What Global Challenges Will We Solve With Exascale Supercomputers?

Though nearly seventy percent of Earth's surface is comprised of water, only three percent is considered fresh and drinkable--and most of that striking minority is trapped in glaciers or polar ice caps. Juxtapose the dearth of natural drinking water with the disquieting realization that nearly a billion people still lack unfettered access to clean water, and the world's oceans suddenly look a lot smaller. This global quandary has led to the ambitious goal of making oceans drinkable--but doing so is going to require a ton of innovation and processing power. Let's take a look at how the next generation of supercomputers might help solve our water challenges and more. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory believe the answer lies in carbon nanotubes (and a whole lot more, but let's start here for now).