Putting it together: An electronic panel discussion among engineers and scientists elicits a call for a national computer network that spans disciplines

A national network should connect all scientists and engineers, spanning discipline boundaries not only between computer science and related fields such as integrated-circuit design or fabrication but also between physics, chemistry, and biology: this was the recommendation of a group of U.S. scientists and engineers discussing national priorities for next-generation computer research. This discussion, initiated by Spectrum, took place via electronic mail on the CSnet, a National Science Foundation-sponsored network connecting computer-science researchers.) ¿It is a scandal that it is not already in place,¿ said Nobel-prize-winning physicist Kenneth Wilson of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.