MVILAIN@G.BBN.COM (Marc Vilain) (10/13/87)
BBN Science Development Program
Joint Biotech and AI Seminar Series Lecture
"The Matrix of Biological Knowledge"
Kimberle Koile
BBN Labs
(KKOILE@G.BBN.COM)
BBN Labs
10 Moulton Street
2nd floor large conference room
10:30 am, Thursday October 15th
The body of experimental data in the biological sciences is immense and
growing rapidly. Its volume is so extensive that computer methods,
possibly straining the limits of current technology will be necessary to
organize the data. Moreover, it seems highly likely that there are a
significant number of as yet undiscovered ordering relations, new laws,
and predictive models embedded in the mass of existing information. To
employ this body of information productively, it will be useful to
create an extensive data/knowledge base, "the matrix of biological
knowledge," structured to provide a conceptual framework by the laws,
models, empirical generalizations, and physical foundations of the
modern biological sciences.
--- from a Santa Fe Institute press release
This talk will describe preliminary efforts to define and prototype parts of
the Matrix. These efforts took place at a summer workshop that was organized
as a result of a National Academy of Sciences report published in 1985,
"Models for Biomedical Research: A New Perspective." The workshop, sponsored
by the Santa Fe Institute with support from NIH, DOE, and several commercial
companies, was attended by fifty scientists from a variety of biology and
computer subdisciplines.
Note: A related talk on the Matrix will be given Friday morning
(announcement forthcoming) by Prof. Harold Morowitz of the
Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.
Prof. Morowitz chaired the Committee on Models for Biomedical
Research, which produced the above mentioned report, and
co-chaired the Workshop on the Matrix of Biological Knowledge.
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