Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
suggest is that success depended not on adapting the computer to bio-
logical problems, but on adapting biology to problems that computers
could readily solve. In particular, they demonstrate the central roles that
data management, statistics, and sequences came to play in these new
kinds of computationally driven biology. Together, these case studies
also show that the application of computers to biology was not obvious
or straightforward—Goad was able to use computers only because of
his special position at Los Alamos, while Ostell had to struggle for many
years to show the relevance and importance of his work. Ultimately,
the acceptance of computers by biologists required a redefi nition of the
kinds of problems that biology addressed.
Walter Goad (1925-2000) came to Los Alamos Scientifi c Labo-
ratories as a graduate student in 1951, in the midst of President Tru-
man's crash program to construct a hydrogen bomb. He quickly proved
himself an able contributor to that project, gaining key insights into
problems of neutron fl ux inside supercritical uranium. There is a clear
continuity between some of Goad's earlier (physics) and later (biologi-
cal) work: both used numerical and statistical methods to solve data-
intensive problems. Digital electronic computers were Goad's most im-
portant tool. As a consequence, Goad's work imported specifi c ways of
doing and thinking from physics into biology. In particular, he brought
ways of using computers as data management machines. Goad's posi-
tion as a senior scientist in one of the United States' most prestigious sci-
entifi c research institutions imparted a special prestige to these modes of
practice. Ultimately, the physics-born computing that Goad introduced
played a crucial role in redefi ning the types of problems that biologists
addressed; the reorganization of biology that has accompanied the ge-
nomic era can be understood in part as a consequence of the modes of
thinking and doing that the computer carried from Los Alamos.
We can reconstruct an idea of the kinds of physics problems that
Goad was tackling by examining both some of his published work from
the 1950s and his thesis on cosmic ray scattering.
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This work had three
crucial features. First, it depended on modeling systems (like neutrons)
as fl uids using differential or difference equations. Second, such systems
involved many particles, so their properties could only be treated statis-
tically. Third, insight was gained from the models by using numerical or
statistical methods, often with the help of a digital electronic computer.
During the 1950s, Los Alamos scientists pioneered new ways of prob-
lem solving using these machines.
Electronic computers were not available when Goad fi rst came to
Los Alamos in 1951 (although Los Alamos had had access to comput-
