Wolfram launches interactive CDF document format

Always at the forefront of innovation, Wolfram, Stephen Wolfram's amazing mathematical computing company, has introduced a new document format that will change the face of online documents. The CDF format (Computable Document Format) allows for interactive visualisations of data - making massive quantities of previously inaccessible information to get a visual makeover that makes them both much more user friendly, and useful as research and discovery tools.



The CDF format has been designed so that even a novice can create amazing visualisations from their datasets - opening up information that had previously been solely interesting for elite groups of people to those with little or no knowledge of the subject matter - and exposing new discoveries and realisations. Creating a CDF document is easy, and has the potential to revolutionise the online document - in a way that flat and lifeless PDF's have failed to do. The release of the free CDF player will make it simple for anyone to access and utilise the new format.



The format also holds the potential to allow anyone to develop mini applications that take advantage of their data, cutting the enormous cost of development, and democratising web apps in a way that hasn't been done successfully before. The aim, as with Stephen Wolfram's amazing Wolfram Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine, is to bring high level mathematical functions to an audience who has never had access to such powerful tools in the past. Its going to be very exciting to see how the CDF format is adopted, and what novel applications people from vastly different specialisations find to put the new format to use.

For more information, check out the Introduction to CDF documents page on the Wolfram site.

FSU sets world record with most powerful Split Magnet ever!

Florida State University has announced the completion of the world's most powerful split magnet, which, at 25 Tesla, is 7.5 Tesla more powerful than the previous French record holder - an amazing 43% more powerful than its predecessor, and an incredible 50,000 times more powerful than the Earth's magnetic field. Built by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University, the amazing device has also revolutionised the design of a split magnet,by increasing the amount of space between the two magnets by an amazing 1,500 times - allowing much more space between the magnets for material scientists to explore the fascinating environment that the magnet creates.



A split magnet is actually two large and powerful electromagnets, which are brought together, but kept separate. Between the magnets incredible forces exist, and these are fascinating for scientists to experiment with the way that molecules and atoms react under extreme circumstances, with the fundamental properties of many materials changing when exposed to these incredible magnetic forces.

For more information check out the Florida State University's website.

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