WOLFRAM

News, Views & Insights

Announcements & Events

The Background and Vision of Mathematica

Opening keynote of the Wolfram Mathematica Virtual Conference 2011, September 26–27. Hi. I’m pleased to be with you. I’ve been asked to talk a bit about the background and vision of Mathematica. You know, this month it’s exactly 25 years since I started building Mathematica. It’s been really exciting seeing Mathematica grow and prosper over […]

Stephen Wolfram
Announcements & Events

Steve Jobs: A Few Memories

I’m so sad this evening—as millions are—to hear of Steve Jobs’s death. Scattered over the last quarter century, I learned much from Steve Jobs, and was proud to consider him a friend. And indeed, he contributed in various ways to all three of my major life projects so far: Mathematica, A New Kind of Science […]

Stephen Wolfram
Products

Mathematica Q&A Series: Generating Random Numbers

Got questions about Mathematica? The Wolfram Blog has answers! We'll regularly answer selected questions from users around the web. You can submit your question directly to the Q&A Team. This week's question comes from Peter, a secondary school teacher: How can I generate random integers between -10 and 10, but excluding 0? Read below or watch this screencast for the answer (we recommend viewing it in full-screen mode):
Andrew Moylan, Technical Content Specialist, Technical Communication and Strategy Group
Announcements & Events

Announcing the FULL Schedule for the Wolfram Technology Conference 2011

Only four weeks to go until the Wolfram Technology Conference 2011 in Champaign, Illinois, and in order to help you prepare, the full conference schedule is now available online—fully interactive and customizable. As of this year, you can create your schedule, network with fellow attendees, arrange meetings with Wolfram staff and other participants, and rate talks and share comments throughout the conference.
Wolfram Blog Team
Computation & Analysis

From Pi to Puzzles

Neil Bickford calculated the first 458 million terms for the continued fraction of pi, breaking the previous record of 180 million. He used Mathematica to develop his code and verify his results—which he posted shortly after he turned 13.

Bickford, who broke the record last fall, said creating the early version of the pi continued-fraction generator was “the best thing I’ve ever used Mathematica for.”

Elizabeth Shack, Technical Marketing Project Manager, Project Management
Best of Blog

Building a Microscopy Application in Mathematica

As a change from my usual recreational content, today I thought I would describe a real Mathematica application that I wrote. The project came from my most important Mathematica user—not because she spends a lot of money with Wolfram Research, but because I am married to her! Her company, Particle Therapeutics, works on needle-free injection devices that fire powdered drug particles into the skin on a supersonic gas shock wave. She was trying to analyze the penetration characteristics on a test medium by photographing thin slices of a target under a microscope and measuring the locations of the particles. The problem was that her expensive image processing software was doing a poor job of identifying overlapping particles and gave her no manual override for its mistakes. Faced with the alternative of holding rulers up to her screen and recording each value by hand, I promised that I could do better in Mathematica, with the added advantage that now her image processing tool would be integrated into her analysis code to go from image file to report document in a single workflow.
Jon McLoone, Director, Technical Communication & Strategy
Education & Academic

Financial Strategies with Mathematica Workshop and Seminar in New York on September 15

Mathematica 8 added a slew of powerful finance functions to its already large list of capabilities when it was released last November. To help highlight some of these features as well as assist those who want to use them, Wolfram Research is presenting both a finance workshop and a free seminar at the Club Quarters, Wall Street hotel in New York City on September 15.
Michael Kelly, Senior Wolfram Technology Consultant, Wolfram Technology Group
Leading Edge

Putting CDF into Play

Now that the Computable Document Format (CDF) is officially released, the real fun has begun. At least for me. Whether or not you plan to start using CDF in your own work anytime soon, you've got to admit, it's pretty cool. From publishing textbooks and making complex information easy to understand to recreational games and everyday blogging, CDF truly makes it possible to communicate ideas in a more participatory way—as adopters of the format have already proven. It has been exciting to see the tremendous interest in CDF following last month's launch. Although CDF is a new advancement, it's clear that the possibilities it presents resonate with authors and readers alike, and hence with publishers as well.
Maryka Baraka, Publishing Programs Manager, Document & Media Systems
Education & Academic

Exploring America’s Debt Problem

It has been a roller coaster ride for the stock market lately. On August 1, the United States government avoided a default by a last minute deal to raise the debt limit. A few days later, we witnessed the first ever downgrade of U.S. credit by Standard & Poor's. Using Mathematica's TradingChart command, we can witness the stock market's immediate negative reaction to the downgrade. Note: Mouse over the chart to see the daily open, high, low, and closing price of the S&P 500 index.
Samuel Chen, Product Manager, Technical Communication & Strategy Michael Kelly, Senior Wolfram Technology Consultant, Wolfram Technology Group
Show More