More than 10 years after simulations first suggested its presence, observations appear to confirm that a key instability drives the shock behind one kind of supernova.
Rewinding the universe
Dark energy propels the universe to expand faster and faster. Researchers are using simulations to test different conceptions about how this happens.
Balancing act
A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researcher is developing approaches to spread the work evenly over scads of processors in a high-performance computer and to keep calculations clicking even as part of the machine has a hiccup.
Predicting solar assaults
When Earth’s magnetosphere snaps and crackles, power and communications technologies can break badly. Three-dimensional simulations of magnetic reconnection aim to forecast the space storms that disrupt and damage.
Quantum gold
Driven by what’s missing in experiments, Brookhaven’s Yan Li applies quantum mechanics to compute the physical properties of materials.
Star power
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher simulates the physics that fuel the sun, with an eye toward creating a controllable fusion device that can deliver abundant, carbon-free energy.
Deciphering the big thaw
Scientists thought they had figured out what ended the last ice age – except for one nagging problem. Researchers using Oak Ridge National Laboratory computers may now have discovered the final answer.
Sun on Earth
Simulations at Sandia National Laboratories reveal that using magnetism to heat and insulate fusion fuel could recreate solar conditions in the lab.
Filling in the blanks
To prevent important information from being missed, a Berkeley Lab team is improving how supercomputers divvy up the ponderous tasks surrounding large simulations’ analytics and visualization.
Overcoming resistance
To find a path around antibiotic resistance, a team working with the Intrepid supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory is simulating molecular binding interactions to rapidly vet new infection-fighting candidates.
Kinky nanotubes
With the help of Oak Ridge computations, scientists are probing the properties of macroscale sponges made of nanoscale carbon-boron tubes. The material could soak up oil spills, help store energy or meet other needs.
A passion for pressure
Plasmas are the purview of Livermore scientist and Computational Science Graduate Fellowship alumnus Jeffrey Hittinger. He works both sides of the fusion street – inertial confinement and magnetic confinement – while simulating aspects of these tremendously hot, fast-moving particle clouds.
Twice-stuffed permafrost
A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory computation suggests that the water-gas compounds found in ocean permafrost can provide energy and store it, too – and then trap carbon dioxide.
Enlightening predictions
Computer simulations of hurricane lightning could be the key to predicting and avoiding the storms’ real-world punch.
Inside the skull
Modeling the elements of blood flow in the brain could help neurosurgeons to predict when and where an aneurysm might rupture – and when to operate.
Power boost
Berkeley scientists have combined computational modeling and advanced materials synthesis to devise a low-cost anode that bolsters the feasibility of long-life lithium-ion batteries.
Seeing beyond 3-D
High-dimensional visualization techniques at Stony Brook and Brookhaven are helping reveal the interactions that drive climate and other complexities.
Helping hydrogen along
Researchers have pursued clean hydrogen-based fuels for years. A Berkeley Lab team hopes to spur that quest with help from one of the world’s most powerful computers.
A long view of Gulf oil spill
While others predicted when oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico might reach beaches, ocean modelers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research asked when gushing oil might exit the Gulf, where it would go and how diluted it’d be, up to a year later.
Pounding out atomic nuclei
Thousands of tiny systems called atomic nuclei – specific combinations of protons and neutrons – prove extremely difficult to study but have big implications for nuclear stockpile stewardship. To describe all of the nuclei and the reactions between them, a nationwide collaboration is devising powerful algorithms that run on high-performance computers.
Laptop supercomputing
A small team led by Sandia National Laboratories is attempting to virtually put the world’s most powerful supercomputers on a user’s own desktop or laptop.
In climate modeling, speed matters
A Brookhaven team wants to build the ‘fast physics’ behind clouds, air-suspended particles and precipitation into global climate models.
Seeing the invisible
Armed with computing power from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researchers are detailing the nature of dark matter surrounding a galaxy much like our own Milky Way.
Dark matter predictions put to test
Collisions in dark matter “clumps” should produce gamma rays, but a satellite looking for them has come up empty so far.
