Supersized Science

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. Scientists are using TACC’s Maverick2 supercomputer and data from the game Ebb and Flow by Lumosity to train deep learning models that mimic the human behavior of “task-switching,” shifting attention from one task to another. This basic research is important for helping scientists understand cognitive control, which encompasses the basic mental processes that allow one to focus on the task at hand, but also flexibly disengage from the task if the need arises. These abilities are taxed by the game Ebb and Flow that the researchers studied. The research may also inform the understanding of diseases in which patients exhibit deficits in cognitive control, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A study that developed new and more realistic models of task-switching was published in Nature Human Behaviour in January 2023. On the podcast to discuss the findings is Paul Jaffe, a postdoctoral fellow working with Professor Russell Poldrack in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/latest-news/2023/04/24/brain-games-reveal-clues-on-how-the-mind-works/ Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. A new leaf has turned in scientists' hunt for developing cutting-edge materials used in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV's, touchscreens, and more. The advance involves the polaron, a quasiparticle consisting of an electron and its surrounding distortions of atoms in a crystal lattice. Simulations on the Texas Advanced Computing Center's Frontera supercomputer have helped scientists map for the first time the conditions that characterize polarons in 2D materials, the thinnest materials that have ever been made. Understanding polarons can help improve the performance and efficiency of devices such as touchscreens for phones and tablets, and the organic light-emitting diodes of OLED TVs, which rely on electric charge transport through polarons. What's more, generating hydrogen fuel from the splitting of water by sunlight is considered the ‘holy grail' of energy science, a process which can be achieved through charge transport from polarons in key materials such as titanium dioxide. On the podcast is Feliciano Giustino, professor of Physics and the W. A. ‘Tex' Moncrief, Jr. Chair of Quantum Materials Engineering at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (Oden Institute) and the Department of Physics, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin. Giustino is the lead author on polaron research published February 2023 in Nature Physics. In it, he and study co-author Weng Hong Sio of the Oden Institute and the University of Macau determined the fundamental properties of polarons in 2D materials using quantum mechanical theory and computation. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/new-simulation-reveals-secrets-of-exotic-form-of-electrons-called-polarons Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. Ultra-massive black holes are the most massive objects in the universe. Their mass can reach millions and billions of solar masses. Supercomputer simulations on TACC's Frontera supercomputer have helped astrophysicists reveal the origin of ultra-massive black holes formed about 11 billion years ago. On the podcast is Yueying Ni, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Ni is the lead author of work published in The Astrophysical Journal (December 2022) that found ultra-massive black hole formation from the merger of triple quasars, systems of three galactic cores illuminated by gas and dust falling into a nested supermassive black hole. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/rare-quasar-triplet-forms-most-massive-object-in-universe Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. If you hold one wire mesh on top of another one and look through it, you'll see a larger pattern called a moiré pattern formed by the overlapping grids of the two meshes, which depends on their relative twisted angle. Scientists developing new materials are actively studying moiré patterns in overlapping atomically thin materials — they produce intriguing electronic phenomena that includes unconventional superconductivity and ferromagnetism. Supercomputer simulations have helped scientists reveal in a bilayer moiré system a new species of an electronic phenomenon called an exciton, which is an electrically neutral quasiparticle, yet one that can carry energy and consists of an electron and electron ‘hole' that can be created for example by light impinging certain semiconductors and other materials. The research was published August 2022 in the journal Nature. In it, the scientists developed computer models that go beyond the conventional parameterized models that have been used to describe moiré systems and moiré excitons. Instead, they performed ab initio calculations that only start with the identity and initial position of the 3,903 atoms of the moiré superlattice unit cell. On the podcast to talk about their study are Steven G. Louie, a distinguished professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Mit Naik, a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Louie at UC Berkeley and LBNL; and Felipe Jornada, Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University and a Principal Investigator at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/hetdex-reveals-galaxy-gold-mine-in-first-large-survey Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. If you hold one wire mesh on top of another one and look through it, you'll see a larger pattern called a moiré pattern formed by the overlapping grids of the two meshes, which depends on their relative twisted angle. Scientists developing new materials are actively studying moiré patterns in overlapping atomically thin materials — they produce intriguing electronic phenomena that includes unconventional superconductivity and ferromagnetism. Supercomputer simulations have helped scientists reveal in a bilayer moiré system a new species of an electronic phenomenon called an exciton, which is an electrically neutral quasiparticle, yet one that can carry energy and consists of an electron and electron ‘hole' that can be created for example by light impinging certain semiconductors and other materials. The research was published August 2022 in the journal Nature. In it, the scientists developed computer models that go beyond the conventional parameterized models that have been used to describe moiré systems and moiré excitons. Instead, they performed ab initio calculations that only start with the identity and initial position of the 3,903 atoms of the moiré superlattice unit cell. On the podcast to talk about their study are Steven G. Louie, a distinguished professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Mit Naik, a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Louie at UC Berkeley and LBNL; and Felipe Jornada, Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University and a Principal Investigator at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/new-quasipart…-moire-patterns Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. A new mechanism has been determined for the first time for the passive transport of biomolecules through the nuclear pore complex, which are apertures that perforate the otherwise iron-clad membrane surrounding the cell nucleus and act like crossing guards for macromolecular traffic in and out of the nucleus. If the crossing-guard misfires, it can cause human diseases such as cancer, viral infections, and neurodegenerative conditions. The research team developed their model through supercomputer simulations on the Frontera and Stampede2 systems of TACC — and they hope their work will help guide the development of future therapeutics. The work was published in the journal Nature Communications in August 2022. On the podcast to talk more about it are study co-authors David Winogradoff and Aleksei Aksimentiev. Winogradoff completed the study as a postdoctoral research associate working with co-author and professor Aksimentiev in the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He's now a computational polymer chemist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/nuclear-crossing-guard Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. Just milliseconds after the universe's Big Bang, chaos reigned. Atomic nuclei fused and broke apart in hot, frenzied motion. Incredibly strong pressure waves built up and squeezed matter so tightly together that black holes formed, which astrophysicists call primordial black holes. Did primordial black holes help or hurt the formation of the universe's first stars, eventually born about 100 million years later? Supercomputer simulations helped investigate this cosmic question, thanks to the Stampede2 supercomputer of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), part of The University of Texas at Austin. On the podcast to talk about their latest study using Stampede2 to simulate primordial black holes are astrophysicists Volker Bromm and Boyuan Liu. Bromm is a professor and chair of Department of Astronomy at UT Austin, Liu a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/first-stars-and-black-holes Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. When is something more than just the sum of its parts? Metal alloys show such synergy. The alloy steel, for instance revolutionized industry by taking iron, adding a little carbon and making an alloy much stronger than either of its components. Supercomputer simulations are helping scientists discover new types of alloys, called high-entropy alloys. Researchers have used the Stampede2 supercomputer of the Texas Advanced Computing Center allocated by XSEDE, the NSF-funded Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment. The research was published April 2022 in Npj Computational Materials. The approach taken by the scientists could be applied to finding new materials for batteries, catalysts and more without the need for expensive metals such as platinum or cobalt. On the podcast to speak more about his study is Wei Chen, associate professor of materials science and engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/deep-learning-for-new-alloys Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. Much remains to be discovered on how the HIV-1 virus infects our cells. Scientists know that it slips past the defenses of our immune system, entering white blood cells to deliver its genetic payload and hijack the cell's transcription machinery that in turn cranks out copies of viral RNA and new HIV-1 viruses. But many of the details remain hazy. A major experimental made in 2021 shed some light on the mystery and found that the viral capsid, a protein envelope protecting its RNA genome, remains intact all the way into the nucleus of the target cell. Ultimately, the capsid has to stay stable long enough to take its deadly genetic cargo into the nucleus of the cell. But in the end, it has to break apart to release its genetic material. What scientists don't yet know is how and why the HIV-1 viral capsid can become unstable. The Frontera supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at The University of Texas at Austin has furthered scientists' understanding of how the HIV-1 virus infects and helped generate the first realistic simulations of its capsid, complete with its proteins, water, genetic material, and a key cofactor called IP6 recently discovered to stabilize and help form the capsid. On the podcast to talk more about his recent study on HIV-1 using Frontera is Gregory Voth, the Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/supercomputing-helps-reveal-weaknesses-in-hiv-1-armor- Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Podcast host Jorge Salazar is a science writer at TACC. Mark Twain is attributed with the quote, "Whisky is for drinking, and water is for fighting over!" But what if cooperation yielded more benefit than just going it alone, when it comes to urban water utilities? A new study of water supply in the North Carolina Research Triangle found that agreements between water utilities can help mitigate their risks. The research used supercomputer allocations on the Stampede2 system of the Texas Advanced Computing Center awarded by XSEDE, the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. The findings can apply to any place where water providers allocate regional water resources among users that face challenges in supply and demand and in affordably financing infrastructure improvements. On the podcast to talk more about their water supply study are David Gorelick and David Gold. Gorelick is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Gold is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/cooperation-rewards-water-utilities Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The host is Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC. The details of how the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects human lung cells remains a mystery to experimental scientists. Now, the devilish details of the mechanism for fusion of the coronavirus to host cells has been revealed through simulations by University of Chicago researchers using the Frontera supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. The computer models they’ve developed show cooperative behavior of host cell receptor proteins that lead to their own infection, in work that can be applied to understanding the increased virulence of coronavirus variants such as delta, omicron, and more. On the podcast is Gregory Voth, a distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago. Voth is lead author on the study that modeled the coronavirus and receptor cell interactions with computer simulations, published February 2022 in the journal Nature Communications. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin.

Sometimes a container isn’t just a container, not when it comes to the deadly HIV-1 virus The HIV-1 virus is wrapped in a double layer of fatty molecules called lipids that not only serves as its container but also plays a key role in HIV-1’s replication and infectivity. Scientists have used supercomputers to complete the first-ever biologically authentic computer model of the HIV-1 virus liposome, its complete spherical lipid bilayer. These results were published January 2022 in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. What’s more, this study comes fresh off the heels of a new atomistic model of the HIV-1 capsid, which contains its genetic material. This work came out in November 2021 in the journal Science Advances The scientists were awarded supercomputer allocations and training by XSEDE, the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, funded by the National Science Foundation. Through XSEDE, they used the Stampede2 system at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and Bridges at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC). Additionally, they used Grizzly at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; Blue Waters at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications; and the Frontera system at TACC. TACC science writer and podcast host Jorge Salazar discusses the findings with study co-authors Alex Bryer and Juan Perilla, both at the University of Delaware, where Bryer is a PhD student in the Perilla Laboratory, and Perilla an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/pioneering-simulations-focus-on-hiv-1-virus Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

It takes two to tango, as the saying goes. This is especially true for scientists studying what’s inside of a cell. Protein molecules inside a cell interact with other proteins, and in a sense the proteins dance with a partner to respond to signals and regulate each other's activities. Crucial to giving cells energy for life is the migration of a compound called adenosine triphosphate or ATP, out of the cell's powerhouse, the mitochondria. And critical for this flow out to the power-hungry parts of the cell is the interaction between a protein enzyme called hexokinase-II and proteins in the voltage-dependent anion channel, VDAC, found on the outer membrane of the mitochondria. Supercomputer simulations have revealed for the first time how VDAC binds to HKII. The work was supported by allocations awarded by the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, funded by the National Science Foundation on the Stampede2 system of TACC. This basic research in how proteins interact out of the cell's powerhouses, the mitochondria, will help researchers understand the molecular basis of diseases such as cancer. The supercomputer-supported study was published in Nature Communications Biology, June 2021. It found that when the enzyme and the channel proteins bind to each other, the conduction of the channel changes and partially blocks the flow of ATP. Simulations on Stampede2 revealed this binding. TACC science writer and podcast host Jorge Salazar talks more about it with study co-authors and biochemists Emad Tajkhorshid, Nandan Haloi, and Po-Chao Wen of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/cell-s-energy-secrets-revealed-with-supercomputers Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

Scientists are looking deeper into the mysterious characteristics of vortexes and turbulence, in recent studies by Texas Tech University scientists that used the Frontera, Stampede2, and Lonestar5 supercomputers here at TACC, allocated through the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, funded by the National Science Foundation. A possible application of the Texas Tech vortex research could help improve fuel efficiency for cars and help develop energy-saving aircraft designs, and more. The vortex research was published October 2021 in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. TACC science writer and podcast host Jorge Salazar discusses the findings with study co-authors Jie Yao and Fazle Hussain. Yao is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech. Hussain is the President's Endowed Distinguished Chair in Engineering, Science and Medicine, and Senior Adviser to the President, Texas Tech University. Hussain is also Yao’s advisor and a professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Internal Medicine, and Cell Physiology and Molecular Biophysics. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/into-the-vortex Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/

The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain spans almost four thousand miles from the Hawaiian Islands to the Detroit Seamount in the north Pacific, an L- shaped chain that goes west then abruptly north. The 60-degree bend in the line of mostly undersea mountains and volcanic islands has puzzled scientists since it was first identified in the 1940s from the data of numerous echo sounding ships. A team of scientists have now used supercomputers to model and reconstruct the dynamics of Pacific tectonic plate motion that might explain the mysterious mountain chain bend, ion work published January 2022 in Nature Geoscience. They used the Stampede2 and Frontera supercomputers here at TACC, allocated by the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. TACC science writer and podcast host Jorge Salazar discusses the geological mystery with study co-author Michael Gurnis, a professor of Geophysics at the California Institute of Technology. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/hawaiian-empe…-supercomputers Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/