Spotting patterns in the sea of data

Anyone who knows how to harvest useful information from the mass flood of data holds the key to new worlds. And the possibilities to do just that have expanded dramatically in recent years: today, more data is produced in a year than in the entire history of humankind, which also has implications for science: processing large amounts of data and calculating increasingly complex models are key aspects of research these days. In the latest issue of Globe, Joachim M. Buhmann and Donald Kossmann, who are both computer science professors at ETH Zurich, explain what has changed for society as a result. Other articles reveal how big data can yield valuable insights in the social sciences, such as the issue of when and why international conflicts escalate or how biologists can refine cancer diagnostics with the aid of large amounts of data.

For the report in this issue, Globe reporter Corinne Hodel pulled on a pair of wellington boots and braved the elements when she visited Susanne Meese and her cows at the Strickhof research centre in Lindau-Eschikon. The doctoral student from ETH Zurich is studying why the immune systems in cows that have just calved often do not work properly.

And Globe was lucky enough to track down the extremely busy, jet-setting ETH-Zurich alumnus Hans Herren for an interview. The dedicated eco-pioneer performed an agro-ecological miracle in East Africa in the 1980s that saved the lives of 20 million people. He is still working tirelessly on convincing people in positions of authority all over the world about the possibilities of ecological farming.