Frontier scientists describe FLOPs
January 23, 2012
If you know what a FLOP is, you can stop reading now. But if you don’t, take note
and watch, “What’s a FLOP?” It will be your primer to the next step in computational science.
“Computational Science is a primary means of discovery in the world today," says Greg
Newby, director of the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center. "It’s a way of making
our manufacturing processes more efficient, of better understanding the world we live
in and of doing all types of data analysis for all types of purposes.”
In a new series of videos available online, Newby and Per Nyberg, from Cray Inc., speak about how computational science uses
an important tool — the supercomputer. Since its April 2011 web launch, Frontier Scientists continues to share first person accounts and real time insights from leading archaeologists,
biologists, volcano researchers, climate change specialists and other scientists.
Information about current scientific discoveries in some of the Arctic’s most remote
and dramatic landscapes is chronicled in short vodcasts, Twitter feeds, blogs and
web reports.
The research is sorted into categories:
• Grizzlies
• Petroglyphs
• Paleo-Eskimo
• Cook Inlet Volcanoes
• Alutiiq Weavers
• Climate Change Watch
• Arctic Winter Cruise 2011
• Raven Bluff
• Computational Science
“We want to let travelers, teachers, students, aspiring scientists and anyone else
interested in science feel as if they are with the scientist as they track a grizzly
or take the temperature of permafrost in a borehole,” explains Liz O’Connell, video
director for Frontier Scientists. “Visitors to Frontier Scientists can ask their
own questions to our scientists directly, follow some of them on Twitter and Facebook,
and converse on their blogs.”
For more information, post a query for the Scientist on Call at frontierscientists.com/contact-frontiersci/.