The team, led by Dr Tobias Buck, will combine cutting-edge methods of machine learning with high-resolution cosmological computer simulations in …

Scientific discovery is mediated by ideas that, after being formulated in hypotheses, can be tested, validated, and quantified before they eventually lead to accepted concepts. Computer-mediated discovery in astrophysics is no exception, but antiquated code that is only intelligible to scientists who were involved in writing it is holding up scientific discovery in the field. A bold initiative is needed to modernize astrophysics code and make it transparent and useful beyond a small group of scientists. Scientific software is like a prototype in a laboratory experiment; it must stimulate experimentation. The eventual code is a description of concepts and their relationships, which are imperative for reproducibility and validating the results.