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Subject: CSLG|COMMENTARY: From Alex Reisner
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Date: Fri, 4-Dec-87 22:39:14 EST
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From: Sunil Maulik 

 4-Dec-87 12:33:43-PST,9076;000000000001
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       Searching large databases for sequence similarities.

         Will the growth in sequence data overwhelm our ability to deal
with it computationally?  One can always write a science fiction scenario
in which it does (suppose those Japanese robot factories get up to
107 bp/day? You can manage that? Then how about if they get up to 108?....)
but I really think it is counterproductive to do so.  At present the
sequence databases are still quite modest in size in computing terms, and
they are providing lots of us with a rich new field for research.  Even with
the machines we have now, there wouldn't really be any problem until the
databases are ten times their present size.  As long as one can formulate
what one wants to do in reasonably concrete terms, I'm pretty sure that
both computer science and the granting agencies will have no great
difficulty in continuing to provide us with what we need in software tools
and hardware respectively. It's primarily an engineering problem (though
there is also useful and interesting research to be done), and all
it will take to solve is money. Nothing I've seen so far suggests that
the total will be more than a substantial fraction of what the data
acquisition will cost.

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