| Complex environments push 'brain' evolution Posted: 29 Jan 2015 01:08 PM PST Little animations trying to master a computer game are teaching neuroscience researchers how the brain evolves when faced with difficult tasks. Neuroscientists have programmed animated critters that they call 'animats.' The critters have a rudimentary neural system made of eight nodes: two sensors, two motors, and four internal computers that coordinate sensation, movement and memory.  |
| Forecasting the flu better Posted: 29 Jan 2015 07:40 AM PST Researchers say they can predict the spread of flu a week into the future with as much accuracy as Google Flu Trends can display levels of infection right now. The study uses social network analysis and combines the power of Google Flu Trends' "big data" with traditional flu monitoring data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  |
| School failure linked to higher use of computers at home, Spanish study shows Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:42 AM PST Researchers have analyzed the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by secondary school students, by using a sample of 5,538 students. The study, based on surveys taken in the 2010/2011 academic year, finds links between school failure and an elevated use of computers at home.  |
| Computing: Combining logic and memory to build a 'high-rise' chip Posted: 15 Dec 2014 05:49 AM PST Today circuit cards are like cities in which logic chips compute and memory chips store data. When the computer gets busy, the wires connecting logic and memory get jammed. A new approach would build layers of logic atop layers of memory to create tightly interconnected high-rise chips. Many thousands of nanoscale electronic 'elevators' would move data between the layers faster, using less electricity, than the bottle-neck prone wires connecting single-story logic and memory chips today.  |
