The new Dutch National Supercomputer, a 1024 processor SGI 3000, has been inaugurated. The Netherlands National Computing Facilities Foundation, a foundation under the umbrella of the Dutch National Science foundation and responsible for the selection of the machine, also did celebrate its tenth anniversary. Most people think bone is dead material. In fact it is not, as Harry Weinans from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, explained at the NCF conference. There is a continues process of reparation and replacement going on.
Bone can get more strength when it is put under stress regularly.
Hormones and signal molecules play an important role in the process. When people get older, the bone structure changes, and the repair process slows down. To analyse the bone structure and the processes taking place Weinans and his colleagues, developed programmes that need supercomputer power to run fast enough. One of the models developed in Rotterdam shows what is happening when people get arthrose. Normally the bone has a kind of sponge structure.