Supercomputing Sheds Light on the Dark Universe

At Argonne National Laboratory, scientists are using supercomputers to shed light on one of the great mysteries in science today, the Dark Universe. With Mira, a petascale supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a team led by physicists Salman Habib and Katrin Heitmann will run the largest, most complex simulation of the universe ever attempted.

By contrasting the results from Mira with state-of-the-art telescope surveys, the scientists hope to gain new insights into the distribution of matter in the universe, advancing future investigations of dark energy and dark matter into a new realm.

The team's research was named a finalist for the 2012 Gordon Bell Prize, an award recognizing outstanding achievement in high-performance computing.

 

Frozen Powder Drops

When water droplets impact super hydrophobic powder at a high enough velocity, they "freeze" into place. The powder fully encapsulates the droplet, forming shapes resembling bowling pins, ice cream cones, and more.

This video is a submission to the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics Gallery of Motion for 2012.
arXiv article containing this video
Physics Buzz Blog Post

Video Credit: Jeremy Marston, Ying Zhu, Ivan Vakarelski, and Siggi Thoroddsen from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Music: Artist -- Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea. Song -- Romance De Juegos Prohobidos. Performer --
Jim Greeninger


 

ALPHA-2 arrives at CERN

While many experiments are methodically planning for intense works over the long shutdown, there is one experiment that is already working at full steam: ALPHA-2. Its final components arrived last month and will completely replace the previous ALPHA set-up.

Unlike its predecessor, this next generation experiment has been specifically designed to measure the properties of antimatter.

Read more about ALPHA-2: http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2012/47/News%20Articles/1493544?ln=en

 

Secrets of our violent Sun

A solar physicist reveals what she knows about the Sun and the latest solar missions.

Hewitt-Drew-it! 24. Momentum

Paul, a former boxer, investigates the physics of riding with a punch, and other situations related to momentum.

Other Hewitt-Drew-it! videos