Scientists are always racing to solve the worlds biggest problems, especially when it comes to genes. Genes are super particular and can take years to learn about them, that's why scientists in that field need fast computers. A supercomputer, named Ember, has been given to the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Ember will be used for genomics research and decoding DNA. Ember will add a huge amount of progress to the IGB because of its huge amount of shared data, over eight terabytes. This will allow the IGB to run computer more efficiently and organize and connect base pairs to see the "big picture". This overall addition to the facility will speed everything up, increasing the amount that scientists can learn.
NOS Themes:
Science is collaborative: The two groups (IGB and NCSA) were able to share equipment to pursue science.
Role of motivation and curiosity: This whole idea began with looking into gene sequences.
This article also has another NOS theme that science is based on evidence because we are using these computers for evidence on genetics. The link below is an article restating how scientists and regular people are using supercomputers. The link also talks about what the next and future supercomputers will be like and be capable of doing.
ReplyDeletehttp://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/nextgeneration-supercomputers
I think it’s fantastic that there is a computer out there that will eventually help to solve the cause of genetic diseases. In 2011 the Mayo Clinic of Florida found a variation of a gene that could reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease. Ember could probably help uncover more genetic unanswered problems such as Parkinson’s disease and many other genetic diseases. Imagine what they can do with this kind of technology! Ember might just be the key to answering the many questions about genetics.
ReplyDeleteThis article is about the Parkinson's disease gene they found at Florida's Mayo Clinic
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2011-jax/6419.html