Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

No installation required: how WebAssembly is changing scientific computing

Enabling code execution in the web browser, the multilanguage tool is powerful but complicated.
  1. Jeffrey M. Perkel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Cartoon of a hand passing through a browser window and manipulating pieces of code within.

Illustration: The Project Twins

In late 2021, midway through the COVID-19 pandemic, George Stagg was preparing to give exams to his mathematics and statistics students at the University of Newcastle, UK. Some would use laptops, others would opt for tablets or mobile phones. Not all of them could even use the programming language that was the subject of the test: the statistical language R. “We had no control, really, over what devices those students were using,” says Stagg.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 627, 455-456 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00725-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 14 March 2024: This Technology feature erroneously stated that data are never transferred to an external server with WebAssembly. In fact, they can be; it is just not required. Also, it wrongly stated that WebAssembly is limited to 32-bit numbers. It can handle 64-bit numbers, but is limited to 32-bit memory addresses.

References

  1. Ji, D., Aboukhalil, R. & Moshiri, N. Bioinformatics 40, btae018 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Usher, W. & Pascucci, V. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2009.03254 (2020).

  3. Herzberger, L. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2309.04393 (2023).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Reporter, Nature

    Reporter, Nature Location: London, UK - Hybrid office and remote working Closing date: 13th May 2024   Nature, the world’s most authoritative scien...

    London (Greater) (GB)

    Springer Nature Ltd

  • Vice-Chancellor and President

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong Vice-Chancellor and President The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is conducting a worldwide search for t...

    Hong Kong (HK)

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong

  • ERC-funded PhD and Postdoc Positions in Comparative Genomics

    We are looking for two PhD and/or PostDoc candidates for the 6 years ERC-funded grant project "BATPROTECT" in Frankfurt a.M., Germany

    Frankfurt am Main, Hessen (DE)

    Senckenberg Society for Nature Research

  • Silver Endowed Chair (Developmental Psychiatry)(Open Rank Faculty)

    The Robert A. Silver Endowed Chair in Developmental Neurobiology leads an internationally recognized, competitively funded research program...

    Tampa, Florida

    University of South Florida - Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences

  • W2 Professorship with tenure track to W3 in Animal Husbandry (f/m/d)

    The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Göttingen invites applications for a temporary professorship with civil servant status (g...

    Göttingen (Stadt), Niedersachsen (DE)

    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links