Abstract
It is difficult to say when exactly the computer was born. Some say a prototype was already there in the mechanism of Antikythera, realized in the third century BC, perhaps by Archimedes in Siracusa.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
For a comprehensive history of the development of the computer, see H.H. Goldstine , The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann , Princeton University Press 1972. Limited to the 20th century, but offering a picture not strictly confined to the United States, is the collection of essays edited by N. Metropolis , J. Howlett, and G.C. Rota, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, Academic Press 1980.
- 2.
A. Koyré , From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (1957).
- 3.
The “new science” we mention should actually be defined as molecular simulation (MS), articulated into Metropolis Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics per se (MD). For the sake of simplicity, and in order to underline the fundamental scientific nature of MS, we shall sometimes use the particular for the general, by referring to MD instead of MS, when the topic of our discussion is clear from the context.
- 4.
G. Galilei , Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico e Copernicano (Florence, Landini, 1632) II, p. 129. Translated by Stillman Drake, Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems - Ptolemaic and Copernican, University of California Press 1967.
- 5.
H. Poincaré , La valeur de la science, Flammarion, Paris 1890, especially Chaps. VII and VIII.
- 6.
This claim may be apocryphal, i.e., Dirac may not actually have stated that, once the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics, which rule the behaviour of atomic systems, had been laid down, the main task was done, and the rest would be “chemistry” (a term which is used here to indicate an activity on a lower epistemological level). However, it has become part of the folklore of the physics community, and is therefore used here only to illustrate the point, with no claim to historical rigour.
- 7.
G. Canguilhem (ed.), La Mathématisation des doctrines informes, Hermann 1972.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Battimelli, G., Ciccotti, G., Greco, P. (2020). A New Science. In: Computer Meets Theoretical Physics. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39399-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39399-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39398-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39399-1
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)