Military Scenerios Through Virtual Worlds
Advances in computerized modeling and prediction of group behavior, together with improvements in video game graphics, are making possible virtual worlds in which defense analysts can explore and predict results of many different possible military and policy actions, say computer science researchers at the University of Maryland in a commentary published in the November 27 issue of the journal Science.
“Defense analysts can understand the repercussions of their proposed recommendations for policy options or military actions by interacting with a virtual world environment….They can propose a policy option and walk skeptical commanders through a virtual world where the commander can literally ’see’ how things might play out. This process gives the commander a view of the most likely strengths and weaknesses of any particular course of action,” write authors V.S. Subrahmanian, a Maryland computer science professor and director of the University’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), and John Dickerson, a UMIACS computer science researcher.
Computer scientists now know pretty much how to do this, and have created a “pretty good chunk” of the computing theory and software required to build a virtual Afghanistan, Pakistan or another “world,” explains Subrahmanian, who notes that much of the leading edge of this work has been done at the University of Maryland. (more…)
First Black Holes Born Starving
by Kelen Tuttle
This computer-simulated image shows gas (blue) interacting with one of the first black holes (white) in the early universe, approximately 200 million years after the Big Bang. Click here to view a high-resolution version of the image. A short video of the simulation is available to view online or download. (Image and simulation courtesy of Marcelo Alvarez, John H. Wise and Tom Abel.)
The first black holes in the universe had dramatic effects on their surroundings despite the fact that they were small and grew very slowly, according to recent supercomputer simulations carried out by astrophysicists Marcelo Alvarez and Tom Abel of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, jointly located at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, and John Wise, formerly of KIPAC and now of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Several popular theories posit that the first black holes gorged themselves on gas clouds and dust in the early universe, growing into the supersized black holes that lurk in the centers of galaxies today. However, the new results, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, point to a much more complex role for the first black holes.
“I’m thrilled that we now can do calculations that start to capture the most relevant physics, and we can show which ideas work and which don’t,” said Abel. ” In the next decade, using calculations like this one, we will settle some of the most important issues related to the role of black holes in the universe.” (more…)
Assembling the Virtual Human
It could mean the end of animal testing and eventually even clinical patient drug trials. The Virtual Physiological Human is a 21st century pan-European project that’s gaining momentum and takes a major step forward this week at The University of Nottingham.
The University is one of 13 institutions involved in the VPH initiative which aims to create a methodological and technological framework to deliver patient-specific computer models for the personalised and predictive healthcare of the future. Once established it will allow a wide range of academic, clinical and industrial researchers to investigate the human body as a single complex system. They will be able to use the VPH network’s expanding database of computer simulation data to develop better diagnosis and treatment methods. (more…)
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