We use powerful computers to do computer simulations.
What that means is we put in information about systems
and watch how it evolves in the computer.
ORNL has a supercomputer called Jaguar which is the world's fastest
and UT has one called Kraken which is the third fastest in the world right now.
And these computers have about -- it's like having about a hundred thousand laptops
all piled up and they're all working together for you.
I hate computers, I must say. I don't even know how to switch them on
but it's the things that my post docs and students do with computers I quite like.
The best thing about our research is how interdisciplinary it is.
It is at the junction of physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science.
Indeed when I came to UT I could have gone in any one of three or four different departments
and been equally comfortable there.
And so we sit also at Oak Ridge at the interface between 3 or 4 different directorates
the neutron sciences, computational sciences, biological sciences, physical science.
So we sit in the middle and we use physics, we use chemistry, we use mathematics,
and computer science to understand biological systems.
And so this interdisciplinarity brings different minds together with different viewpoints to solve problems.
I think that's our main strength.
Science is itself -- and I'm talking generally about scientists -- seems to be reaching a critical junction
in the way it influences mankind.
People are now realizing that many of the things that politicians --
many of the decisions that politicians make are profoundly influenced by science.
Such as, for example, climate change but also many things to do with health.
And so the relationship now between scientists and politicians is something that has to be done correctly.
So it will require integrity from scientists, it will require scientists being unbiased,
it will require politicians educating themselves in science and the general public.
And if we can get over the problems that there are right now in this
so that confidence in science exists and of understanding from the general public,
then we are on the way to building a rational world.
As a community we need to pull together
and make sure that we're on the right track, that this is done correctly in the next 10 to 20 years
and if it is then we have a future; if not, who knows.