Applying Machine Learning to the Universe's Mysteries

Computers can beat chess champions, simulate star explosions, and forecast global climate. They are also being trained as infallible problem-solvers and fast learners. And now, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their collaborators have demonstrated that computers are ready to tackle the universe's greatest mysteries. The team used thousands of images from simulated high-energy particle collisions to train computer networks to identify important features. The researchers programmed powerful arrays known as neural networks to serve as a sort of hive-like digital brain in analyzing and interpreting the images of the simulated particle debris left over from the collisions.