Magazine

November-December 2015

Current Issue

November-December 2015

Volume: 103 Number: 6

A famous artwork is shown as it is viewed by an artificial neural network, a computer program that has been trained to recognize and classify images. A technique called deep dreaming attempts to visualize various stages in the neural network’s process of analysis. Shown here is one of the early stages, where a layer of artificial neurons seems to conjure up geometric motifs drawn from a jumble of unrelated images. The deep dreaming algorithm accentuates these patterns and projects them back onto the original painting. In Computing Science, Brian Hayes explores what these algorithms can tell us about how both artificial and human image processing works. (The Mona Lisa on the cover is a version in the Prado Museum in Spain.) (Cover image by Brian Hayes.)

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Where the Xingu Bends and Will Soon Break

Mark Sabaj Perez

Engineering Environment

Restoring Depth to Leonardo's Mona Lisa

Claus-Christian Carbon, Vera M. Hesslinger

Art Computer Technology

Was La Gioconda the model for one of the world’s earliest attempts at three-dimensional imaging?

The Rising Cost of Resources and Global Indicators of Change

Carey W. King

Agriculture Economics

The turn of this century saw the cheapest-ever energy and food combined, and here’s why we may never return to those historic low numbers.

In Defense of Pure Mathematics

Daniel S. Silver

Mathematics

After 75 years, Godfrey Harold Hardy’s A Mathematician’s Apology still fuels debate over pure versus applied mathematics.

Scientists' Nightstand

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