news 2020

Bioinformaticians at the University of Jena develop new method for analysing metabolites Everything that lives has metabolites, produces metabolites and consumes metabolites. These molecules arise as intermediate and end products from chemical processes in an organism's metabolism. Therefore, they not only have huge significance for our lives, but they also provide valuable information about the condition of a living being or an environment.

Make geothermal energy safer by using supercomputer simulations. That is the aim of the research project FASTER (Forecasting and Assessing Seismicity and Thermal Evolution in Geothermal Reservoirs) which involves Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), the Swiss Seismic Service (SED), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), and the Swiss National Centre for Scientific Computing (CSCS).

Researchers at COSIC (KU Leuven/imec) have discovered major security flaws in the keyless entry system of the Tesla Model X. The same researchers previously hacked the Tesla Model S keyless entry system and now demonstrate how the more recent Tesla Model X can be stolen in a few minutes. Tesla has already released an over-the-air software update to mitigate these issues.

Behavioral scientists at EPFL have developed a virtual reality test that assesses a person's vulnerability to stress while exploring immersive environments. The resulting model offers the field of stress research one of the first such tools that does not rely on subjective evaluations. We all react to stress in different ways.

Artificial intelligence can make it possible to see astrophysical phenomena that were previously beyond reach. This has now been demonstrated by scientists from the CNRS, IRAM, Observatoire de Paris-PSL, Ecole Centrale Marseille and Ecole Centrale Lille, working together in the ORION-B 1 programme. In a series of three papers published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on 19 November 2020, they present the most comprehensive observations yet carried out of one of the star-forming regions closest to the Earth.

Novel deep learning method enables clinic-ready automated screening for diabetes-related eye disease Researchers created a novel deep learning method that makes automated screenings for eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy more efficient. Reducing the amount of expensive annotated image data that is required for the training of the algorithm, the method is attractive for clinics.

By Barbara Gigler SGS and TU Graz announce the opening of Lamarr Security Research, a non-profit research center focusing on information security and establishing trust in digital systems and products. This new research environment is open for partner sponsors to work together, and to make the world a safer place.

A team of interdisciplinary researchers has demonstrated that convex optimization is an effective mathematical and numerical tool for a daily estimate of the evolution of the reproductive number for Covid-19, over time and across regions. Monitoring the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the major challenges of the global health crisis.

A computer vision technology developed by University of Cambridge engineers has now been developed into a free mobile phone app for regular monitoring of glucose levels in people with diabetes. As someone with diabetes, this app makes the whole process easier. I've now forgotten what it was like to enter the values manually, but I do know I wouldn't want to go back to it James Charles The app uses computer vision techniques to read and record the glucose levels, time and date displayed on a typical glucose test via the camera on a mobile phone.

Computer modelling used to forecast Covid-19 mortality contains significant uncertainty in its predictions, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL and the CWI institute in the Netherlands. The authors of the study, performed for the Royal Society's RAMP initiative for Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic, highlighted that however well constructed such models are, they are only ever as robust as the "input" parameters - which include highly uncertain factors relating to how the disease is spread.

Fiber optic sensors - used in critical applications like detecting fires in tunnels, pinpointing leaks in pipelines and predicting landslides - are about to get even faster and more accurate. EPFL engineers have developed an advanced encoding and decoding system that allows fiber optic sensors to send data up to 100 times faster and over a wider area.

Spider webs are engineering marvels constructed by 8 legged experts with 400 million years of accumulated know-how. Much can be learned from the building of the spider's gossamer net and the operation of its sticky trap.  Amazingly, garden cross spiders can regenerate lost legs and use them immediately to build a web that is pitch-perfect, even though the new limb is much shorter than the one it replaced.

An international team of security researchers, including experts from the University of Birmingham, is presenting new side-channel attacks, which use fluctuations in software power consumption to access sensitive data on Intel CPUs. Power side-channel attacks are attacks that exploit fluctuations in power consumption to extract sensitive data such as cryptographic keys.

In order for robots to be able to achieve more than simple automated machines in the future, they must not only have their own "brain". Empa researchers postulate that artificial intelligence must be expanded to include the capabilities of a Physical Artificial Intelligence, PAI. This will redefine the field of robotics and the relationship between man and machine.

Database systems are under pressure to become more and more powerful. But reliability seems to be suffering as a result. Now, ETH computer scientists have developed a tool to automatically detect logic errors in database systems using three different methods. They found and reported over 450 unique, previously unknown bugs.

By Christoph Pelzl An international team of security researchers from TU Graz, CISPA and University of Birmingham is presenting new side-channel attacks, which use fluctuations in software power consumption to access sensitive data on Intel CPUs. Power side-channel attacks are attacks that exploit fluctuations in power consumption to extract sensitive data such as cryptographic keys.

A study of how 98 million Americans move around each day suggests that most infections occur at "superspreader" sites that put people in contact for long periods, and details how mobility patterns help drive higher infection rates among minority and low-income populations. A team of researchers has created a computer model that accurately predicted the spread of COVID-19 in 10 major cities this spring by analyzing three factors that drive infection risk: where people go in the course of a day, how long they linger and how many other people are visiting the same place at the same time.

AI finds the right material Engineers are always looking for materials with very specific properties for their projects. Unfortunately, there are way too many options for researchers to simply guess-and-check until they find what they're looking for. Even if they were to simulate materials, instead of testing them in the lab, it would take far too long to find a suitable material.

'Unfolding' techniques used to improve the accuracy of particle detector data can also improve the readout of quantum states from a quantum computer Borrowing a page from high-energy physics and astronomy textbooks, a team of physicists and computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has successfully adapted and applied a common error-reduction technique to the field of quantum computing.

EPFL engineers have developed a computer chip that combines two functions - logic operations and data storage - into a single architecture, paving the way to more efficient devices. Their technology is particularly promising for applications relying on artificial intelligence. It's a major breakthrough in the field of electronics.