February/March 2009

FORENSICS

Criminal investigations

The increase in automation in forensic science in the last few years has led to a requirement for data management systems. Greg Blackman looks at the importance of LIMS in forensic laboratories

PROFILE

Finding sense in finance

Dietmar Maringer, professor of computational management sciences, University of Basel

EARTH SCIENCE

The human touch

Computing applied to the earth sciences will save human lives, according to Felix Grant

OPTICAL SOFTWARE

Illuminating optics

Paul Schreier reviews a sample of the applications and breakthrough products that advanced optics software have made possible

GPU PROCESSING

A supercomputer chip for every man

While GPUs (graphics processing units) were initially designed to accelerate video and gaming, vendors of science and engineering software are using them to accelerate their code. Paul Schreier looks at the benefits for today and tomorrow

CLIMATE MODELLING

Weathering well

Gemma Church finds out how scientists are using HPC to predict climate and weather more accurately and efficiently

HPC DIRECTOR

Driven by science

Professor Marek Niezgódka, Director of the ICM Centre at the University of Warsaw, explains why the centre heads the Green Top500 list and concentrates on open systems

INSIDE VIEW