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A Week of Big Science
Aug. 5th, 2023 11:23 amIt has been a diverse week of the scientific nature for me which, unusually, covered not just work and study events but social events as well. Last night I was pleased to meet one Juliette W., with whom we share an interest in science fiction and fluid dynamics. We have mutual friends, but a surprising connection was with Robert McLay of the Texas Advanced Computing Centre - I attended his final pre-retirement presentation on LMod a few evenings prior (at 1 am in the morning, Melbourne time). LMod really has transformed the management of applications in the high-performance computing space over the past several years, so I hope Rob receives some recognition for his contribution.
Another event that crossed the scientific and the social occurred the night before when I caught up with a former workmate, Martin P., to see Oppenheimer at iMAX to a packed audience. It's a great topic and the representation of the science wasn't terrible even if the history was not quite right and it managed to omit the fallout effects. It must be said the performance by all and sundry was of excellent quality, and the story delved deeply into the persecution and troubled individual psychology of the protagonist. Ultimately, however, I was rather underwhelmed by it all - the movie was too long and it really didn't gain anything by being on a big screen. Still, small mercies that it wasn't a travesty of an action film.
In more typical activities, earlier in the week I had the pleasing opportunity to chair a work forum where we were addressed by two excellent researchers (Dr. Shanaka Kristombu Baduge and Dr. Sadeep Thilakarathna) who have usd our kit (cloud and HPC) to develop AI robots for plastic waste selection. In regards to the more typical study project, in the final lecture of the week on paleoclimatology and current events I drew attention to recent warnings of a very probable collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and raised whether it was possible to have a collapse in North Atlantic ocean temperatures whilst having simultaneously a significant increase in atmospheric temperatures. It seemed plausible and but I was hoping Professor Rewi Newnham would answer in the negative; he didn't. Fun time ahead, eh?
Another event that crossed the scientific and the social occurred the night before when I caught up with a former workmate, Martin P., to see Oppenheimer at iMAX to a packed audience. It's a great topic and the representation of the science wasn't terrible even if the history was not quite right and it managed to omit the fallout effects. It must be said the performance by all and sundry was of excellent quality, and the story delved deeply into the persecution and troubled individual psychology of the protagonist. Ultimately, however, I was rather underwhelmed by it all - the movie was too long and it really didn't gain anything by being on a big screen. Still, small mercies that it wasn't a travesty of an action film.
In more typical activities, earlier in the week I had the pleasing opportunity to chair a work forum where we were addressed by two excellent researchers (Dr. Shanaka Kristombu Baduge and Dr. Sadeep Thilakarathna) who have usd our kit (cloud and HPC) to develop AI robots for plastic waste selection. In regards to the more typical study project, in the final lecture of the week on paleoclimatology and current events I drew attention to recent warnings of a very probable collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and raised whether it was possible to have a collapse in North Atlantic ocean temperatures whilst having simultaneously a significant increase in atmospheric temperatures. It seemed plausible and but I was hoping Professor Rewi Newnham would answer in the negative; he didn't. Fun time ahead, eh?
