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Article: The electronic grapevine: computer networks and fax machines accelerate the pace of scientific communication - for good or ill.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- August 11, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Electronic Grapevine
It didn't take long for mathematicians, computer scientists, and then the rest of the world to learn that two researchers had achieved a significant milestone last June in the factoring of large numbers. News of their accomplishment spread as quickly as electrons could carry the message along computer networks linking researchers all over the world.
"Communication is very, very fast," says mathematician Andrew M. Odlyzko of AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., who first heard of the factoring feat directly from one of the researchers via telephone, and soon afterward saw the electronic announcement on his computer screen. ...