Scientists will have to do without an ally in the race to combat the Zika virus.
A supercomputer named Santos Dumont has been partially switched off in the state of Rio de Janeiro due to government spending cuts. Among other projects, it was meant to be genetically mapping the Zika virus.
In the midst of Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s, funds to Santos Dumont’s home at the National Laboratory of Computer Science have been cut by 20 percent, according to the Ministry for Science and Technology.
This has meant the supercomputer is working at 30 percent capacity to save energy costs and 75 projects it was meant to be processing are on hold, including the Zika mapping.
“I can’t anticipate how much we will use the supercomputer, because if it means spending above my budget at the end of the year, that would be irresponsible of me to fall into illegal spending here at our laboratory,” said the laboratory’s director, Augusto Gadelha.
The supercomputer, which was bought from France’s Atos/Bull , is 1 million times faster than an average laptop and costs about 500,000 reais ($148,104 dollars) to run per month.
“This is a very powerful tool and the longer it is not running without it being made available to the scientific community, the longer the delays in moving the research forward will be,” said technician, Wagner Leo.
The Ministry for Science and Technology said it is negotiating extra funds to restore Santos Dumont to full power.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
