Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
engineers, technicians, mathematicians, and computer scientists to this
new kind of biology. These differences have signifi cance for those who
might point to the need for greater value and emphasis to be placed
on new skills of data management and data curation in biology. The
argument here suggests that there is a reason why such pursuits remain
undervalued: namely, that the status of biological knowledge as biologi-
cal knowledge partly depends on the hierarchy between producers and
consumers.
But the biological work of the Broad consists equally of what is
going on in the back spaces. Following the data into spaces such as
the Broad Sequencing Center reveals the emergence of new forms of
practice with new forms of value that are a critical part of bioinfor-
matic biology. The emergence of these practices and values is a result
of computers, which have transformed “production” from a “bad” to a
“good.” The organization of space and work has been transformed by
the power of computers to track, organize, sort, and store.
The mass and speed of bioinformatics that we encountered in chap-
ter 2 does not just apply to the accumulation of data about DNA se-
quences. Computers are also able to collect and manipulate all kinds
of other data: about samples, workers, reagents, error rates, and so
on. These data are also contributing to the transformation of biologi-
cal work in terms of volume, speed, and effi ciency. The history of the
computer suggests the reasons for this: from the 1950s onward, com-
putational practices were linked to and evolved from efforts to ratio-
nalize government bureaucracy and commerce. For instance, the Trea-
sury of the United Kingdom used punched-card-based computers for
accounting, payroll, and the production of statistics.
41
And it has been
argued that in the 1950s, “the computer was reconstructed—mainly by
computer manufacturers and business users—to be an electronic data-
processing machine rather than a mathematical instrument.”
42
Many of
these “calculators” were used at fi rst for accounting purposes and later
for administration and management. Computers were used for payroll
calculations, sales statistics, and inventory control.
43
The advent of the
UNIVAC and the IBM 701 in the early 1950s made computers valuable
to business as machines able to “automate” and speed up routine tasks.
At General Electric (where one of the fi rst UNIVACs was installed),
the digital computer was used fi rst to replace salaried clerks (and their
overhead costs) and later for long-range planning, market forecasting,
and revamping production processes.
44
IBM—and other companies at-
tempting to compete with it—had to design the computer for the needs
of business: alphanumeric processing, checking and redundancy mecha-
