IBM's 10-petaflop Mira system goes online next year
Blue Gene/Q "Mira" IBMThe Department of Energy is getting a 10-petaflop supercomputer to help scientists design efficient electric car batteries, understand climate change and unravel cosmic mysteries.
The IBM-built system, nicknamed “Mira,” will be operational at Argonne National Laboratory next year. At 10 quadrillion calculations per second, it will be twice as fast as today’s fastest supercomputer and 20 times faster than Argonne’s current model. If every person in the United States performed one calculation every second, it would take almost a year for them to do as many calculations as Mira will do in one second, according to IBM.
This kind of computing power means Mira can solve problems that were previously too big for the most powerful current supercomputers. It would take Mira two minutes to solve a problem that takes current supercomputers two years, IDG News reports.
Thanks to improved chip designs and an energy-efficient water-cooling system, Mira will also be one of the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world, IBM said. It runs on IBM’s Blue Gene/Q platform and its impressive specs include more than 750,000 processors and 750 terabytes of memory.Related Articles
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Technology, Rebecca Boyle, argonne national laboratory, batteries, climate change, computers, exascale computing, IBM, petaflop, supercomputers, supercomputing, watsonThe DOE selected 16 projects to start off with, including reducing energy inefficiency in transportation and developing advanced engine designs. The system will be able to model tropical storms, battery performance and the evolution of the universe, along with other complex simulations.
IBM said Mira is a stepping stone toward exascale computing, which beats petascale computers by a factor of 1,000. Exascale computers could solve questions that have remained beyond our reach, such as understanding regional climate change and designing safe nuclear reactors.
Meanwhile, IBM is building another 10-petaflop model called Blue Waters for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's National Center for Supercomputing Applications. And Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is getting a 20-petaflop IBM model called Sequoia.
Mira will be operational in 2012 and scientists from industry, academia and government institutions will be able to use it.
[IBM]
Department of Energy Will Use Fastest Supercomputer Ever to Design Better Batteries and Answer Cosmic Questions
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Smog on Titan Moon May Hold Ingredients For Life, New Study Says
Friday, October 8, 2010
In a simulation, a Titan-like atmosphere produces nearly all of life's building blocks
Titan Atmosphere Chamber Energized by microwaves, the Titanic gas mix inside the reaction chamber lights up like a neon sign. Thousands of complex organic molecules accumulated on the bottom of the chamber during this experiment, suggesting Titan's atmosphere is capable of producing the precursors for life. Sarah Hörst/University of ArizonaScientists studying Titan’s atmosphere have learned it can create complex molecules, including amino acids and nucleotide bases, often called the building blocks of life. They are the first researchers to show it’s possible to create these molecules without water, suggesting Titan could harbor huge quantities of life’s precursors floating in its atmosphere. It’s a breakthrough that even has implications for the beginning of life on Earth.
Researchers at the University of Arizona built a simulated Titan atmosphere in a special chamber in Paris and blasted it with microwaves, simulating the effect of solar energy. The reactions produced aerosols, which sank to the bottom of the chamber, where scientists scooped them up for study. What they found was unexpected, to put it mildly: all the nucleotide bases that make up the genetic code of all life on Earth, and more than half of the 22 amino acids that make proteins.
Of course, this doesn’t prove Titan has life — this was a test chamber, not the actual moon’s atmosphere, for one thing — but it’s intriguing, at least.
“Our results show that it is possible to make very complex molecules in the outer parts of an atmosphere," said Sarah Hörst, a graduate student in the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Lab, in a UA News story. She led the research effort with her adviser, planetary science professor Roger Yelle.
Titan is one of the most promising places for life elsewhere in the solar system. It has huge methane lakes and scientists recently learned that hydrogen is disappearing faster than it should at the surface, suggesting some sort of chemical reaction is consuming it.
The best data about Titan’s characteristics has come from the spacecraft Cassini, which has tasted some of the moon’s outermost atmosphere in a series of flybys since 2004. But Cassini was not designed to dip below 560 miles above the surface, much too far to really get a sense of what the moon’s atmosphere contains.Related Articles
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Science, Rebecca Boyle, astrobiology, atmosphere, Cassini, extraterrestrial life, methane, ringed planet saturn, Saturn, smog, titanTo truly test its capabilities, researchers would have to recreate the atmosphere in a lab, mixing the gases found on TItan and subjecting them to radiation. The microwaves caused a gas discharge, the same process that makes neon signs glow, which caused some of the nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide to bond together into solid matter. These aerosols were levitated in a special chamber before they got heavy enough to fall down.
The prospect of small floating life forms in the Titanic atmosphere is intriguing enough, but the study also revealed some interesting possibilities about the genesis of life on Earth. Titan’s atmosphere might be chemically similar to that of the early Earth, suggesting that instead of emerging from a primordial soup, the building blocks of life might have rained down from on high.
Hörst said the most interesting aspect of the study was proof that you can make pretty much anything in an atmosphere — a finding with major implications for astrobiology.
"Who knows this kind of chemistry isn’t happening on planets outside our solar system?” she said.
Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded For Graphene, the Material of the Future
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics today to University of Manchester professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their work isolating graphene from graphite and identifying its behavior. Graphene, a one-atom thick sheet of carbon, is the thinnest, strongest material ever discovered. It conducts heat and electricity, and despite being one atom thick, is so dense even helium cannot pass through it. As the Swedish Academy of Sciences said in the Nobel Prize announcement: "Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again."
See our gallery of graphene's greatest hits.Surprisingly, the isolation was the easy part – they peeled the graphene off of a graphite crystal using Scotch tape. However, their work from that moment on has already had a huge effect on materials science.
Here at PopSci, we’ve been tracking graphene’s developments closely (and not just so we can say “we knew it when”). As it proves itself useful in everything from bandages to faster-than-ever transistors, we can’t help but wonder if its talents will ever stop emerging. We’ve compiled a gallery of graphene’s greatest hits so far so you can revisit its humble beginnings before the Nobel Prize goes to its head.
[CNET]
This Year's Ig Nobel Prize: Fruit Bat Fellatio, Whale Snot, and More Weird Science
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Ig Nobel Prize studies are not a joke, but that's not to say you won't laugh.
Ig Nobel Prize Creative Commons: Jeff DlouhyIf the MacArthur "Genius" Grants announced earlier this week were too staid for you, the Ig Nobel Prize (now in its 20th year--here's last year's coverage) might be the scientific awards presentation for you. The Ig Nobels aren't a joke; every winning study has a legitimate scientific purpose and execution, making real discoveries and solving real problems. But they're also all chosen for their ability to "make you laugh and then make you think." This year's winners include remote-controlled whale snot retrieval, the benefits of roller coaster riding on asthma sufferers, and our own personal favorite which you may remember: transit planning by slime mold
Ten Ig Nobel awards were handed out in categories including public health, biology, transportation planning, medicine, and physics. The prize for transportation planning went to one of our favorite studies of the year: Slime mold mapping. In this study, a map of the United States is created out of agar gel, with nutrients for mold placed throughout the map. The concentration of nutrients depends on the population in that area, so big cities get lots of nutrients, and open land gets little. The mold is then started in the "New York" area of the map, and ventures outward in the most direct path to other nutrients, forming a peculiarly organic method of transit planning. Here's our exclusive video on the slime mold map:
Other highlights include the Engineering Prize, awarded for outstanding achievement in the field of whale snot removal. The "novel non-invasive tool" mentioned in the title of that study just happens to be a remote-controlled helicopter. The Medicine Prize was awarded for a study showing that symptoms of asthma can be treated with "positive emotional stress," in this case a roller-coaster ride. The Biology Prize was awarded for the official scientific documentation of fellatio in fruit bats. The title of that study? "Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time." Does it ever!
Perhaps my favorite study is the winner of the cheekily named Peace Prize, some experimental research indicating that swearing reduces pain. The researchers aren't sure of the precise biological reason for the finding, but it seems that swearing, unlike the use of other language, activates the amygdala's fight-or-flight instinct, triggering a rise in heart rate and a reduced sensitivity to pain. From an evolutionary standpoint, it's suggested that swearing is a slightly more conscious version of a defensive outburst--a sort of controlled or channeled shriek--that's compared to a car's horn.
You can check out the rest of the winners at the Ig Nobel site.
Power to the Paper: Researchers Turn Paper into Flexible Lithium-Ion Battery
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
A Flexible Paper Li-ion Battery Yi Cui/Stanford UBatteries are the bane of all portable electronics. Bigger, heavier batteries make devices less portable, while smaller batteries lead to low performance or short battery life – or both. But while Stanford’s new lithium-ion batteries don’t necessarily cut down on footprint, they certainly cut down on mass; the new ultra-thin, rechargeable battery has been fabricated on a single sheet of paper, making it super-light, flexible, and as portable as a piece of A4.
The batteries were fabricated by materials scientists at Stanford by depositing a thin film of carbon nanotubes followed by another thin film of metal-containing lithium compound on top of the nanotube layer. These thin bilayer films are layered onto both sides of a piece of ordinary paper, which serves as both the structural support of the battery as well as the electrode separator. The lithium serves as electrodes, while the nanotube layers are current collectors.
The result is a working battery just 300 micrometers thick – that’s 300 millionths of a meter – that is flexible, super-thin, and more energy dense than other thin-bodied batteries. It’s also durable; over a 300-cycle recharge test, performance remained satisfactory. It’s also fairly easy to fabricate, making it far more commercially viable than other methods of downsizing battery technology.Related Articles
A Portable Battery That Runs on Saltwater – or Urine Vibration-Powered AA Battery Charges Up When You Shake It Swapping Graphite Anodes For Silicon Improves Li-ion Battery Capacity Five Times Tags
Technology, batteries, battery tech, carbon nanotubes, lithium ion batteries, materials science, stanfordSuch batteries aren’t ideal for every application, but they could be extremely useful in future incarnations of smart packaging, RFID sensing, and electronic paper products.
New Process Uses Genetically Modified Yeast to Turn Carbon Dioxide Emissions Into Bricks for Construction
CO2 To Bricks Carbon dioxide is bubbled into water and then added to a solution of mineral ions. Genetically engineered yeast help turn the dissolved CO2 into solid carbonates. Patrick Gillooly/MITA method developed at MIT and modeled after seashells could provide a new way to sequester carbon dioxide — by using it to manufacture new carbonate building materials.
To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (and therefore lessen global warming), some researchers are studying ways of sequestering it in underground reservoirs. But this is expensive and difficult, and has not yet been achieved on a large scale. MIT engineer Angela Belcher is leading an effort to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and construct buildings out of it.
To make the CO2 bricks, Belcher and her graduate students modified baker's yeast to express genes that are normally found in sea creatures like abalones, which make hard carbonate shells. Carbon dioxide is bubbled into water, and then combined with mineral ions to make solid carbonate materials. Enzymes in the yeast help the mineralization process.Related Articles
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Technology, Rebecca Boyle, biobricks, biomimicry, building, carbon dioxide, carbon sequestration, CO2, yeastThe process can produce two pounds of carbonate for every pound of captured CO2, according to MIT.
Other environmentally friendly bricks use fly ash, a byproduct of coal power plants, or even sand and urine. Bricks made of CO2 could solve two problems by sequestering CO2 and eliminating additional CO2 emissions from traditional brick-making.
Belcher and her graduate students are not the first to propose solidifying captured CO2, but they are the first to prove a biological process works. It involves no chemicals or temperature changes, unlike chemical solidification methods.
The researchers hope to scale up the process so it could be used in a power plant or industrial factory.
[MIT News]
Sneak peak @ Chapter 2
Friday, July 23, 2010
hungry, so I put a potpie in my little counter top oven, then sat down
to watch some TV. I found a movie (Monkey Shines), which seemed to fit
my screwed up mood, then sat back in my old Good Samaritan chair and
relaxed until my food was done. I got up to get my pie when I heard a faint knock on my door. I took
the pie out of the oven and sat it down on the counter. I ran to the
door and to my surprise it was Jasmine. I looked at her face, dumb
stricken. She was wearing a hooded-sweatshirt, hood up and baggy
pants, all gray. It was as if she was hiding from the world. “Aren’t you going to at least invite me in,” she said in a faint
tear-filled voice? “Oh I’m sorry, come on in. Can I get you something to drink?” She walked in and I shut the door. She then said. “No, I’m ok.” Her
voice cracked. “I’ve been thinking about your call.” “Yeah, we really need to talk, sit down please.” “Jack, before I go any further, I need to know something.” I noticed she wouldn’t look me in the eye and I was confused. “Ok, go ahead.” “Were you at my mother’s tonight?” “Yes ma’am, I was.” “I thought so, why were you there?” I knew that I wouldn’t lie to her, but I didn’t think telling her the
whole truth with her being in what I knew was an upset mood, would be
the right thing to do right now. “Well Jazz, dad called me and said
that she had told him she needed to see me, it was important. So I
went over there.” She finally looked at me in the eyes, but it wasn’t the look I had
longed to see. She had been hurt and hurt deep. To my dismay it was my
own damn fault. She asked as she was sitting down, “Does this have
something to do with your not coming around for a year?” I sat down beside her. “I didn’t come around because my business
tanked and I couldn’t pay back the debt.” I paused then said, “there
is something else that honestly Jazz, it scared the hell out of me.” I saw her tears well up when she asked, “But why not come around me?
Jack, you and I have been so close for so long. I don’t give a damn
about that money, I care about you and I thought you cared about me.” Her voice radiated the hurt I had caused. She was now crying, I tried
to take her in my arms but she pushed me away. “Ok Jazz, if you promise to keep an open mind I will tell you. This
is hard as hell for me to say especially to you, so please bear with
me.” “Tell me, I’m listening!” Her tears continued to flow from her
beautiful blue eyes. She still wouldn’t look at me for any significant
length of time. “But Jazz, this is far different than anything we have ever talked about.” “Just tell me, Jack! Can’t you at least do that,” she cried? She had me on the verge of just telling her to never mind, but I knew
I was the cause of all this, and had to be a man and face up to
whatever punishment the woman I love, more than anything had in-store
for me. “Jazz, do you remember during last Christmas, one minute we
would be talking like our old selves, but then I would walk away and
try to do something, anything different?” “Yeah I remember, I thought this whole time I did something to you and
you were mad at me.” “Jazz, I could never be mad at you, but I’m about to tell you
something about last Christmas and long before, that could explain my
actions. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve screwed-up not talking to you about
it sooner. I just couldn’t find my words.” I could feel my heart
beating so hard it hurt. “I already know I did something, but for you to stay away for a year.
Jack, I thought I meant more to you. If nothing else you could have
called me? You couldn’t pick up the damn phone?” Her tears affected me
to the point that I almost lost my nerve to say what I so desperately
needed to tell her. I took a deep breath muscled up my nerve then said, “Jazz, I’m in
love… She has always been so close to me, yet so far away. She’s
always been like looking through a store window knowing exactly what
you want, but knowing that you couldn’t have your greatest desire…
I’ve never been able to tell her how I feel, but to me, she is the
most beautiful woman that I have ever seen, even as a girl she had my
heart… I want to marry her, but I don’t know how to ask her, even that
is complicated.” I saw her expression and could tell she was mad. She stood up pacing
around the room. I was waiting for her to throw something, that’s what
she had usually done when she was mad. I stood up and tried to calm
her down, but was punched in the nose for my effort. “WHO, who in the hell is she JACK?” She yelled at me as I bent over
from the surprising force of her punch. I sucked back my anger, not my anger at her but my anger at myself,
saying. “Who in the hell do you think it is,” I yelled back? I was
pissed, but luckily I had always been cool under pressure. “Probably some damn tramp you found at a bar or something!” “Damn-it Jazz,” I paused and the tears raced down my cheeks. “You know
you’re not the same girl who had my heart the first time I remember
looking at you.” I took a deep breath as my emotions overcome me and
my voice cracked. “Yeah it’s you Jazz, it has always been you…
Damn-it, I ache for you! (I then almost whispered) Every girl, I’ve
ever been with, it was you that I made love to. Go ahead, call me a
sick basterd, maybe I am, but I know what I feel, what I have always
felt. Let me ask you something. How do you tell your cousin that she
is the only girl in your dreams? How do you tell her that even on
Christmas day, I couldn’t enjoy being around my best friend because I…
because I love her so deep that not being able to hold her in my arms
was hell? Jasmine, you’re my reason. I am so sorry for the pain I have
caused you, that was the last thing I ever wanted to do. The last
thing I ever wanted to do was cause the most important person in my
life any pain. If you want to hit me again go ahead, hell I deserve
it.” I sat on the arm of my old couch with my head in my hands. I didn’t
hear a sound until she asked crying, “Do you really mean that?” I was still a little pissed and bleeding, but mostly felt a great
burden had been lifted off my shoulders. I then said sadly, “Jazz, I
really don’t think that’s something to kid about, do you?” I slowly
stood up walking over to her. She wasn’t the same girl as before. She
changed her whole demeanor. She wasn’t mad anymore but frightened. I
untied and pulled back her hood taking her into my arms. Holding onto
her tightly, not hurting her, but also letting her know I wasn’t going
to let her go unless she really wanted me to. She slowly wrapped her
arms around my waist. It felt so good to hold her, even with all that
had just gone-on between us, feeling her in my arms made it all worth
it. After a minute of nothing being said between the two of us she spoke
first. “Jack, come home with me. I need to show you something.” I was amazed but a little leery of the idea of going to her
apartment. What could she have to show me? “You think I should be over
there after what I have told you?” “That’s why I asked you over.” “Let me get my stuff. I’ll be right behind you.” That was a preview of Chapter 2. Let me know what you think on my
Twitter account @J_D_bell
