We are slowly discovering that the PlayStation 3 can do just about anything. It can run videogames, play movies, fold proteins, power Air Force supercomputers, cook bratwurst, etc. Now, it can apparently make black holes collide, as well.
A group at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth have procured a partial donation of no less than 16 PlayStaton 3 consoles and arranged what they are calling a PS3 Gravity Grid. The purpose of this envy-inducing rack of technology is to perform the double-precision floating point operations necessary to calculate the space-time effects colliding celestial bodies may have on one another. Namely, black holes.
It’s a bunch of highly technical stuff they are trying to do, but it could prove very useful to our understanding of outer space and the way it changes over time. Maybe they’ll even be able to produce the first Mass Relay! …maybe not.
Anyway, I’m still holding out for when the PS3’s highly reflective surface can be used to harness the energy of the sun and provide us with a renewable source of energy before I drop my hard-earned cash on one.
