Faster CT scans

CT scanners are a key medical physics application and figure prominently in A-level syllabuses so this report should be of interest. After years of work by GE and Intel new software has been developed which speeds up the processing of an "image from a low-dose CT scan down from 100 hours per image to less than 1 hour" - a remarkable achievement. There are important safety implications since low-dose scans become more practical as a result. Also of interest is the use of parallel processing.

"It takes lots of time, and huge amounts of computing power, to turn the smaller dataset from a low-dose scan into a usable medical image. We're talking not hours but four to five days of computing time on mainframe-equivalent computers to come up with a workable image. For many doctors and hospitals, both the computer power needed and the long delay to get an image have made low-dose scans impractical."

"The joint team ultimately developed an accelerator based on 28 Xeon processors totaling 112 cores and a dramatically improved algorithm. We reduced the compute time to around an hour, delivering superior medical images and reducing the X-ray power by up to 90 percent."

Faster-than-light neutrinos - mistake?

It seems there may have been problems with the equipment - see this BBC report. Further results are expected in May. This underlines the need for scrupulous testing and for independent confirmation especially for research using equipment as complex as that used in this case.