Visualisations

Dynamic Visualisations Part 1

Take a look at this video snippet from BBC Four’s archives of Hans Rosling presenting his dynamic graph of the world showing how 200 countries have changed over 200 years.

“having the data is not enough, have to show it in ways people both enjoy and understand”  Hans Rosling

Gapminder is available online or can be downloaded.  It shows how 5 dimensions can be clearly viewed via a 2 dimensional plot that uses colour, size and time to represent an additional 3 dimensions.

dynamicGraphCartoon

Wherever we have time as a static dimension on a graph, we should question whether it is worth representing time by time itself to free up a dimension and create a richer dynamic representation.  There will of course be scenarios when we want static 2D plots and when video representations may not be appropriate.  However, in a technology driven world with an increasing number of papers and books being read on electronic devices, it may become second nature for us to expect to be able to press play to see any time-based visualisations move.

 

Amethyst News

Happy 3rd Birthday Amethyst

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The last 3 years have just whizzed by.  I have certainly enjoyed the journey so far and have learnt lots of new things.  I am looking forward to many more years of Amethyst adventures.

Birthday

It has been a delight to work with a mixture of clients (small start-ups, larger pharma, contract research organisations, software companies and universities) on a variety of projects (for example setting up customised data analysis workflows or writing detailed reports on current business processes).

Thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way so far and thank you to Claire and George for the very yummy celebratory cupcakes.  They got eaten very quickly…

Many thanks
Lin
Managing Director
Amethyst Informatics Ltd

Inspirational Research

How a video game going viral can help cure cancer

Spaceships, meteorites, microarray data and cancer. Not words you would normally associate with the same paragraph let alone the same sentence. This is the game that you will be encouraging your kids to play.Genes in space

Cancer Research has released a game that will help to fight the battle against cancer. As the slogan states – “Play To Cure”. Genes In Space is fun for all the family to play. After downloading the App on to my iPad and trying it out myself, I decided to share the fun with my 3 nephews and niece. When I explained to them that as they were playing they were helping to find a cure for cancer, their faces lit up.

As you fly your spaceship through the trail of “Element Alpha” you are helping to spot trends in microarray data and uncover patterns in genetic information from thousands of tumours. For more information see the recent Cancer Research Science Blog article and the download the app today to get involved in this galactic adventure

 

Big Data

Big Data Said Business School Oxford

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Said Business School’s GOTO Community has put together an interesting 12 minute video on the topic of Big Data and how it affects us all.

GOTO (Global Opportunities and Threats: Oxford) aims to address complex global issues with innovative business ideas.  This year Big Data will be one of the communities core topics.

There is an overwhelming magnitude of data constantly being collected in Today’s world, as emphasised by the following statements from the video:

  • 90% of the data today has been created in the last 2 years.
  • Google receives over 2 million search requests every minute
  • 284166667 emails are sent every minute
  • Facebook users share 684478 pieces of content every minute

 

 

Amethyst News

New Sparkle added to Amethyst

As Christmas is fast approaching you will notice Amethyst getting into the seasonal spirit with lots of new sparkle being added to the company’s image. The magical sprinkling of sparkle comes from Design Fusion (Yvonne Macken) whom Amethyst is very excited to be working with. Look out for our brand new logo and lots of changes that will be happening to this website over the coming months.

I would highly recommend Yvonne to anyone seeking help with any project that is in need of some additional creative input. Her enthusiastic nature, ability to think outside the box and drive to produce the highest quality solutions sets her apart. I look forward to future projects with Design Fusion.

Yvonne’s LinkedIn profile
View YM's profile on LinkedIn
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Christmas and all the best for 2014.

seasonsgreetings

Crystallising your data