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Arising from: C. Trisos et al. Nature 580, 496–501, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2189-9 (2020). ABSTRACT The fundamental assumption behind this provocative study (Trisos et al. 2020) is that current and future climatic tolerance limits for a species can be inferred from the last 170 years of climate records within its current distribution. Using this approach, the authors project the probable fate, in time, of sets of supposedly co-occurring species “assemblages,” under modeled future climates. Without any doubt, the fate of species under ongoing climate change is urgent and alarming, but I suggest that both the synchrony of exposure to intolerable climate regimes and the “ecological disruptions” arising from such exposure may be substantially overestimated in by this study.

Exascale computing systems are essential for the scientific fields that will transform the 21st century global economy, including energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and materials science. Progress in these fields is predicated on the ability to perform advanced scientific and engineering simulations, and analyze the deluge of data. On July 29, 2013, ASCAC was charged by Patricia Dehmer, the Acting Director of the Office of Science, to assemble a subcommittee to provide advice on exascale computing. This subcommittee was directed to return a list of no more than ten technical approaches (hardware and software) that will enable the development of a system that achieves the Department's goals for exascale computing. Numerous reports over the past few years have documented the technical challenges and the non¬-viability of simply scaling existing computer designs to reach exascale. The technical challenges revolve around energy consumption, memory performance, resilience, extreme concurrency, and big data. Drawing from these reports and more recent experience, this ASCAC subcommittee has identified the top ten computing technology advancements that are critical to making a capable, economically viable, exascale system.