Notes - Life Out of Sequence - page 218

6. For a detailed account of Turing's life and work, see Hodges, Alan
Turing .
7. Campbell-Kelly and Aspray, Computer , 73-74.
8. Campbell-Kelly and Aspray, Computer , 80-83.
9. Edwards, Closed World , 51.
10. Edwards, Closed World , 65-66.
11. The ENIAC was designed to compute fi ring tables, which required the
solution of differential equations (see Polacheck, “Before the ENIAC”). It was
eventually used in calculating implosion for the hydrogen bomb, which also
involved numerical solution of partial differential equations.
12. Galison, Image and Logic , 490.
13. Galison, Image and Logic , 492.
14. Ceruzzi, History of Modern Computing , 30.
15. On OR, see Fortun and Schweber, “Scientists and the Legacy.”
16. For more on operations research, see Kirby, Operational Research .
17. On the relationship between computers and operations research, see
Agar, Government Machine ; Wilkes, “Presidential Address.”
18. It was very diffi cult and time-consuming to program early computers.
This meant that sections of programs (subroutines) were often reused for dif-
ferent purposes. It may have been possible to imagine creating an entirely new
program from scratch, but for many purposes this would have taken far too
long. Furthermore, in most cases, it was the same small group of individuals
who were responsible for taking a problem and “programming” it into the ma-
chine; these people evolved unique styles of problem solving and machine use.
19. Perhaps the most revealing use of computers in biology before 1960
was in the attempts to “crack” the genetic code. Since the genetic code, like the
computer, was understood as an information processing system, the computer
was seen by some as the ideal tool with which to attack the problem. These
attempts failed. Kay, Who Wrote the Book of Life?
20. November, “Digitizing Life,” 170.
21. Ledley, “Digital Electronic Computers.”
22. Ledley, Use of Computers , x.
23. Ledley, Use of Computers , xi.
24. Ledley, Use of Computers , 1-12.
25. See also the 1965 volume by Stacy and Waxman, Computers in Bio-
medical Research . These authors concluded that “the pattern of development
which is emerging in the biomedical sciences appears to be similar in almost all
respects to the scientifi c evolution of the physical sciences” (3).
26. November, Biomedical Computing , 270.
27. On the development of minicomputers, see Ceruzzi, History of Modern
Computing , 127-135.
28. Lenoir, “Shaping Biomedicine,” 33-35.
29. Friedland et al., “MOLGEN” [EAF papers].
30. Friedland, “Knowledge-Based Experimental Design,” iv-v.
31. The spread of computers into labs during the 1980s no doubt had
much to do with the increasing storage and speed and decreasing costs associ-