ABSTRACT
Developing beyond its origins as a military network, the Internet became a place where academia communicated and research was carried out. In 1991, Nature published an editorial exhorting readers to:
Hook our computers into the worldwide network that gives access to daily changes in the databases and also makes immediate our communications with each other. 1
The databases referred to were huge repositories of molecular biology data, the basic tools of biomedical research. Sharing data and experience via the Internet is much more than merely convenient-it has facilitated truly collaborative, international research programmes such as the Human Genome Project.
