Technology Blog

A collaboration between ORNL and software toolmaker Allinea Software has produced a formidable weapon in the fight against software application bugs. Data from DOE's ORNL on neutron interactions with isotopes of platinum contradict a basic assumption underpinning random matrix theory, nuclear physics models and quantum chaos. Ivaylo Ivanov of Georgia State University and colleagues used Jaguar, a Cray XT high-performance computing system at ORNL, to elucidate the mechanism by which accessory proteins called sliding clamps are loaded onto DNA strands and coordinate enzymes that enable gene repair or replication.

"This project means application developers have a chance to debug their code in a reasonable amount of time at scale," said ORNL Application Performance Tools Group leader Richard Graham.
"The combination of satellite data with the bird observations is a novelty," said Suresh Santhana Vannan, an ORNL DAAC scientist. "They're normally two separate research areas."
"Either way, as these assumptions underpin the nuclear statistical model, the impact of these new findings could be very broad throughout nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics and in applications such as nuclear energy," said ORNL physicist Paul Koehler.
"This research has direct bearing on understanding the molecular basis of genetic integrity and the loss of this integrity in cancer and degenerative diseases," says Ivanov, whose work appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.