https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Texas Advanced Computing Center Most people in the U.S. don't give a second thought to flipping a switch for light. The U.S. made big investments in the mid-20th-century on the transmission side of the national electric grid to provide reliable electricity to society. The problem is that many transmission towers have exceeded their design life by about 50 years, which means the aging grid today faces bigger chances of failure. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-12-hurricane-force-affect-electric-transmission-towers.html Engineering Thu, 22 Dec 2022 15:57:04 EST news590947021 Let's think for a second about thought—specifically, the physics of neurons in the brain. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06-supercomputer-synaptic-transmission.html Neuroscience Mon, 20 Jun 2022 16:27:49 EDT news574961264 Much remains to be discovered on how the HIV-1 virus infects our cells. Scientists know that it slips past the defenses of our immune system, entering white blood cells to deliver its genetic payload and hijack the cell's transcription machinery that in turn cranks out copies of viral RNA and new HIV-1 viruses. But many of the details remain hazy. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-supercomputing-reveal-weaknesses-hiv-virus.html Biotechnology Thu, 16 Jun 2022 16:40:46 EDT news574616441 We hear a lot about how climate change will change the land, sea, and ice. But how will it affect clouds? https://phys.org/news/2022-05-cloudless-future-mystery-heart-climate.html Environment Tue, 31 May 2022 14:54:28 EDT news573227664 The study of superconductivity is littered with disappointments, dead ends, and serendipitous discoveries, according to Antia Botana, professor of physics at Arizona State University. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-superconductivity-nickelates.html Superconductivity Wed, 25 May 2022 14:37:30 EDT news572708237 The mystery of exactly how the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects human lung cells remains largely hidden to experimental scientists. Now, however, the devilish details of the mechanism by which the coronavirus fuses to host cells has been suggested through simulations by University of Chicago researchers using the Frontera supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). https://phys.org/news/2022-05-supercomputer-simulations-reveal-coronavirus-fusion.html Biochemistry Fri, 06 May 2022 12:09:42 EDT news571057777 The December 2014 North American Storm Complex was a powerful winter storm, referred to by some as California's "Storm of the Decade." Fueled by an atmospheric river originating over the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean, the storm dropped 8 inches of rainfall in 24 hours, sported wind gusts of 139 miles per hour, and left 150,000 households without power across the San Francisco Bay Area. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-simulates-san-francisco-worst-storms.html Earth Sciences Thu, 28 Apr 2022 16:07:26 EDT news570380840 When Tony Stark needs to travel to space in the original Iron Man movie, he asks his artificial intelligent (AI) assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. to make a suit that can survive harsh conditions. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-02-ai-material-discovery.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 14 Feb 2022 13:07:26 EST news564066439 Citizen scientists have helped researchers discover new types of galaxies, design drugs to fight COVID-19, and map the bird world. The term describes a range of ways that the public can meaningfully contribute to scientific and engineering research, as well as environmental monitoring. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-01-citizen-science-supercomputers-ai.html Computer Sciences Fri, 07 Jan 2022 08:34:01 EST news560766834 Equilibrium may be hard to achieve in our lives, but it is the standard state of nature. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-non-equilibrium.html Superconductivity Wed, 01 Dec 2021 12:21:37 EST news557583693 The amount and types of proteins our cells produce tell us important details about our health and how our bodies work. But the methods we have of identifying and quantifying individual proteins are inadequate to the task. Not only is the diversity of proteins unknown, but often, amino acids are changed after synthesis through post-translational modifications. https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-individual-proteins-nanopores-supercomputers.html Computer Sciences Wed, 10 Nov 2021 11:40:25 EST news555766819 Thousands of alien worlds are known to orbit stars beyond our solar system. And many more worlds, possibly harboring life, lie waiting to be discovered. A new astronomical instrument called NEID, the NN-explore Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler spectroscopy, has come online in 2021 to help scientists hunt for new alien worlds. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-alien-planets-solar-telescope.html Astronomy Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:27:48 EST news555611263 In the heavens above, it's raining dirt. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-meteor-atmosphere.html Astronomy Thu, 21 Oct 2021 11:38:34 EDT news554035109 It takes two to tango, as the saying goes. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-cell-energy-secrets-revealed-supercomputers.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 21 Sep 2021 11:09:37 EDT news551441338 Viruses kill millions around the world each year. "In addition to the novel coronavirus, leading viral killers include hepatitis, HIV, HPV," said Lela Vukovic, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Texas at El Paso. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-atomistic-simulations-ai-based-nanoscale-therapeutics.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 01 Sep 2021 12:45:32 EDT news549719125 "There are only two natural disasters that could impact the entire U.S.," according to Gabor Toth, professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. "One is a pandemic and the other is an extreme space weather event." https://phys.org/news/2021-08-earth-space-storms.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Aug 2021 15:21:45 EDT news547914099 The shoots of plants get all of the glory, with their fruit and flowers and visible structure. But it's the portion that lies below the soil—the branching, reaching arms of roots and hairs pulling up water and nutrients—that interests plant physiologist and computer scientist, Alexander Bucksch, associate professor of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-roots-hotter-planet-ease-pressure.html Biotechnology Fri, 30 Jul 2021 10:50:08 EDT news546860995 Drugs and vaccines circulate through the vascular system reacting according to their chemical and structural nature. In some cases, they are intended to diffuse. In other cases, like cancer treatments, the intended target is highly localized. The effectiveness of a medicine —and how much is needed and the side effects it causes —are a function of how well it can reach its target. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-tumors-nanoworms.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 29 Apr 2021 08:53:55 EDT news538905230 Key proteins used by coronavirus for its reproduction being modeled on NSF-funded Frontera supercomputer by Andres Cisneros research group of the University of North Texas. Research goals include finding ways to improve on COVID-19 therapeutic remdesivir. NSF-funded Frontera allocation awarded to Cisneros through the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-coronavirus-machine.html Biochemistry Sat, 19 Sep 2020 16:37:19 EDT news519752232 Like the mythical Jacob's Ladder that reaches for the heavens, the coronavirus carries its own far-reaching molecular ladder-like apparatus. The coronavirus essentially builds a ladder to its host cell by piecing together and extending three sections in the core of the spike proteins adorning its surface. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-coronavirus-core-helix-fusion-simulated.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 21 Jul 2020 08:52:38 EDT news514540356 LED lamps are lighting up the world more and more. Global LED sales in residential lighting have risen from five percent of the market in 2013 to 40 percent in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency, and other sectors mirror these trends. An unmatched energy efficiency and sturdiness have made LED lights popular with consumers. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-bright-early.html Materials Science Wed, 08 Jul 2020 13:25:55 EDT news513433494 They say you can't judge a book by its cover. But the human immune system does just that when it comes to finding and attacking harmful microbes such as the coronavirus. It relies on being able to recognize foreign intruders and generate antibodies to destroy them. Unfortunately, the coronavirus uses a sugary coating of molecules called glycans to camouflage itself as harmless from the defending antibodies. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-sugar-coating-coronavirus-infection.html Molecular & Computational biology Sat, 13 Jun 2020 14:40:26 EDT news511278019 Inspired by the science fiction of the spacefaring Romulans of Star Trek, astrophysicists have used XSEDE-allocated supercomputers to develop cosmological computer simulations called RomulusC, where the 'C' stands for galaxy cluster. With a focus on black hole physics, RomulusC has produced some of the highest resolution simulations ever of galaxy clusters, which can contain hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. https://phys.org/news/2020-01-simulations-reveal-galaxy-clusters.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jan 2020 04:59:25 EST news499064357 Any truck operator knows that hydraulics do the heavy lifting. Water does the work because it's nearly incompressible at normal scales. But things behave strangely in nanotechnology, the control of materials at the scale of atoms and molecules. Using supercomputers, scientists found a surprising amount of water compression at the nanoscale. These findings could help advance medical diagnostics through creation of nanoscale systems that detect, identify, and sort biomolecules. https://phys.org/news/2018-10-simulations-phenomenon-nanopore-dna-sequencing.html Nanophysics Mon, 01 Oct 2018 17:00:01 EDT news457631445 A dump truck's worth of plastic empties into the ocean every minute. Worldwide, humankind produces over 300 million tons of plastic each year, much of which is predicted to last centuries to millennia and pollutes both aquatic and terrestrial environments. PET plastic, short for polyethylene terephthalate, is the fourth most-produced plastic and is used to make things like beverage bottles and carpets, the latter essentially not being recycled. Some scientists are hoping to change that, using supercomputers to engineer an enzyme that breaks down PET. They say it's a step on a long road toward recycling PET and other plastics into commercially valuable materials at industrial scale. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-supercomputers-mutant-enzyme-plastic-bottles.html Engineering Thu, 28 Jun 2018 04:00:44 EDT news449377223 Solar cells can't stand the heat. Photovoltaics lose some energy as heat in converting sunlight to electricity. The reverse holds true for lights made with light-emitting diodes (LED), which convert electricity into light. Some scientists think there might be light at the end of the tunnel in the hunt for better semiconductor materials for solar cells and LEDs, thanks to supercomputer simulations that leveraged graphics processing units to model nanocrystals of silicon. https://phys.org/news/2018-02-supercomputing.html Materials Science Tue, 06 Feb 2018 04:04:42 EST news437112249 On a hot and breezy June day in Austin, parents, friends, brothers and sisters navigated through main campus at The University of Texas at Austin and helped carry luggage for the new arrivals to their dorm rooms. Thirty-four high school students from mostly low-income Title I schools in Central Texas, some from as far away as Houston, said good-bye to their families. https://phys.org/news/2017-07-code-tacc-robotics-self-driving-cars.html Robotics Wed, 12 Jul 2017 11:33:27 EDT news419077998 Some scientists dream about big data. The dream bridges two divided realms. One realm holds lofty peaks of number-crunching scientific computation. Endless waves of big data analysis line the other realm. A deep chasm separates the two. Discoveries await those who cross these estranged lands. https://phys.org/news/2017-05-stormy-cloud-chameleon.html Computer Sciences Wed, 10 May 2017 13:56:52 EDT news413643402 It sounds like something out of the Borg in Star Trek. Nano-sized robots self-assemble to form biological machines that do the work that keeps one alive. And yet something like this really does go on. https://phys.org/news/2016-11-machines.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:43:27 EST news399055398 The roar can be deafening. Cooling fans and power supplies whoosh and whine from rows and rows of supercomputers at the main data center of the Texas Advanced Computing Center in Austin. The power bill at TACC can reach over a million dollars a year to keep the machines humming. But there's a stranger in town that might change how data centers power their systems. https://phys.org/news/2016-09-hikari-supercomputer-solar-hvdc.html Hardware Tue, 20 Sep 2016 16:41:23 EDT news393608460