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e-Science, fundamental physics and the GRID

April 25, 2002

Research into e-Science reached a milestone in the UK today [Thursday 25 April] when Gordon Brown, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, opened The National e-Science Centre in Scotland. The centre, run jointly by the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, will provide a focal point for the UK`s involvement in e-Science initiatives and integrate closely with the highly advanced computing projects being spearheaded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council [PPARC].

Prof. Ian Halliday, PPARC Chief Executive, welcomed the opening and said, `PPARC is investing £26 million in e-Science technology that will create the GRID - a sophisticated `distributed computing` and infrastructure technology for our science base. The GRID is about enabling collaboration and will allow a computer user, an individual or group of scientists, in one location to harness additional processing power, or access raw data, in an entirely different geographic location in order to manipulate and interrogate the vast amounts of information generated by experiments in particle physics and astronomy`.

In astronomy PPARC is developing the AstroGrid, a virtual observatory programme that will store and share vast amounts of astronomical data. New telescopes being brought online in 2003 and 2005 will generate hundreds of Gigabytes of data every night. AstroGrid will develop the tools needed to process this information and share it between a network of international users. It will also develop a new system of accessing existing archives of astronomical information, enabling astronomers to call up information on a particular area of the sky and search through all the existing data on that area recorded by different ground and space-based telescopes. AstroGrid is collaborating closely with similar projects in Europe and the USA to create a world-wide Virtual Observatory.

Similarly in particle physics PPARC is developing the GridPP programme that will ensure the UK can exploit the data produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment currently under construction at CERN in Geneva. Particle physics experiments involve extremely large volumes of data as currently shown by the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre in the US, in which the UK is playing a major role. To date BaBar has recorded or simulated 600 million particle physics events, accumulating over 500 Terabytes of information. The LHC will create even greater volumes of data. GridPP technology developments also contribute to the EU-DataGrid, a European wide project that aims to develop and demonstrate the infrastructure that will allow scientists to collaborate in sharing information and instruments, regardless of geographical location. In addition, GridPP has close links with related US projects.

Halliday added, `The human aspect to implementing e-Science is a vital ingredient in achieving this technology and PPARC have awarded 10 e-Science studentships in 2001 and again in 2002. A further 10 are planned for 2003`.

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC)

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