Awards

• Winner of Computer History Museum Prize 2014

Overview

Imagine biology and medicine today without computers. What would laboratory work be like if electronic databases and statistical software did not exist? Would disciplines like genomics even be feasible if we lacked the means to manage and manipulate huge volumes of digital data? How would patients fare in a world absent CT scans, programmable pacemakers, and computerized medical records? Today, computers are a critical component of almost all research in biology and medicine. Yet, just fifty years ago, the study of life was by far the least digitized field of science, its living subject matter thought too complex and dynamic to be meaningfully analyzed by logic-driven computers. In this long-overdue study, historian Joseph November explores the early attempts, in the 1950s and 1960s, to computerize biomedical research in the United States. Computers and biomedical research are now so intimately connected that it is difficult to imagine when such critical work was offline. ""Biomedical Computing"" transports readers back to such a time and investigates how computers first appeared in the research lab and doctor's office. November examines the conditions that made possible the computerization of biology - including strong technological, institutional, and political support from the National Institutes of Health - and shows not only how digital technology transformed the life sciences but also how the intersection of the two led to important developments in computer architecture and software design. The history of this phenomenon has been only vaguely understood. November's thoroughly researched and lively study makes clear for readers the motives behind computerizing the study of life and how that technology profoundly affects biomedical research today.

Full Product Details

9781421404684

Table of Contents

Reviews

November's style is convincing and compelling. -- Paula Stephan Nature 2012

<p>November's work is a compelling (and fun) read for anyone working in this field, and documents the fragility of a new discipline and the careers of the people creating it--and the magic mix of talent, determination, and sheer good luck that marks the difference between success and failure (or, a delayed and muted success). It also illumines the critically important role of larger social forces, particularly that of government as a patron of science and technology.--R. P. Channing Rodgers Computers in Biology and Medicine

Computers changed research in the life sciences in the 1950s and 1960s. Historian Joseph November engagingly relates how... November's style is convincing and compelling. -- Paula Stephan Nature 2012 A fine pick for medical, science and computer collections alike. Midwest Book Review 2012 Yes, it's about computers, but very readable. Reference and Research Book News 2012 A well-written, engaging piece of historical scholarship... One cannot help but appreciate November's talent at synthesizing and distilling a vast array of highly technical subject matter, making it accessible to not only polymaths, but also any intelligent, dedicated reader. -- Keith Mages Watermark 2012 An interesting account of information technology's grand entry into biomedicine in the US and its impact on advances in numerous life science disciplines. Choice 2012 In this finely drawn, much-needed study, November shows how a few visionary physicians, life scientists, and computer specialists first created common cause and transformed their respective fields... Conveying that mutual transformation makes Biomedical Computing a significant, timely contribution to both the history of computing and the history of biomedicine. -- Cyrus Mody Journal of American History 2013

Author Information

Joseph November is an assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina.

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