It鈥檚 not often that Lord Sainsbury of Turville gets excited. But just mention the e-word and watch Britain鈥檚 science minister go.
E-science, he says, will revolutionise the way scientists work together, create the next-generation Internet, turn telecommunications topsy-turvy and much else besides. Terascale computing, very large data collections and high-performance visualisation were the high-voltage words he delivered last week in a speech on the future of science.
So what is e-science? According to the Department of Trade and Industry, the goal is to develop 鈥渢he Web on steroids鈥� 鈥� the department is clearly unaware of government policy on drug abuse. But it鈥檚 actually quite a bit more than that. E-science is the science of the Grid 鈥� another buzzword. So what on Earth is the Grid?
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Right now, as you use the Web your browser hides the complex operations that underpin the cruise from website to website. The Grid will provide the same seamless access to processing power. It will connect machines globally to provide virtually unlimited power from any computer anywhere.
This is no easy trick. In the early stages, e-scientists will be developing the 鈥渕iddleware鈥� that can reliably unite the big computers used by scientists.
Particle physicists expect to be among the early beneficiaries. So much data will pour out from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN from 2005, for example, that only global processing power offers any hope of coping with it.
In the brain sciences, one prototype project shows the difference the Grid could make. The Dynamic Brain Atlas makes it possible to compare one person鈥檚 brain scan with those of other closely matched individuals to better spot key problems. To roll it out so any doctor can instantly create a matching sample will take the Grid.
Less talked about, but ultimately more revolutionary, are plans for the Grid to be compatible with databases worldwide. Sharing data is something scientists have always done. But imagine if the Grid could give widespread access to vast computing power and almost infinite information. A small architectural company might be able to model plans for a vast skyscraper. Individuals might end up winning the Nobel prize from home 鈥� or challenging the Chancellor鈥檚 economic projections.
The Grid can alter the limits of the human imagination and the power of individuals, as the Web has already begun to do. But to get there we鈥檒l have to challenge the rules on who owns information.
What happens next? Lord Sainsbury鈥檚 shiny new National e-Science Centre was opened in Edinburgh earlier this year by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Local e-centres on practically every doorstep will follow. The minister is right to get excited about e-science. And then some.