Back Network to bond
D. Murali
| Like it or not, we are all connected more closely than we think. Common principles underlie networks, be they electrical, computer, social or economic. Catch up on the science of a connected age. |
LIKE it or not, we are all connected more closely than we think. Our social networks are `tightly bonded', Duncan J. Watts would say in his book on `the science of a connected age', "Six Degrees", published by Vintage (www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage) . His range of study includes the Dutch tulip mania of the 17th century, success of Harry Potter, impact of September 11, structure of the Web and so on.
Common principles underlie networks, be they electrical, computer, social or economic, and by that reasoning if you know one, you know all. Unlike the physics of subatomic particles, the science of networks is "the science of the real world - the world of people, friendships, rumours, disease, fads, firms, and financial crises," writes the author in his preface. In a chapter titled, `small worlds', the book has a statistic from the Internet Movie Database: that between 1898 and 2000, roughly half a million people have acted in over 200,000 feature films. That "every actor could be connected to every other actor in an average of less than four steps," is among the findings after the author's team worked on raw data sourced from `Oracle of Kevin Bacon'. Clustering coefficient was found to be `much greater' when the subject matter of study was power grid.
Networks come under threat from viruses. Both computer and human viruses perform `broadcast search', says Watts. "Broadcast searches represent the most efficient way of starting from any given node and finding every other one by systematically branching out from each newly connected node to each of its unexplored neighbours." Unfortunately, computers are more vulnerable than humans because the latter possess immune systems. A suggestion for Microsoft to protect customers is "to switch from a single integrated product line to several different products that are developed separately and that are designed not to be entirely compatible." How does Google, the other big name in IT, manage processing demands? "Adding almost thirty servers a day just to keep up with the demand", and that was a few years ago. A book worth networking with.
DNA computers and protein switches
IF you're a librarian who doesn't cross-reference information technology literature with biotech and vice versa, your boss could soon be looking for a replacement. "Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing, and most controversial areas of science and technology in the 21st century," notes the back-cover of "Biotechnology from A to Z," by William Bains, published by Oxford (www.oup.com) .
About the book, New Scientist had noted: "Any dictionary that lists the phrase `yuk factor' has to be worth buying." That is the last but one entry in Bains's collection, described as `a flippant term for the very real observation that the public, and indeed many scientists, judge the ethical acceptability of experimental procedures and biological manipulations in accordance to a scale of personal distaste.' Software may one day be rated on this factor, just as movies are given percentages. Zoonosis, that follows yuk is `infection of one animal by an organism that usually infects another species.' While what infects rodents is also known to affect humans, there are no reports as yet of computer infections carrying on to people. CIP is cleaning-in-place, where one can sterilise and clean before each `run' without dismantling the equipment; there should be no `dead legs', that is pipes blocked at one end, or crevices where the cleaning liquid cannot flow. Remember this when scanning your disk, and include all files because you never know where dangers could lurk. The abbreviation cDNA looks like a close cousin of CDMA, but no, it is copy or complementary DNA. Cell culture is how we describe the current generation that flaunts a working or non-working mobile, but in the dictionary it means the cultivation of cells. `Laundering' with money before it is about how black becomes white, but for biotechnologists, there is money in laundering; "enzymes are used to digest dirt from in-between cloth fibres." Large amounts of experimental results produced by high-throughput, automated laboratories in genome projects have necessitated the use of LIMS, short for laboratory information management systems.
Okay, what are DNA computers? "This is the use of DNA as a computer. Information is coded in the DNA sequence, and processed by enzymes." Slow compared to silicon, so hardware manufacturers need not panic as for now, but "DNA is best suited to a very long-term data storage." How about trying proteins as switches? "Arrays of these have been assembled between electrodes and shown to carry out switching operations." I'm yet to tell you about what Bains has written about Halobacterium halobium, a salt-loving bacterium with electrical and light-absorbing properties "as well as being able to self-assemble into membranes." Something that could be the first step to a holographic computer memory system. Make place for this A to Z among your IT books.
Revenge of geography
GATHERING together some of the best pieces on the new economy, mobile telecom, software, entertainment and so on, here comes "E-trends" from The Economist. The first chapter, `untangling e-conomics' warns of what can happen if governments choke the economic benefits of innovation: "Look back 600 years to China, which at that time was the most technologically advanced country in the world." China's progress went in reverse when "its rulers kept such tight control on the new technology that it could not spread." Globalisation and IT were made for each other, another chapter would declare.
After e-commerce, get ready for e-government, beckons `the next revolution'; Singapore is the model that the `island site' chapter speaks of, the GeBIZ gee-whizz. Learn about GovWorks, a US site that makes paying fine easier, online. A major beneficiary of the Net is pornography: "Plenty of the material on offer on many sites would never get an airing on television because it is too sexually explicit or politically incorrect."
Even the best of software won't work without organisational changes, observes `a touch of concrete'. While technology has made it possible to forget national boundaries, there is `the revenge of geography' that comes last in the book, discussing the role of `location-based services': "At the moment, Internet users navigate a largely placeless datasphere. But in future they will want location-specific information". Punch line, therefore, is: "Distance is dying; but geography, it seems, is still alive and kicking." Good read even if pulled out of history.
Books courtesy: Landmark (www.landmarkonthenet.com)
Tailpiece
"A robot has joined the teaching faculty."
"To teach us what?"
"That would depend on what the class would program in his chip."
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