Editor's Summary
23 March 2006
2020 vision
This week's forward-looking science and computing special takes 2020 as the iconic future date. If the rate of progress in the computing industry is any guide, within 15 years nano-scale circuits will be a reality. And 2020 is now seen as possible for what was unimaginable until recently, the practical quantum computer. Another imminent revolution is 'smart dust': tiny sensors that monitor everything everywhere. Stephen Muggleton welcomes the data bonanza generated by automation, but argues that science is an essentially human activity and that progress brings its dangers. Hugo-award-winning novelist Vernor Vinge ponders a future we can barely imagine. Alexander Szalay and Jim Gray argue that we are nearing the limit of what one research group can achieve in data handling. Roger Brent and Jehoshuah Bruck ask what computer science can contribute to biological research and Ian Foster reviews the two-way relationship between science and computing.
News Feature: 2020 computing: Champing at the bits
Despite some remaining hurdles, the mind-bending and frankly weird world of quantum computers is surprisingly close. Philip Ball finds out how these unusual machines will earn their keep.
doi:10.1038/440398a
News Feature: 2020 computing: Everything, everywhere
Tiny computers that constantly monitor ecosystems, buildings and even human bodies could turn science on its head. Declan Butler investigates.
doi:10.1038/440402a
Commentary: 2020 Computing: Exceeding human limits
Scientists are turning to automated processes and technologies in a bid to cope with ever higher volumes of data. But automation offers so much more to the future of science than just data handling, says Stephen H. Muggleton.
doi:10.1038/440409a
Commentary: 2020 Computing: The creativity machine
What will emerge from using the Internet as a research tool? The answer, Vernor Vinge argues, will be limited only by our imaginations.
doi:10.1038/440411a
Commentary: 2020 Computing: Science in an exponential world
The amount of scientific data is doubling every year. Alexander Szalay and Jim Gray analyse how scientific methods are evolving from paper notebooks to huge online databases.
doi:10.1038/440413a
Commentary: 2020 Computing: Can computers help to explain biology?
The road leading from computer formalisms to explaining biological function will be difficult, but Roger Brent and Jehoshua Bruck suggest three hopeful paths that could take us closer to this goal.
doi:10.1038/440416a
Commentary: 2020 Computing: A two-way street to science's future
To view the relationship between computing and science as a one-way street is mostly untrue today, argues Ian Foster, and will be even less true by 2020.
doi:10.1038/440419a