STRONGER, FASTER COMPUTING FOR ALL
JEFF JOHNSON · Chemical & Engineering News · 1999
Scientists in several federal agencies were abuzz with excitement last month over the announcement by Vice President Al Gore that the Administration would seek $366 million—a 28% increase—in spending for high-end information technology research. The new, primarily civilian, program would involve six federal agencies and has the promise of driving computer applications in science to new levels of understanding of hugely complex interactions—from simulating drug reactions in the human body to determining the impact of an enormous number of variables on global warming. With extreme speed and vast operating capabilities, computers of the future, says Ernest J. Moniz, Department of Energy undersecretary, will have the power to bring complex and exact simulation to the scientific table to take its place alongside experimentation and theory. The Vice President announced the proposal at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Anaheim, Calif. However, the program sprang from recommendations made last summer ...