We do cool stuff!

I am fully aware of the fact that I work in a rather specialized part of industry/academia -- supercomputing has always seemed sort of esoteric and "out there" to most people, even though they watch the weather forecast every day (generated with a supercomputer), drive in cars and fly in planes that were designed with supercomputers, watch movies made on supercomputers (Pixar, DreamWorks Animation) ... and don't get me started about all of the Procter & Gamble products, like coffee cans and diapers and Pringles. But still, a topic that tends not to be too mainstream -- unless you watch Numb3rs. :)

Here's a real-world application that, while it's a little scary, is definitely the wave of the future. One of the supercomputers here at TACC directed a laser in Houston that was doing surgery on a dog! Pretty cool, huh?

Before you ask, we never found out the dog's name, and while the surgery was successful, the dog had to be put down afterwards. :(