Content about TeraGrid

Feature: Unlocking Secrets of the HeartA volumetric heart model created from a surface model received from New York University.Image courtesy of the Computational Visualization Center, University of Texas at Austin Mathematical models of hearts may not be the most romantic of things, but to patients at risk for vascular disease they hold much more promise than a box of chocolates. Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin combine images of people’s hearts and arteries with mathematical modeling techniques to simulate the interaction between blood flow and the walls of the heart and arteries. The goal of the project is to help physicians better predict the onset of vascular disease and evaluate treatment plans for affected patients.“Our work is focused on the development of patient specific models. We use material- and flow-related data from the literature, but by imaging a person, we capture his or her geometry,” says Victor Calo, a postdoctoral fellow in the team from the Institute for Computational Engin

Image of the Week: The First Sources of LightCourtesy of Texas Advanced Computing Center.Understanding the nature of the first stars and galaxies, which formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, is at the frontier of modern cosmology. They lie just above the horizon of what is currently observable. NASA is preparing to launch the James Webb Space Telescope to replace the Hubble. This new telescope will be able to observe these early stars and galaxies. In preparing for this key upcoming mission it is important to predict the properties of the first sources of light. Volker Bromm’s astronomy research group at The University of Texas at Austin simulates these first stars using TeraGrid computers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. This picture, produced by Paul Navratil of the Visualization and Data Analysis group at TACC using additional TeraGrid resources, shows how one of the first stars creates a bubble of high-energy, ionizing photons, thereby beginning the process of transforming the primordial universe in

Feature: The Fuel Cell Cometh Possible reaction pathway for the oxygen reduction reaction on a catalytic surface. First the oxygen molecule dissociates, then there are two successive proton additions. The first forms hydroxyl, and the second forms water. Image of courtesy of Manos Mavrikakis, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Hydrogen often wears the black hat when we talk about the prospect of everyday fuel cell use. It is difficult to transport and store. Alternative means of getting it generate their own problems. And the hydrogen they produce is less than pure and thus less efficient. But oxygen, which is the other necessary reactant in many of today's fuel cell designs, is something of a villain in its own right. Splitting oxygen molecules into oxygen atoms and the subsequent formation of water is currently the rate-limiting step, the reaction that restricts overall p

Feature: Meeting the Data Transfer Challenge On December 12, 2006, the second large endcap disk of the CMS detector was lowered into the underground experimental cavern. The piece, weighing around 880 tons, took 10 hours to be lowered the 100 meters into the cavern. Image Copyright CERN As part of a computing challenge held in 2006, two university groups used parts of two grid infrastructures to transfer a massive amount of data. Over a one-month period, 105 terabytes of data was transferred between Purdue University in Indiana and the University of California, San Diego, using parts of the Open Science Grid and TeraGrid infrastructures. Both university groups have computing sites that are part of the worldwide computing infrastructure for the CMS particle physics experiment. The challenge was part of preparation for start-up of the experiment at the end of 2007. While all U.S. sites participating in the CMS computing infrast

Feature: An Immense Database of Indispensable Materials

Example of a zeolite crystal.

Without zeolites your car wouldn't run; every molecule of gasoline burned in your car was refined using these crystalline microporous materials. Gas prices what they are, you might have a love-hate relationship with your car, but consider this: Without zeolites, the big-brains of this world would have to come up with new ways to produce everything from medical-grade oxygen to laundry detergent to asphalt.
Because zeolites are so important to industry, and because new ones with novel properties are in constant demand, researchers would greatly benefit from a database of hypothetical zeolite structures. This database would show designers of industrial applications and chemicals possible zeolites that are thermodynamically accessible, and that might hold promising structural and functional properties.
Michael Deem and David Ea

Feature: Grids at SC'06

From sparkling cars to free iPods, SC‘06 in Tampa, Florida was far from your average technical conference. With over 250 exhibitors, 48 miles of cable, hundreds of technical and educational programs, workshops, and tutorials, there was plenty to entertain the more than 7,000 attendees gathered from around the globe to witness a fascinating demonstration of high performance computing and grid technology.

This yearÂ’s conference took inspiration from Albert Einstein who said, "Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." Such power was clearly demonstrated in the numerous examples of grid technologies present at the conference. Ray Kurzweil, famed inventor, specifically acknowledged their influence in his keynote speech, where he highlighted the importance of grid communities in the fight against modern dis