The University of Alabama in Huntsville has developed a new semantic web search engine to help environmental scientists retrieve the research data they need. Called Noesis, the new search engine is claimed to have the potential to help scientists and researchers in many other fields perform more focused and productive searches.
Noesis replaces the simple word-or-phrase matching search used by most search engines with a discipline-specific semantic 'ontology,' or knowledge base. Using Noesis, for instance, an aquatic botantist searching for Mobile Bay sea grass might get a list of additional terms narrowing the search based on taxonomy, location or water type. It will also filter out websites offering sea grass mats, oils and lotions that leave your skin silky smooth.
Both the terminology and the structure of relationships between terms in ontology help Noesis narrow a search to items related to the specific field of study. Noesis also broadens the search by adding datasets and scientific publications not routinely included in web searches. While the first three projects using the Noesis system are all related to meteorology or environmental science, the system can be adapted to any branch of science or research.
