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Launching Version 12.3 of Wolfram Language & Mathematica

Look What We Made in Five Months!

It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for 35 years, building a taller and taller tower of ideas and technology that allow us to reach ever further. In earlier times we used to release the results of efforts only every few years. But in recent times we’ve started doing incremental (“.1”) releases that deliver our latest R&D achievements—both fully fleshed out, and partly as “coming attractions”—much more frequently.

We released Version 12.2 on December 16, 2020. And today, just five months later, we’re releasing Version 12.3. There are some breakthroughs and major new directions in 12.3. But much of what’s in 12.3 is just about making Wolfram Language and Mathematica better, smoother and more convenient to use. Things are faster. More “But what about ___?” cases are handled. Big frameworks are more completely filled out. And there are lots of new conveniences.

There are also the first pieces of what will become large-scale structures in the future. Early functions—already highly useful in their own right—that will in future releases be pieces of major systemwide frameworks.

Stephen Wolfram
Announcements & Events

Introducing Wolfram Application Server

Wolfram Application Server is a new platform developed by Wolfram Research enabling customers to deploy Wolfram Language–powered APIs and webpages into a scalable, highly available enterprise cluster.

Wolfram Application Server lets you:

manage data exchange in your deployments with a robust external services framework. create applications using the Wolfram Natural Language Understanding (NLU) System, the key semantic interpretation technology behind Wolfram|Alpha and Wolfram Language. generate content based on time and location, assign custom endpoints and integrate curated content from the Wolfram Knowledgebase.

We have designed Wolfram Application Server for customers who for regulatory, security or business reasons may not wish to deploy onto the Wolfram Cloud but prefer to host their Wolfram Language applications on clusters they control.

Andrew de Laix, Director of Distributed Systems Engineering
Announcements & Events

Crop Production Forecasts and Groundwater Trends Based on the Predator–Prey Model

Ever since Thomas Robert Malthus’s book An Essay on the Principle of Population, scientists have sought to determine the limit to the growth of human population due to finite resources. One such resource is groundwater. About 40% of global food production ultimately depends on irrigation and, increasingly, the source of irrigation water is groundwater aquifers. Groundwater irrigation allows farmers to increase crop yields, maintain them in dry spells and overcome temporal mismatches between growing seasons and seasonal rain. In many parts of the world, groundwater withdrawal (or pumping from wells) exceeds recharge, leading to groundwater depletion. In these regions, the “lifespan” of groundwater aquifers is limited, putting a bound on the amount of irrigation per year and the sustainability of groundwater-based agriculture. The goal of this study was to propose a dynamical systems framework capable of explaining past trends in groundwater-based irrigation and providing forecasts of food production.

Assaad Mrad, Guest Author
Best of Blog

Two Lines of Code to Bulletproof Encryption: Advancements in Cryptography Development in the Wolfram Language

Cryptography functionality in the Wolfram Language has been growing significantly ever since it was originally released in Version 10.1. In the latest release, we added support for generation and verification of digital signatures for expressions, files and cloud objects; you can encrypt or digitally sign anything—from simple messages to images or code. In order to maintain our users’ security and safety, we base our algorithms on OpenSSL libraries. While OpenSSL normally requires a great deal of experience to use, integration with the Wolfram Language has made it simple.
Dariia Porechna, Cryptography and Blockchain, Wolfram Language Development
Announcements & Events

AI and the Wolfram Language Work toward Partial Automation in the Search for Cancer

NOTE: The following post contains real medical images.

As more technology is folded into medical environments all over the world, Wolfram’s European branch has taken on work with the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) in an effort to partially automate the process of cancer diagnosis. The task is to use machine learning to avoid checking thousands of similar-looking images of people’s insides by hand for signs of cancer.

Sjoerd Smit, Wolfram Europe
Announcements & Events

The Wolfram Function Repository: Launching an Open Platform for Extending the Wolfram Language

What the Wolfram Language Makes Possible

We’re on an exciting path these days with the Wolfram Language. Just three weeks ago we launched the Free Wolfram Engine for Developers to help people integrate the Wolfram Language into large-scale software projects. Now, today, we’re launching the Wolfram Function Repository to provide an organized platform for functions that are built to extend the Wolfram Language---and we’re opening up the Function Repository for anyone to contribute.

The Wolfram Function Repository is something that's made possible by the unique nature of the Wolfram Language as not just a programming language, but a full-scale computational language. In a traditional programming language, adding significant new functionality typically involves building whole libraries, which may or may not work together. But in the Wolfram Language, there's so much already built into the language that it's possible to add significant functionality just by introducing individual new functions---which can immediately integrate into the coherent design of the whole language.

To get it started, we've already got 532 functions in the Wolfram Function Repository, in 26 categories:

Stephen Wolfram
Best of Blog

How I Built a Virtual Piano with the Wolfram Language and the Unity Game Engine

You know what’s harder than learning the piano? Learning the piano without a piano, and without any knowledge of music theory. For me, acquiring a real piano was out of the question; I had neither the funds nor space in my small college apartment. So naturally, it looked like I would have to build one myself—digitally, of course. And luckily, I had Mathematica, Unity and a few hours to spare. Because working in Unity is incredibly quick and efficient with the Wolfram Language and UnityLink, I’ve created a playable section of piano, and even learned a bit of music theory in the process.

Alec Shedelbower, Kernel Developer, Algorithms R&D
Announcements & Events

Launching Today: Free Wolfram Engine for Developers

Why Aren't You Using Our Technology?

It happens far too often. I’ll be talking to a software developer, and they’ll be saying how great they think our technology is, and how it helped them so much in school, or in doing R&D. But then I’ll ask them, “So, are you using Wolfram Language and its computational intelligence in your production software system?” Sometimes the answer is yes. But too often, there’s an awkward silence, and then they’ll say, “Well, no. Could I?”

I want to make sure the answer to this can always be: "Yes, it's easy!" And to help achieve that, we're releasing today the Free Wolfram Engine for Developers. It's a full engine for the Wolfram Language, that can be deployed on any system---and called from programs, languages, web servers, or anything.

The Wolfram Engine is the heart of all our products. It’s what implements the Wolfram Language, with all its computational intelligence, algorithms, knowledgebase, and so on. It’s what powers our desktop products (including Mathematica), as well as our cloud platform. It’s what’s inside Wolfram|Alpha---as well as an increasing number of major production systems out in the world. And as of today, we’re making it available for anyone to download, for free, to use in their software development projects.

Stephen Wolfram
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