mathematica

Wolfram education apps raise teaching dilemma

Wolfram Research, a software company with deep mathematical and scientific expertise, is expanding to the broad education market with a range of mobile apps.

But although those apps hold the promise of turning smartphones into sophisticated next-generation calculators, they also raise questions about the best way for students to learn.

Wolfram Research got its start with the hard-core Mathematica software, itself an offshoot of Stephen Wolfram's attempt to explain his mathematical view of the universe embodied in his book, A New Kind of Science. It was therefore fitting that the company's "knowledge engine," Wolfram Alpha, took … Read more

Wolfram gives Mathematica 8 a human touch

Wolfram Research has released Mathematica 8, bringing some rudimentary human-language skills to the mathematics and scientific software by building in some abilities of the Wolfram Alpha search engine.

It's an unusual combination. Mathematica can produce stunning graphical displays and dig into the murkiest data sets, but only for those who learn its control language.

"Free-form linguistics understands human language and translates it into syntax--a breakthrough in usability," said Chief Executive Stephen Wolfram in a statement.

Well, the Alpha language can't exactly give Mathematica the ability to chat at cocktail parties. But it can understand the command "pi 200 digits" … Read more

Report: Wolfram Alpha to offer API for data feeds

Wolfram Alpha, the "computational knowledge engine" developed by Mathematica, will soon allow its dynamic search results to be queried and mashed up in a variety of new ways.

According to the Guardian, Wolfram will be opening its curated data to be queried via an application programming interface, or API. Currently, you can view results in a browser, export them as a PDF, or "play" them using a Mathematica plug-in. The ability to use the data on other sites and for other means, such as computations in spreadsheets, is appealing, if not earth-shattering.

Wolfram's launch fanfare … Read more

Wolfram Alpha: Next major search breakthrough?

Stephen Wolfram has a track record of scientific breakthroughs and some controversy. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech in 1979 when he was 20 and has focused most of his career on probing complex systems. In 1988 he launched Mathematica, powerful computational software that has become the gold standard in its field. In 2002, Wolfram produced a 1,280-page tome, A New Kind of Science, based on a decade of exploration in cellular automata and complex systems. The book stirred up a lot of debate in scientific circles. Legendary physicist Freeman Dyson described the tome as &… Read more

O'Reilly taking Mathematica online

Mathematica, Wolfram Research's sophisticated software for complicated mathematical calculations and visualization, is going online.

The O'Reilly School of Technology announced Wednesday a licensing deal with Wolfram that will let it create an online version of Mathematica called Hilbert that "will emulate the desktop version of the software with remarkable fidelity."

The software will be available to students in the second half of the year, O'Reilly said. Hilbert will be available through the O'Reilly School of Technology, an online education division of publisher O'Reilly Media.

Going one step further in fulfilling some of the … Read more