The researchers used a computer simulation model to estimate how many lives the screening programme could save, using data on death rates and the numbers of people affected by cancer from between 1975 and 2004.

BBC: Hopes over DIY bowel cancer tests

The new computer simulation allows doctors and physicists to model the faulty heart beats (arrhythmias) that can cause cardiac arrest, and run episodes of arrhythmia time and again, looking for the best way of treating it.

BBC: Virtual heart

But in an agent-based model you simply run a computer simulation to see what emerges, free from any top-down assumptions.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

Considering that, a few years ago, it was rare to get the computer time needed to do even a single geoengineering simulation with a state-of-the-art climate model, this investment of time and effort marks a big step forward.

ECONOMIST: Geoengineering