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Nature 435, 751-752 (9 June 2005) | doi:10.1038/435751a; Published online 8 June 2005

Computational science:  Can get satisfaction

Carla P. Gomes1 & Bart Selman1

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The sheer complexity of some computational problems means they will probably never be solved, despite the ever-increasing resources available. But we can sometimes predict under what conditions solutions exist.

Computer scientists have been quite successful at developing fast algorithms: Google, for example, searches its index of more than eight billion web pages in a fraction of a second. The indexed-search problem is said to be 'tractable', or efficiently solvable; it is even possible to guarantee that, no matter what keywords you search on, you will get an answer quickly.

  1. Carla P. Gomes is in the Faculty of Computing and Information Science, Departments of Applied Economics and Management and of Computer Science, and Bart Selman is in the Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, 4148 Upson Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
    Email: selman@cs.cornell.edu

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