Modern biological research relies on big data analytics. Vast reservoirs of memory and powerful computing ability mean machines find patterns and make meta-analyses and even predictions for scientists.
Why are some pages of a book of numbers tables more dog-eared than others?
Book image via www.shutterstock.com.
The first digits of numbers in a data set aren’t distributed equally. And now you know more than a lot of fraudsters do – and should – when they’re making up their phony numbers.
The end-of-year shopping whirlwind is underway. How does your credit card issuer watch out for fraudulent purchases on your account amid all those transactions?
The Large Hadron Collider is playing a key role in enabling the collection of big data.
Supplied
Big data is about processing large amounts of data. It is often associated with multiplicities of data. But the ability to generate data outpaces the ability to store it.
Preventing crime before it happens, while saving resources, sounds like a great use of big data. But these calculated probabilities raise big questions about civil liberties.
There have never been more ways to monitor our personal health and well-being.
everything possible/Shutterstock
The Investigatory Powers Bill would require ISPs to store 12 months of our web browsing history – a year-long snapshot of our thoughts, fears, interests and behaviour.
Sophisticated models and supercomputers allow researchers to create a high-fidelity map of the Earth’s trees – and show that we’re losing billions of trees a year.
It’s all just data – how can it be prejudiced?
Trey Guinn
Math isn’t prejudiced, goes the argument. But these arithmetic programs can learn bias from the data fed into them by human beings, leading to unfair treatment and discrimination.
Eye testing in remote areas of Australia with the images stored and set via satellite to city-based specialists.
CSIRO
Analyzing big data sets holds the promise of big insights. But the axiom “garbage in, garbage out” is particularly apt, since conclusions can be only as good as the raw data itself.
The author (right) and Toby Grime, Artistic Director Animal Logic (left), inside UTS’s new Data Arena.
UTS
Sometimes the best way to deal with mountains of data is to turn to the public for help. That’s what Snapshot Serengeti did to classify millions of photos from savanna camera traps in Tanzania.