Modeling
Topography played key role in Deepwater Horizon aftermath
January 9, 2012 3:55 pm | News | CommentsWhen geochemist David Valentine and colleagues published a study in early 2011 documenting how bacteria blooms had consumed almost all of the deepwater methane plumes following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, some people were skeptical. A recent publication explains how they did it.
Case study: Advanced cluster simulations, on the fly
January 9, 2012 3:12 am | White PapersKonrad Juethner, a software engineering consultant, recently used Windows HPC Server to run cluster-based analysis with COMSOL Multiphysics using the hardware he had available at home. His successful setup highlights a high level of accessibility for advanced supercomputing approaches.
Computer model explains lakes and storms on Titan
January 4, 2012 8:39 am | News | CommentsSaturn's largest moon, Titan, is an intriguing, alien world that's covered in a thick atmosphere with abundant methane. With an average surface temperature of -300 F and a diameter just less than half of the Earth's, Titan boasts methane clouds and fog, as well as rainstorms and plentiful lakes of liquid methane. The origins of many of these features have remained puzzling to scientists. Until now.
Scientists create first 3D map of human genome
January 4, 2012 3:03 am | by Robert Perkins, USC | News | CommentsFor the first time, scientists have developed a method for generating accurate 3D models of the entire DNA strand of a cell, known as a genome. The genome plays a central role in the functions of almost all human cells, and flaws in its structure are thought to cause various disorders. The method brings scientists one step closer to understanding the genome's function as a whole.
FEA software geared toward electrical manufacturers
December 15, 2011 4:00 am | Product Releases | CommentsA new automated software toolbox from the Vector Fields Software product line of Cobham Technical Services, called 3D Transformers Environment, delivers finite-element analysis for the rapid design of transformers and reactors.
New fracture analysis plan would change bridge fabrication, inspection
December 12, 2011 7:35 am | News | CommentsThe current fracture control plan for maintaining and inspecting bridges was developed in the 1960s. It is both costly has not kept up with advances in materials and computerized system analysis. Virginia Tech civil engineer William Wright is working hard to update these standards.
Models bring the brain’s orchestra in tune
December 12, 2011 4:53 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany have conducted detailed analyses of electrical activity in the brain with the help of mathematical models that reveal the connection between nerve cell activity and the electrical signal recorded by an electrode.
Scientists learn how our brains keep us focused
December 8, 2011 5:40 am | News | CommentsIn a new study, scientists at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute have uncovered the mechanisms that help our brain to focus, or lose focus. Computational models and advanced imaging methods have identified the filters that efficiently route only relevant information to perceptual brain regions.
Supercomputer reveals details behind drug-processing protein model
December 7, 2011 4:22 am | News | CommentsSupercomputer simulations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are giving scientists access to a key class of proteins involved in drug detoxification. Researchers have performed simulations to observe the motions of water molecules in a class of enzymes called P450s, which are responsible for processing a large fraction of drugs taken by humans.
New algorithm snags world record for physics calculation
December 6, 2011 5:36 pm | News | CommentsPhysicists at in Germany have significantly improved the calculation method for scattering experiments in particle physics. The new calculation method could be applied to both experiments that are underway at the Large Hadron Collider, and ones that have already been completed at other colliders.
Noise can help make signals clearer
December 6, 2011 7:09 am | News | CommentsAs any researcher know, noise is almost always the enemy of signal. Scientists in India have now shown, however, the parameters for stochastic resonance, the condition under which a weak signal supplied to a physical system emerges as a strong signal at the output because of the presence of a random noise.
Early Earth may have been prone to deep freezes
December 5, 2011 8:55 am | News | CommentsTwo University of Colorado Boulder researchers who have adapted a 3D, general circulation model of Earth's climate to a time some 2.8 billion years ago when the sun was significantly fainter than present think the planet may have been more prone to catastrophic glaciation than previously believed.
Supercomputer seeks way to mimic mollusk shell
November 29, 2011 5:12 am | News | CommentsOne of the first tasks for the University of Warwick's new supercomputer is to use its monster megabytes to analyze the natural properties of the tiny mollusk shell. By modeling the process of a mollusk's shell construction, scientists are hoping to guide future development of materials which replicate its strength and light weight in a synthetic format.
New plate tectonic model may help predict quakes
November 28, 2011 7:01 am | News | CommentsExisting theories of plate tectonics had failed to explain several features of the development of the Andes, so a geoscience expert in Australia built a new model to explain large gaps in the historical record. The new model provided the answers and may be useful for examining not just how plates move, but also when.
Smart swarms of bacteria inspire robotics researchers
November 18, 2011 10:22 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a computational model that better explains how bacteria move in a swarm. This model can be applied to man-made technologies, including computers, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
IBM prototype tops “big data” competition
November 17, 2011 9:34 am | News | CommentsFollowing on the news that the Japanese K computer topped other high-performance computers at the SC11 conference, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s IBM Blue Gene/Q prototype has topped the Graph500, an increasingly competitive ranking that stresses supercomputer performance on “big data” scaling problems rather than purely arithmetic computations.
Frogs' amazing leaps due to springy tendons
November 16, 2011 6:49 am | News | CommentsThe frogs jumping in Calaveras County, Calif., might be special, but even ordinary frogs can leap several times farther than their physiology would seem to allow. Using high-speed X-ray video technology, a Brown University research has determined that the frog’s tendons are what gives it the ability to soar.
Perfect micro rings can’t escape from ‘absorbing state’
November 15, 2011 11:20 am | News | CommentsScientists refer to a state that a system that cannot escape from as an absorbing state. In a surprise finding, researchers in Germany have succeeded in building a simple biological model system of an absorbing state consisting of only three components: fibers, motor proteins and cross-linking molecules.
Fundamental discovery casts enzymes in new light
November 14, 2011 5:20 am | News | CommentsProtein complexes have long been viewed as static entities with biological function understood in terms of direct interactions. But as recent work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar supercomputer has revealed, the internal motion of enzymes, as well the underlying structure that is common to the largest and smallest complexes, is the key to its behavior and function.
Weird world of water gets a little weirder
November 9, 2011 10:05 am | News | CommentsWater exhibits more than 80 unusual properties, including the ability to exist as a solid, liquid, and gas simultaneously. Now, researchers say water has another unusual characteristic. Using computer simulations to track extremely fast chemical changes, two chemists have observed a liquid-liquid phase transition.
Mathematical model may facilitate creation of “perfect” plastic
October 28, 2011 12:47 pm | News | CommentsTo date, scientists have developed low-density polyethylene by first establishing a new formulation and later finding a use for it. A team in Europe is attempting to eliminate this guesswork by building a microscole polymer code that predicts the flow and shape of polymer molecules before they are manufactured.
Earth's heat could out-produce coal plants
October 25, 2011 12:54 pm | News | CommentsAccording to the first Google.org-funded geothermal mapping report, thermal resources totalling more than 3 million MW of power are stretched out across the U.S. The report’s authors say that, using current technologies, enough could be recovered to exceed coal plant production.
Computer modeling helps Coast Guard plan search and rescue on Great Lakes
October 24, 2011 8:23 am | News | CommentsPurdue University has developed a system to analyze the historic response of U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue operations in the Great Lakes and assess the potential risks associated with hypothetical changes in the allocation of resources in the region.
Researchers achieve world record in 3D imaging
October 21, 2011 11:23 am | News | CommentsScientists at the University of Stuttgart have generated a 3D image of the pore structure of sandstone that contains more than 35 trillion voxels. By comparison, typical medical magnetic resonance images contain just 720 million voxels. Knowledge of sandstone structure is important in oil recovery and groundwater management.
Princeton model shows fallout of a giant meteorite strike
October 19, 2011 10:42 am | News | CommentsSeeking to better understand the level of death and destruction that would result from a large meteorite striking the Earth, Princeton University researchers have developed a new model that can not only more accurately simulate the seismic fallout of such an impact, but also help reveal new information about the surface and interior of planets based on past collisions.
