What's the story with ... Super-computers?
The Herald: Edinburgh University is to be home to the one of the world's most advanced super-computers. And even though the most Luddite of technophobes might not yet know it, this is excellent news not only for Scotland but for the entire world.
For when it goes live from a secret location around Edinburgh in October, Hector - for that is the computer's name - will enable scientists from all over the UK to carry out remotely the most complex and varied research it is possible to do.
This will include forecasting climate change, simulating ocean currents, projecting the spread of epidemic diseases and developing new drugs (the computer can replicate organs such as the heart). Old-fashioned theory and experiment are all very well, but it seems that in modern science, computed simulation is the future.
Although its name is actually derived from the acronym of its upper-scale potential (High End Computing Terascale Resources), Hector's nominal associations with the mighty Trojan war hero are reassuring.
