Scientific Computing: Computational Science

You might be aware of the fact that we can use computers to do almost anything. Now, what if I tell you we can use computers to do science. Yes, you heard it right! We can use computers to do science and the field that uses computers to do science is known as Computational Science. 

What is Computational Science?

Computational Science is basically integrating computer science, mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, and algorithms to solve real life problems. By combining all the fields, we are able to accurately model the scientific problems. Computational Science heavily relies on mathematics and computer programs to compute massive amount of calculations to understand the nature of the problem. Computational Science has three main branches such as computational physics, computational biology, and computational chemistry.

Meteorologist using Computational Science

Who uses Computational Science?

Now, you might be wondering who uses computational science. Well, it turns out that every field that uses science is starting to use computational science. The reason for this is because computational science enables every science related field to visualize the problem, and accurately map out the science behind the problems. For instance, meteorologists use computational science to figure out the future weather and predict the long term climate changes. Another field that successfully uses computational science is biology. Biologists use computational science to understand the functions of our organs. Computational Science enables biologists to model things at molecular level which enables them to design new medicines. Overall, Computational Science is at heart of every concrete science fields.

I hope you learned something new about Computational Science from this post. I am looking forward to hear your opinion and suggestions about this post, so please comment below.

References:

1). http://www.brockport.edu/cps/whatis.html

2). http://shodor.org/refdesk/Help/whatiscs

3). http://www.nature.com/nature/computationalbiology/

4). http://cds130.org/wiki/images/thumb/Venncomputational2.svg/353px-Venncomputational2.svg.png

Computer Graphics: Making our Movies and Video Games Realistic and Entertaining

Do you enjoy watching sci-fi or animated movies? Let’s admit it, we all love watching animated movies. (Don’t worry, I won’t ask for your age!) If you are interested in watching animated and/or sci-fi movies, then you might be interested to learn more about computer graphics. In simple terms, computer graphics is the use of a computer to generate realistic images. All the animated images we see in our movies are generated using Computer Graphics.

                               

Use of Computer Graphics in Movies

Now that I have briefly mentioned about use of computer graphics in movies, let me give some concrete examples to show you the importance of computer graphics in our favorite movies. First of all, you all have watched the movie Jurassic Park, right? (If you haven’t seen Jurassic Park yet, I highly recommend you watch that movie!) Incredible usage of computer graphics in Jurassic Park shows us what it would be like to live in a dinosaur era. Various details of dinosaurs were cleverly depicted by the computer graphics team. The dinosaur’s red and brown eyes, yellowish teeth, spiny skin, and long tails were so realistic that it frightened everyone. Without use of computer graphics, movies like Jurassic Park would be impossible to make.

Use of Computer Graphics in Video Games

Let’s talk about another widely popular use of computer graphics. Video games are very popular nowadays. We are spending most of our time playing video games, but have you ever thought about what makes video games more interesting? The use of computer graphics makes video games very exciting and realistic. As far as video games are concerned, computer graphics truly changed this industry upside down. Few years ago, we were happily playing 2-D video games, but now with use of 3-D graphics in video games, we are able to be part of the game. Nowadays, most of the games are using 3-D graphics which makes video games more fun and we are able to attach ourselves to the games.

I hope you learned something new about computer graphics by reading this post. I am looking forward to hearing your opinion about this post, so please leave a comment.

References:

1). http://www.thefreedictionary.com/computer+graphics

2). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_(film)

3). http://gamezroomx.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/battlefield3-008.jpg

4). http://computer.howstuffworks.com/3dgraphics.htm