November 13, 2014

A Stunning and Groundbreaking Simulation of the Human Heart

At the cutting edge of research in the life sciences, a team of scientists and animators from Japan has created an astonishing new film about the function of the human heart.

By Carin Bondar

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

At the cutting edge of research in the life sciences, a team of scientists and animators from Japan has created an astonishing new film about the function of the human heart. The team uses supercomputers to analyze and simulate biological functions in multilayer systems. The SCLS (Supercomputational Life Science) team conducts work in ‘computational life science’, which allows for complex visualizations like we’ve never seen before. Sure, you may have a general idea of how the heart functions, but I guarantee you’ve never visualized it like this. According to their website:

Biology is the result of dynamic systems: molecules dynamically interact to build cells; cells dynamically interact to build tissues; and tissues dynamically interact to build living beings.. Therefore, to fully explore life, research needs to analyze the complex networks at these different hierarchies. Such analysis is already beginning from innovative measurement technologies, which have provided large quantities of data of previously unobservable phenomena.

The level of complexity displayed in this animation is astonishing. Enjoy!

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