1) "The Ohio State University (OSU), Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), and LabBook announce that they have formed a partnership to provide life science researchers with an annotated map of the human genome. The project combines OSU's annotated human genome database, backed by OSC's computational power, with the powerful visualization and analysis capabilities of LabBook's personal discovery space. The partnership allows scientists a view of the human genome to date. In June 2000, the international consortium of the Human Genome Project announced that they had completed a map of the human genome sequence. However, this important milestone is just the first step in identifying the genes hidden in the sequence and understanding their function - a process known as annotation. Through a novel combination of data resources, and with computational power provided by OSC, researchers at OSU have identified thousands of genes and obtained clues to their function. LabBook's genomic discovery system displays this information in a highly intuitive and interactive environment, enabling the researcher to extract meaning from the sequence." Source and further information: http://www.hoise.com/primeur/01/articles/weekly/AE-PR-02-01-30.html 2) "In December, an Atlanta company called NuTec Sciences acquired the fastest supercomputer in commercial use, an IBM machine capable of 7.5 trillion calculations per second. Only a few computers on the planet possess such speed, and many of those were built to simulate nuclear explosions and test the viability of atomic arsenals. But NuTec is using its supercomputer for biology, not bombs. The mapping of the human genome has triggered an explosion in data about the nature of life. As pharmaceutical and biotech research companies like NuTec struggle to understand the workings of tens of thousands of genes and the hundreds of thousands of proteins they produce, biology is overtaking nuclear weapons as the field demanding the most sophisticated computers. Every other day seems to bring a new discovery -- like last week's announcement that a biotech company located a gene thought to be responsible for heart-attack-inducing cholesterol. NuTec will deploy its supercomputer to analyze cancer patients' individual genetic profiles to find the most effective treatments for their particular disease." Source and further information: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/06/12/bio.supercomputer.idg/index.html Further information: - "The Secret Lives of Supercomputers": http://www.technewsworld.com/story/64076.html?wlc=1226792628 - "What's the worlds fastest supercomputer used for?" http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mdgrape-3.htm