December 06, 2010 Cosmologists have come up with a new way to
solve their problems. They are inviting scientists, including
those from totally unrelated fields, to participate in a grand
competition. The idea is to spur outside interest in one of
cosmology's trickiest problems -- measuring the invisible dark
matter and dark energy that permeate our universe. The results
will help in the development of new space missions, designed to
answer fundamental questions about the history and fate of our
universe. "We're hoping to get more computer scientists
interested in our work," said cosmologist Jason Rhodes of NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who is helping to
organize the challenge, which begins on Dec. 3, 2010. "Some of
the mathematical problems in our field are the same as those in
machine-learning applications -- for example facial-recognition
software." JPL and several European Universities, including The
University of Edinburgh and University College London in the
United Kingdom, are he