& LIGHT-YEARS! - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

Turn On Your
Computer and
Throw Open a
Window onto
the Wonders
of Science
88 COMPUTE!
impact
JL nA\/m n thoi
DAVID D.THORNBURG
The popular cartoon image of science
depicts bespectacled men in white lab
coats standing around a blackboard
filled with equations and carries a caption
like Here's the problem: It's x before y except
after z. The reality of science is quite differ
ent. During my ten years as a scientist,
many of my colleagues were women, most
of us didn't wear glasses, and we rarely
stood in front of blackboards—we sat in
front of computers.
It's hard to imagine what scientific re
search would be like if the computer had
never been invented. Computers are used in
all aspects of scientific research, from the
acquisition of data to the development of
abstract theories.
Any experimental scientist will tell you
that the most tedious part of the job is col
lecting data. Typically, one measures a vari
ety of parameters (resistance or blood
pressure, for example) under varying condi
tions (different voltage or sound levels, for
instance) and then generates tables or graphs
that depict the relationship (if any) between
the stimulus and the response. It's not un
common for a single experiment to generate
thousands of data points.
When data is taken by hand, the oppor
tunity for writing numbers incorrectly is al
ways present. And even if the numbers are
recorded properly, that data usually goes
into a computer program for analysis: more
chances for error. Only by using a computer
to capture data over long periods of time
can errors be decreased.
Inexpensive products for the personal
computer, like Broderbund's Science Tool
kit and Sunburst Communications' Explor
ing Science, allow home computer users to
conduct scientific experiments using auto
mated data acquisition.
Today's high school students, armed
with personal computers, are exploring sci
entific ideas that were beyond the reach of
the best nineteenth-century scientists. Much
of the excitement in scientific circles today
revolves around exotic subjects like chaos—
a branch of science with simple principles,
but whose results remained obscure prior to
the spread of computers. But now many of
these fascinating theories can be explored
outside the laboratory—by individuals
using their personal computers.
Historically, physicists and other scien
tists developed theories laden with simpli
fying assumptions in order to make the
resulting equations simpler to compute by
hand. The result was a collection of theories
filled with various "fudge" factors designed
to compensate for these simplifying assump
tions. Scientists could often adjust these fac
tors to allow a theory to fit any set of data
that was handy—hardly the basis for a rigor
ous proof. Now that computers allow scien
tists to deal with the complexity and nonlinearity
of the real world, theories of greater
accuracy can be proposed and tested.
Besides theoretical explorations, anoth
er application for computers in the sciences,
and one with a tremendous future, is simu
lation. Computers allow us to construct
microworlds based on certain assumptions.
By monitoring the behavior of these
microworlds over time, we can see what the
long-term consequences of these assump
tions might be. For example, simulations
that show collisions of two galaxies over
millions of years can be presented, in ani
mated form, on a display screen in a few
minutes. The popularity of simulation pro
grams (often offered as games) reflects some
of the power that can come from these
microworlds. In any software store, one can
find simulations of nuclear reactors, war,
and aircraft flight—and recently even a sim
ulation of an entire city.
The growth of the home video market
has opened even more doors for simulation
and scientific exploration. Genlock cards
allow images from videodisc or videotape to
be blended or overlaid with computer
graphics. An animated computer model of a
skeletal structure can be superimposed on a
video image of a walking person, for ex
ample, to show how various bones move in
relation to each other. Or. a teacher might
use a videodisc to illustrate cell division to a
class. During the presentation, the teacher
can freeze the image and then label its parts
with a drawing program.
The impact of computers on science is
tremendous, but another aspect of scientific
computing is even greater. Personal comput
ers have made science accessible to people
who had felt intimidated by the field's ap
parent abstractions. By allowing people to
"mess around" with ideas and to play with
those ideas until they make sense, the per
sonal computer has greatly increased people's
awareness of scientific issues.
The personal computer helps to make
abstract theoretical ideas tangible and con
crete. It demystifies science without taking
away any of its wonder, informing all of us
with the miracle of our world. At a time
when science and technology are playing an
increasing role in private life, the need for
an informed public has never been greater.