D Space
Library science may not be the most obvious field of medical automation, but surely it is the most advanced example. Everything depends on data production, analysis, dissemination and storage, which is what libraries do. One of the most useful resources in this regard is D Space, a program that MIT libraries and Hewlett Packard created in 2000. It can handle massive amounts of digital data and is a free and open source platform. As laboratories increasingly rely on robots for carrying out experiments, data expands exponentially. This piece about D Space ran in Technology Review in 2007, but it appears here and now, in part, to honor the legacy of D Space’s founder, Ann Wolpert (Director of MIT’s libraries) who passed away last October. MORE