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Umm… Remind Me How We Do This?

March 25th, 2009

“Plans to refurbish Trident nuclear weapons had to be put on hold because US scientists forgot how to manufacture a component of the warhead, a US congressional investigation has revealed.”  True story, and another hint at how computer scientists could help physical scientists and engineers: constructing tools to act as institutional memories.

Research

  1. Chris
    March 26th, 2009 at 04:18 | #1
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    Copies are free with computers. In scientific and engineering projects as complicated as these, there are always single point failures like this due to the expertise, complexity and cost required to make specialized parts. Beyond writing papers and keeping expertise around, I’d be curious to hear other suggestions.

  2. ldng
    March 26th, 2009 at 05:34 | #2
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    I’m really more inclined to believe those versions of the story, both applies to me :

    http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1153975&cid=27122453

    http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1153975&cid=27121347

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