A new software program available free to companies and individuals is helping even novice computer users find their way around the global Internet, the network of networks that is rich in information but can be baffling to navigate.
In science, as in many other realms, computer networks are having a revolutionary influence. In forging intimate new ties among researchers around the globe, the computer is rapidly replacing old intellectual traditions with new ways of doing science.
The tools that make it possible are powerful supercomputers. Using them, scientists can convert numbers into remarkable images that appear as two-or three-dimensional color pictures or movies on computer screens.
The National Science Foundation said today that it would spend $200 million to create supercomputer centers at four of the nation's leading universities. The move is the broadest Federal effort yet to promote research using advanced computer technology.
April 1, 1978 - The Center for Relativity began in 1962, under the direction of Alfred Schild. New Chair Harold Hanson conceived the idea of forming, within the Physics Department, centers of excellence.