Research highlights 17
Pioneering password harder to crack
The University has developed an innovative ‘all in one’ password system that will allow users to combine pictures of their face, eyes or fingerprints, alongside or instead of word-based systems, on computers.
This means that passwords will be significantly harder to crack because hackers will not only have to break the password, they will also have to work out the format and composition of the password itself. The new technology, named Pass∞ (pronouced PassInfinity), can be easily added to all systems with little or no changes required to existing infrastructure.
Living in a time warp
Computer Science students developed an app for a BBC Four programme featuring Surrey’s Professor Jim Al-Khalili that can work out how our body clock is affected by gravity.
A fundamental force of nature, gravity shapes our entire universe. It sculpts galaxies and warps space and time. But gravity’s strange powers also affect all of us very personally, making a difference to our weight, height, posture and even the rate at which we age.
The new Time Warper Android and iPhone app demonstrates how gravity affects time and makes us age at slightly different rates. With its help, Jim set out to find where in Britain gravity is weakest and where we weigh the least. Gravity and Me: The Force Which Shapes Our Lives aired on BBC Four and can be viewed at
https://youtu.be/KpOOVJW69tg
Viewing the un-seeable
Surrey research has shone a light on a globular cluster of stars that could host several hundred black holes.
Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars which orbit around a galactic centre such as our Milky Way. Using computer simulations, researchers mapped a globular cluster known as NGC 6101, from which the existence of black holes was deduced. These black holes are a few times larger than the Sun, and form in the gravitational collapse of massive stars at the end of their lives.
Lead researcher Miklos Peuten said: “The results show that globular clusters like NGC 6101, which were always considered boring, are in fact the most interesting ones, possibly each harbouring hundreds of black holes. Using observations and simulations, we are able to spot the distinctive clues to their whereabouts and, therefore, effectively ‘see’ the un-seeable. This will help us to find more black holes in other globular clusters in the universe.”
The research is intended to help answer fundamental questions related to the dynamics of stars and black holes.
Watch our film to learn more:
https://youtu.be/-fmWeYcAksQ Image: NASA/ESA
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