to New Scientist – took place on 23rd June at Bletchley Park to mark the Turing centenary. The test involved 150 conversations, 30 judges, 25 humans and five chatbots. The article points out that the Loebner Prize typically involves four judges and four chatbots. The contest…
Have they discovered the Higgs boson? Probably
I feel that we should acknowledge the announcement made at CERN this morning. As put by Brian Cox on Twitter: “ATLAS and CMS have independently discovered a new particle mass ~ 126 GeV which behaves like [the standard model] Higgs”. This is all based on statistical analysis of experimental data and, since the Higgs cannot…
Vocal signal processing method of testing for Parkinson’s disease
Mathematician Max Little has had some success diagnosing Parkinson’s disease by using signal processing algorithms to analyse the voice alone. Now the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative needs you – whether you have Parkinson’s or not – to donate three minutes to make a voice recording to add to their database and help improve the algorithm.
Finger counting methods and their effect on cognition
Counting on your fingers may feel natural but it is not innate or universal; methods are culturally transmitted (like number lines) and may have an effect on cognition. A Guardian blog post asks you to “without thinking about it too much, use your hands to count to 10”. How did you do it?
Bletchley Park raises funding target for Heritage Lottery Fund restoration; further funding needed
The Action This Day! campaign, to raise the £2.4 million needed to unlock £5 million of Heritage Lottery funding, has reached its target. The funding means that the Park can “commence urgent restoration of the profoundly historic, yet currently derelict, Codebreaking Huts 3 and 6, and the development of a world-class visitor centre and exhibition…