COMPUTERS IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

Publisher Summary The management of data and other information has passed through many epochs, each of which is associated with a particular type of device. Biomedical science developed from a descriptive science to a quantitative one, and with increased automation the bulk of data that can be collected in a short time has grown enormously. An important byproduct of this revolutionary technology has been the field of computer graphics: the generation of a picture on an oscilloscope screen by means of an appropriate computer. The advent of the digital computer introduced a most powerful means of contemplating the general concept and specific subject matter of information and information theory. The digital computer is an information machine. This well-known class of machines includes switching circuits, telephone exchanges, missile guidance systems, and so forth. Most of these are special-purpose in the nature of their functions—that is, limited to specific calculations; but the digital computer is capable of a wide variety of calculations and might be called a general-purpose machine. Information machines have played an important role in all aspects of human life. As a consequence, there has always been a strong motivation to explore their theoretical and pragmatic bases. Computer science is derivative of these interdisciplinary studies.