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Re:Detailed simulation of complete minimal cellular life by dTal on Saturday February 26, 2022 @06:04AM (#30476665)
>For anyone surprised that they only needed up to 1 GPU per simulation: their models appeared to be largely based in rate-kinetics; it's not like they were simulating atoms or really even molecules, but rather more like they were simulating concentrations of molecules.

Ah so it's sort of like CFD but with chemical interactions thrown into the mix?

Re:Detailed simulation of complete minimal cellular life by _Nat_ on Saturday February 26, 2022 @01:03PM (#30480002)
Yup, you're right: their more complex model was largely based in [continuum mechanics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_mechanics ), just like CFD.

Without specifically checking, I'd guess that they probably ignored some of the stuff involved in normal CFD, e.g. pressure-driven flows. In fact, their well-mixed model (their simpler model that didn't need a GPU) basically ignores fluid-dynamics entirely, since it ignores spatial-variation and so there're no fluid-dynamics to model. Their non-mixed model (their more complex model that did use a GPU) probably relied on diffusive-transport, without regard for stuff like pressure-driven flows.

So, yeah, CFD -- lighter on the mechanical-dynamics (like spatial-flows) and heavier on the chemical-dynamics (like chemical-reactions).