Report of the matrix of biological knowledge workshop

Conference · Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5606966

Morowitz, H J; Smith, T

Current understanding of biology involves complex relationships rooted in enormous amounts of data. These data include entries from biochemistry, ecology, genetics, human and veterinary medicine, molecular structure studies, agriculture, embryology, systematics, and many other disciplines. The present wealth of biological data goes beyond past accumulations now include new understandings from molecular biology. Several important biological databases are currently being supported, and more are planned; however, major problems of interdatabase communication and management efficiency abound. Few scientists are currently capable of keeping up with this ever-increasing wealth of knowledge, let alone searching it efficiently for new or unsuspected links and important analogies. Yet this is what is required if the continued rapid generation of such data is to lead most effectively to the major conceptual, medical, and agricultural advances anticipated over the coming decades in the United States. The opportunity exists to combine the potential of modern computer science, database management, and artificial intelligence in a major effort to organize the vast wealth of biological and clinical data. The time is right because the amount of data is still manageable even in its current highly-fragmented form; important hardware and computer science tools have been greatly improved; and there have been recent fundamental advances in our comprehension of biology. This latter is particularly true at the molecular level where the information for nearly all higher structure and function is encoded. The organization of all biological experimental data coordinately within a structure incorporating our current understanding - the Matrix of Biological Knowledge - will provide the data and structure for the major advances foreseen in the years ahead.

• Research Organization: Santa Fe Inst., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG04-87ER60589
• OSTI ID: 5606966
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/60589-1; CONF-8707138-; ON: DE88002640
• Resource Relation: Conference: Matrix of biological knowledge workshop, Santa Fe, NM, USA, 13 Jul 1987; Other Information: Paper copy only, copy does not permit microfiche production
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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