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New in the Wolfram Language: WikipediaData

Since the inception of Wolfram|Alpha, Wikipedia has held a special place in its development pipeline. We usually use it not as a primary source for data, but rather as an essential resource for improving our natural language understanding, particularly for mining the common and colloquial ways people refer to entities and concepts in various domains. We've developed a lot of internal tools to help us analyze and extract information from Wikipedia over the years, but now we've also added a Wikipedia "integrated service" to the latest version of the Wolfram Language---making it incredibly easy for anyone to incorporate Wiki content into Wolfram Language workflows.
C. Alan Joyce, Director, Content Development
Computation & Analysis

New in the Wolfram Language: TimelinePlot

A few years ago we created a timeline of the history of systematic data and computable knowledge, which you can look at online. I wrote the code that placed events along the timeline, and then our graphic designers did the real work in deciding where to put the labels, choosing fonts and colors, and doing all the other things that go into creating a production-quality poster. Fast-forward a bit, and last year we added NumberLinePlot to the Wolfram Language to visualize points, intervals, and inequalities. Once people started seeing the number lines, we began getting requests for similar plots, but with dates and times, so we decided it was time to tackle TimelinePlot.
Brett Champion, Visualization Manager, Algorithms R&D
Announcements & Events

The Wolfram Data Drop Is Live!

Where should data from the Internet of Things go? We’ve got great technology in the Wolfram Language for interpreting, visualizing, analyzing, querying and otherwise doing interesting things with it. But the question is, how should the data from all those connected devices and everything else actually get to where good things can be done with […]

Stephen Wolfram
Products

Sweet Tweets: Valentine’s Day Tweet-a-Program Challenge

As Valentine's Day approaches, Wolfram is holding a Tweet-a-Program challenge. To help us celebrate the romantic holiday, tweet us your best Valentine-themed Wolfram Language code. As with our other challenges, we'll pin, retweet, and share your submissions with our followers—and we'll use the Wolfram Language to randomly select winning tweets, along with one or two of our favorites. If you’re a lucky winner, we’ll send you a Wolfram T-shirt! Submissions aren't limited to heart-themed programs, but check out these examples if you need a little inspiration:
Emily Suess, Technical Writer, Technical Communications and Strategy Group
Education & Academic

Jacob Bernoulli’s Legacy in Mathematica

January 16, 2015, marks the 360th birthday anniversary of Jacob Bernoulli (also James, or Jacques). Jacob Bernoulli was the first mathematician in the Bernoulli family, which produced many notable mathematicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Jacob Bernoulli's mathematical legacy is rich. He introduced Bernoulli numbers, solved the Bernoulli differential equation, studied the Bernoulli trials process, proved the Bernoulli inequality, discovered the number e, and demonstrated the weak law of large numbers (Bernoulli's theorem).
Oleksandr Pavlyk, Senior Kernel Developer, Algorithms R&D
Products

A Mathematical Modeling Approach to Monitoring Liver Function in Drug Trials

Explore the contents of this article with a free Wolfram SystemModeler trial. Mathematical modeling is not just used for understanding and designing new products and drugs; modeling can also be used in health care, and in the future, your doctor might examine your liver with a mathematical model just like the one researchers at AstraZeneca have developed. The liver is a vital organ, and currently there isn't really a way to compensate for loss of liver function in the long term. The liver performs a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and secretion of compounds necessary for digestion, just to mention a few. In the US and Europe, up to 15 % of all acute liver failure cases are due to drug-induced liver injury, and the risk of injuring the liver is of major concern in testing new drug candidates. So in order to safely monitor the impact of a new drug candidate on the liver, researchers at the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have recently published a method for evaluating liver function that combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and mathematical modeling---potentially allowing for early identification of any reduced liver function in humans. Last year, Wolfram MathCore and AstraZeneca worked together on a project where we investigated some modifications of AstraZeneca's modeling framework. We presented the promising results at the ISMRM-ESMRMB Joint Annual Meeting, which is the major international magnetic resonance conference. In this blog post, I'll show how the Wolfram Language was used to calculate liver function and how more complex models of liver function can be implemented in Wolfram SystemModeler.
Mikael Forsgren, Senior Applications Engineer, SystemModeler
Education & Academic

Serial Interface Control of Astronomical Telescopes

As an amateur astronomer, I'm always interested in ways to use Mathematica in my hobby. In earlier blog posts, I've written about how Mathematica can be used to process and improve images taken of planets and nebulae. However, I'd like to be able to control my astronomical hardware directly with the Wolfram Language. In particular, I've been curious about using the Wolfram Language as a way to drive my telescope mount, for the purpose of automating an observing session. There is precedent for this because some amateurs use their computerized telescopes to hunt down transient phenomena like supernovas. Software already exists for performing many of the tasks that astronomers engage in—locating objects, managing data, and performing image processing. However, it would be quite cool to automate all the different tasks associated with an observing session from one notebook. Mathematica is highly useful because it can perform many of these operations in a unified manner. For example, Mathematica incorporates a vast amount of useful astronomical data, including the celestial coordinates of hundreds of thousands of stars, nebula, galaxies, asteroids, and planets. In addition to this, Mathematica's image processing and data handling functionality are extremely useful when processing astronomical data.
Tom Sherlock, User Interface Developer, User Interfaces
Computation & Analysis

Deck the Halls: Tweet-a-Program Holiday Ornament Challenge

It's the holiday season, and Wolfram is gearing up for bright lights and winter weather by holding a new Tweet-a-Program challenge. To help us celebrate the holidays, tweet your best holiday ornament-themed lines of Wolfram Language code. As with our other challenges, we'll use the Wolfram Language to randomly select winning tweets (along with a few of our favorites) to pin, retweet, and share with our followers. If you're a lucky winner, we'll send you a free Wolfram T-shirt! If you need some help getting into the holiday spirit, check out these examples:
Wolfram Blog Team
Education & Academic

The Wolfram Language for the Hour of Code

Get ready, get set… code! It’s the time of year to get thinking about programming with the Hour of Code. For many years, Wolfram Research has promoted and supported initiatives that encourage computation, programming, and STEM education, and we are always thrilled when efforts are taken by others to do the same. Code.org, in conjunction with Computer Science Education Week, is sponsoring an event to encourage educators and organizations across the country to dedicate a single hour to coding. This hour gives kids (and adults, too!) a taste of what it means to study computer science---and how it can actually be a creative, fun, and fulfilling process. Millions of students participated in the Hour of Code in past years, and instructors are looking for more engaging activities for their students to try. Enter the Wolfram Language. Built into the Wolfram Language is the technology from Wolfram|Alpha that enables natural language input---and lets students create code just by writing English.
Adriana Rose, Business Development, Partnerships
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