"Electronic Tools for Research in the History of Science: AnExploratory Study"

克兰教授认为，在社会科学和人文科学中，计算机并不能使困难的任务变得容易；相反，计算机使困难的任务成为可能。他展示了计算机技术如何在他已经完成的人文科学工作--珀尔修斯计划--中使困难的任务成为可能。他现在建议将注意力转向科学的历史和哲学。与许多领域一样，正在规划重大的长期数据库项目，以便为科学和技术研究(STS)领域提供一种新的学术基础设施。其中包括爱因斯坦、奥本海默和皮尔斯项目。问题正在形成，在很短的将来，我们将做出决定，这些决定限制了我们在未来许多年能做什么和不能做什么。然而，这些数据库的组织极其复杂，因为它们包括全文、图像、语言工具、历史和文化背景。鉴于缺乏广泛的经验，现在不可能准确地预测什么会奏效，什么不会奏效。然而，珀尔修斯计划确实在STS问题上带来了相关经验。这笔探索性赠款的目的是提请STS研究界注意珀尔修斯项目如何解决这一领域的研究人员所面临的许多数据库问题，并探讨如何最有效地将在英仙座项目开发中获得的经验用于科学和技术文本。根据这笔SGER拨款，克兰教授和他的同事们正在研究开发一个电子数据库的可能性，该数据库将作为一个模型，极大地扩展研究人员可以提出的关于科学的问题。这个数据库将建立在现有的关于希腊文化的珀尔修斯多媒体数据库的基础上，但他们构建的框架是为了帮助建立STS的标准。由于大量信息已经在网上发布，并可在已发布的数据库中访问，他们正在探索将希腊科学史置于异常丰富的现有框架内。通过将珀尔修斯数据库扩展到希腊科学中，他们不仅能够以更具成本效益的方式创建一个强大的工具，而且还能够为研究的综合数据库创建一个工作模式。他们的经验反过来将帮助在其他领域工作的人更好地了解电子媒介的优势和弱点，从而有能力使其他领域的工作更快、更有效地取得进展。SGER项目分两个阶段进行：1992年12月在华盛顿举行会议，与实地成员讨论这项工作的可能性；1993年春末举行一次小型会议，计划希腊科学数据库的实际组织工作。

Professor Crane has argued that computers do not make hard tasks easy in the social sciences and humanities; rather, computers make hard tasks possible. He has demonstrated how computer technology can make hard tasks possible in his already completed work in the humanities, Project Perseus. He now proposes to turn his attention to the history and philosophy of science. As in many fields, major, long-term database projects are being planned to provide a new kind of scholarly infrastructure for the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Among these are the Einstein, Oppenheimer and Peirce projects. Questions are being framed and decisions will, in the very short future, be taken that constrain what we can and cannot do for many years to come. The organization of these databases, however, is extremely complex since they incorporate full text, images, linguistic tools, historical and cultural background. Given the lack of broad experience, it is not now possible to predict with accuracy what will and will not work. Yet, Project Perseus does bring relevant experience to bear on issues in STS. The purpose of this exploratory grant is to bring to the attention of the STS research community the way in which Project Perseus has addressed many of the database problems researchers in this area are confronting and to explore how the experience gained in the development of Perseus can be most effectively used for scientific and technical texts. Under this SGER grant, Professor Crane and his colleagues are studying the possibilities of developing an electronic database that would serve as a model that would greatly extend the questions which researchers can pose about science. This database would be built upon the existing Perseus multimedia database on Greek culture, but the framework they construct is meant to help establish standards in STS. With a large amount of information already on-line and accessible in a published database, they are exploring setting the history of Greek science within an unusually rich existing framework. By extending the Perseus database into Greek science, they would not only be able to create a powerful tool more cost-effectively, but they would also be able to create a working model for a comprehensive database for research. Their experiences would in turn help those working in other areas better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the electronic medium and thus have the capacity to allow work in other areas to progress more rapidly and effectively. The SGER project is progressing in two phases: meetings in Washington in December, 1992 to discuss the possibilities of this work with members of the field; and a small conference in late spring, 1993 to plan the actual organization of the database for Greek science.