News tagged with computer science

New mathematical framework formalizes oddball programming techniques

Two years ago, Martin Rinard's group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory proposed a surprisingly simple way to make some computer procedures more efficient: Just skip a bunch of ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 23, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (19) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Sophisticated simulations predict future warming

The chances of our planet being hit by a global warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 is as likely as it being hit by an increase of 1.4 degrees, new research shows. Presented in the journal Nature Geoscience, the British study ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (11) | comments 56

A robot learns how to tidy up after you

(Phys.org) -- Sooner than you think, we may have robots to tidy up our homes.

Electronics / Robotics

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A long-held assumption confirmed: We can learn a lot from other species' genes

Researchers at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute have confirmed the long-held belief that studying the genes we share with other animals is useful. The study, published ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 17, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Internet usage patterns may signify depression

(Phys.org) -- In a new study analyzing Internet usage among college students, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have found that students who show signs of depression tend to use the Internet differently ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 7

Individual typing style gives key to user authentication

Your typing style is as individual as your fingerprints. Being able to use typing style to identify a change in users could be a vital security and forensic support for organisations such as banks, the military ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 16, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New 'metamaterial' practical for optical advances

(Phys.org) -- Researchers have taken a step toward overcoming a key obstacle in commercializing "hyperbolic metamaterials," structures that could bring optical advances including ultrapowerful microscopes, computers and solar ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Ultrasensitive biosensor promising for medical diagnostics

(Phys.org) -- Researchers have created an ultrasensitive biosensor that could open up new opportunities for early detection of cancer and "personalized medicine" tailored to the specific biochemistry of individual ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

In metallic glasses, researchers find a few new atomic structures

Drawing on powerful computational tools and a state-of-the-art scanning transmission electron microscope, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison and Iowa State University materials science and engineering researchers has ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Researchers reveal unseen planet by its gravity

More than a 150 years ago, before Neptune was ever sighted in the night sky, French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier predicted the planet's existence based on small deviations in the motion of Uranus. In a ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cybersecurity experts begin investigation on self-adapting computer network that defends itself against hackers

(Phys.org) -- In the online struggle for network security, Kansas State University cybersecurity experts are adding an ally to the security force: the computer network itself.

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Robots learn to pick up oddly shaped objects

(Phys.org) -- When Cornell engineers developed a new type of robot hand that could pick up oddly shaped objects it presented a challenge: It was easy for a human operator to choose the best place to take h ...

Electronics / Robotics

created May 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Researchers demonstrate new way to control nonvolatile magnetic memory devices

(Phys.org) -- Cornell researchers have demonstrated a new strategy for making energy- efficient, reliable nonvolatile magnetic memory devices -- which retain information without electric power.

Physics / General Physics

created May 07, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

OSC's Tomko to champion high-performance computing

A senior researcher in computer science at the Ohio Supercomputer Center has been designated a Campus Champion – charged with empowering researchers and educators to advance scientific discovery by serving ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Thwarting the cleverest attackers

In the last 10 years, cryptography researchers have demonstrated that even the most secure-seeming computer is shockingly vulnerable to attack. The time it takes a computer to store data in memory, fluctuations in its power ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Computer science

Computer science (or computing science) is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that describe and transform information. According to Peter J. Denning, the fundamental question underlying computer science is, "What can be (efficiently) automated?" Computer science has many sub-fields; some, such as computer graphics, emphasize the computation of specific results, while others, such as computational complexity theory, study the properties of computational problems. Still others focus on the challenges in implementing computations. For example, programming language theory studies approaches to describing computations, while computer programming applies specific programming languages to solve specific computational problems, and human-computer interaction focuses on the challenges in making computers and computations useful, usable, and universally accessible to people.

The general public sometimes confuses computer science with vocational areas that deal with computers (such as information technology), or think that it relates to their own experience of computers, which typically involves activities such as gaming, web-browsing, and word-processing. However, the focus of computer science is more on understanding the properties of the programs used to implement software such as games and web-browsers, and using that understanding to create new programs or improve existing ones.

For more information about Computer science, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.