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How Computer Scientists Contribute To Science?

Physicists contribute to "science" by acquiring understanding of the universe. So if computer scientists are scientists, how they contribute to "science" (not technology) using their KNOWLEDGE?

Thank you.
Reply 1
Graph Theory is a part of Applied Mathematics; used to compute simultaneous equations and algebraic expression and is also used in Chemistry. Computer Scientist can construct Abstract Data Structure and use the most effective and efficient Algorithms that represent a graph and automate the computation of the graph. I can go on with automation, but this is one example that contributes to the (other) sciences.
(edited 12 years ago)
How is technology and science different? :/
Reply 3
Original post by purplesparks14
How is technology and science different? :/


I would think that some of the sciences, specifically the natural ones, don't concern themselves with (mainstream) technology.
Original post by JamesSmith100
Physicists contribute to "science" by acquiring understanding of the universe. So if computer scientists are scientists, how they contribute to "science" (not technology) using their KNOWLEDGE?

Thank you.


You say not technology but it's the technology advancements themselves that contribute to science. Without computer sciences there wouldn't be technology like the LHC, or rocket ships - and important equipment in chemistry/biology labs would be missing.
Original post by hassi94
You say not technology but it's the technology advancements themselves that contribute to science. Without computer sciences there wouldn't be technology like the LHC, or rocket ships - and important equipment in chemistry/biology labs would be missing.
The LHC is a good example, the LHC is producing 15 petabytes of data annually - that's an average of almost 30 gigabytes every minute.

Obvious there's a technology" side to storing and distributing all that data. But you also want to be able to analyse that data, otherwise it's of no use to you. Efficient ways of analysing data is the heart of Computer Science.
Reply 6
Original post by JamesSmith100
Physicists contribute to "science" by acquiring understanding of the universe. So if computer scientists are scientists, how they contribute to "science" (not technology) using their KNOWLEDGE?

Thank you.


Through creating software that physicists use. Without advanced simulations, most of todays physics could not be used eg. CFD

But you have to remember that the programs these guys write are a science in themselves with the theories they use and the maths they apply.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 7
Most of my tutors spend their time working with large systems of linear equations, which is just applied maths, normally specifically for applications within biology or chemistry. They tackle problems such as "how do you store a sparse 1,000,000x1,000,000 matrix in a computer", "how can you 'solve' these matrices using a method which does not fill in the sparse matrix, and therefore make it too big for any modern computer to store", etc.

The other half of my tutors seem to work in quantum research.

Another works in ultra efficiency. How can you design code and hardware that is ultra, ultra efficient, so you can send probes far out in to space or to the depths of the ocean with the least amount of energy.
Reply 8
Original post by JamesSmith100
Physicists contribute to "science" by acquiring understanding of the universe. So if computer scientists are scientists, how they contribute to "science" (not technology) using their KNOWLEDGE?

Thank you.


Are you basically asking whether computer science is really a science?

I think it depends on your definition of science. I'd say it's more towards the engineering end of things, but then so is a lot of chemistry/physics research.
Reply 9
It's a science in the sense that with more complex software and data structures (e.g. large scale information retrieval, neural networks) it's impossibly to know beforehand how effective it will be in a certain domain. Therefore empirical systems experiments have to be conducted to measure the effectiveness of various techniques.
Reply 10
Original post by Mbob
Are you basically asking whether computer science is really a science?

I think it depends on your definition of science. I'd say it's more towards the engineering end of things, but then so is a lot of chemistry/physics research.


Why do you say it's more toward Engineering?
Reply 11
Original post by JamesSmith100
Physicists contribute to "science" by acquiring understanding of the universe. So if computer scientists are scientists, how they contribute to "science" (not technology) using their KNOWLEDGE?

Thank you.


you've not really shown why that's contributing to other fields of science tbh.

In other fields looking at a problem in terms of information and using insights from cs has been beneficial in other fields of science... Off the top of my head insect behaviourists can look at firefly signalling using gear out of the cs toolbox.
Reply 12
Original post by kka25
Why do you say it's more toward Engineering?


In very vague terms there's sort of spectrum

At one end there is very pure science (e.g. theoretical physics) where the main aim is simply to understand new things.

At the other end there is very applied science or engineering - where knowledge is applied for a practical purpose.

My argument was that computer science is often towards the applied or engineering end of things. I'm not saying that's universally true, people do some fairly abstract things in computer science as well.

Computer science would normally be in an Engineering faculty rather than a Science/Natural Science faculty in a University.
Reply 13
Original post by Mbob
In very vague terms there's sort of spectrum

At one end there is very pure science (e.g. theoretical physics) where the main aim is simply to understand new things.

At the other end there is very applied science or engineering - where knowledge is applied for a practical purpose.

My argument was that computer science is often towards the applied or engineering end of things. I'm not saying that's universally true, people do some fairly abstract things in computer science as well.

Computer science would normally be in an Engineering faculty rather than a Science/Natural Science faculty in a University.


Nah, I don't think I would agree. CS has two parts as well; theoretical (complexity) and applied (programming). The main idea of CS is abstraction, so theory is quite heavy in CS. CS uses those abstraction concepts to discover how we could solve real world problems. So in your argument, I can put it as; "to understand new things."

But I do know where you're coming from.
computational methods to solve previously unsolvable and incalculable natural science processes/equations/formulae
Original post by JamesSmith100
Physicists contribute to "science" by acquiring understanding of the universe. So if computer scientists are scientists, how they contribute to "science" (not technology) using their KNOWLEDGE?

Thank you.


Do you realise how much computers and software are used for scientific discoveries, research and progress?

Every satellite and space craft in history has been run by computer software. Without them we'd be much poorer in knowledge.

This is just one of about eighty million or so examples...
Reply 16
I worked at CERN last year as a computer scientist, and I can tell you that computer science is essential to what they do there. There is no particle detection without computer science.
Reply 17
Fire is one of the first technology we got hold of? So....
Reply 18
On a purely practical programming note, there is code in pretty much everything nowadays, whether it be as something obvious as an operating system or a small embedded device using C that you had no idea about

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