Can you dig up some recent articles--not research papers--from the
journals Science (http://www.sciencemag.org/)  and Nature
(http://www.nature.com/) that specifically mention the demand for
Supercomputers in research. Each has its own news section and the
stories would be in there. The stories should be no older than Jan.
2000 and the more recent the better. A summary is not necessary, just
a link to  the story or the page/issue number. Good luck!

Dear loqui-ga 

I'm surpised to find so little, but below are three citations that may
interest you. I wouldn't call them articles. They are "briefs" that
contain some information relating to the need for supercomputing in
research (mainly relating to genome research).

From Science:

ADVANCED COMPUTING:
NSF Launches TeraGrid for Academic Research
Jeffrey Mervis. Science 2001 August 17; 293: 1235-1237. 
(in News of the Week)


From Nature(actually one of Nature's monthly sister publications):

IT giants muscle into life science arena. Liz Fletcher. Nature
Biotechnology 19, 794 (01 Sep 2001) Business News

IBM invests in life sciences. Aaron Bouchie. Nature Biotechnology18,
1024 (01 Oct 2000) In Brief.

Google search:

-I went to web sites of both journals and searched their archives.
-searched abstracts and text of contents.

Hope this is what you want. Please submit a clarificatoin request if
you are confused by any information provided here.

Thanks,

rapidreference-ga