Free software brings affordability, transparency to mathematics

User rating: 4.8 / 5 after 88 vote(s)

The Sage logo. Credit: William Stein

Until recently, a student solving a calculus problem, a physicist modeling a galaxy or a mathematician studying a complex equation had to use powerful computer programs that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. But an open-source tool based at the University of Washington won first prize in the scientific software division of Les Trophées du Libre, an international competition for free software.

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All News summaries from General Science news
All News summaries for December 06, 2007

Study: No gender differences in math performance

8 minutes ago | User rating: not rated yet

We've all heard it. Many of us in fact believe it. Girls just aren't as good at math as boys. But is it true? After sifting through mountains of data - including SAT results and math scores from 7 million students who were ...

Plant steroids offer new paradigm for how hormones work

10 minutes ago | User rating: not rated yet

Steroids bulk up plants just as they do human athletes, but the playbook of molecular signals that tell the genes to boost growth and development in plant cells is far more complicated than in human and animal cells. A new ...

Prevailing theory of aging challenged in Stanford worm study

40 minutes ago | User rating: not rated yet

Age may not be rust after all. Specific genetic instructions drive aging in worms, report researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Their discovery contradicts the prevailing theory that aging is a buildup ...

UC Santa Barbara chemist goes nano with CoQ10

1 hour ago | User rating: not rated yet

If Bruce Lipshutz has his way, you may soon be buying bottles of water brimming with the life-sustaining coenzyme CoQ10 at your local Costco.

Region hit hard by 1993 floods showed economic resiliency, study indicates

1 hour ago | User rating: not rated yet

With the first wave of clean-up efforts behind them, residents of communities affected by this year's Midwest floods may find hope in a University of Illinois study on the economic impact of the 1993 flood that devastated ...

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