Scientific research enters the age of large data

After entering the 21st century, with the development of information technology, the data ability of human has been greatly enhanced. February 11, 2012, the United States "The New York Times" published a theme "Big Data Age" column, the earliest explicitly put forward the Big data era, large data also become a hot word of the global fire. Large data not only bring many changes to people's daily life, but also have great influence on scientific research.

In the field of scientific research, from macro to micro, from nature to society, more and more instruments and equipment such as observation, calculation and dissemination are producing a steady stream of massive and complex data, which makes almost every subject field face unprecedented data explosion. It can be said that scientific research is entering the age of large data.

in April 2014, the research activity of the large data age, written by the International Science and Technology Data Commission (CODATA) China National Committee, is devoted to a general depiction of the changes that have taken place in the large data age. "We mainly from the perspective of natural science, of course, it also involves some social science content, to see the big data era of the challenges brought about by scientific research activities, discuss how the researchers to deal with, to explore whether the formation of a new discipline-data science, is the overall logical framework of this book." "The director of the Science Data center of the Computer Network Information centre of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, CODATA, Secretary General Li Jianhui told China Science Daily.

We started this work very early, probably starting in March 2011. "said Li Jianhui. In 2010, Codata, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chairman of China National Committee, Ding, should make some special research on the current data and research activities, and form research reports, so that researchers can have a clearer understanding of such problems. Thus, from 2011 onwards, the CODATA began organizing a number of experts interested in the data to discuss the characteristics of data-intensive scientific research and the technical challenges it faced, and to explore what kind of deployment and adjustment the State should make in this regard. After more than two years of research and discussion, in the organization of four large-scale seminars, and in response to each article in the research report on a number of scrutiny and modification, "large data age of scientific research activities" finally completed. The contents of the

Book are mainly divided into three parts. The first part is about the current situation of the scientific field of using data to study more and more, characteristics, problems encountered and future trends of analysis, including high energy physics, astronomy, Earth observation and life science, etc. the second part is from data collection, transmission, storage and processing, data integration, Data and document interoperability, data mining and visualization technology, to explore the future of scientific research activities in need of what technical support and the development trend of these technologies; The third part is the prospect of the development of data science.

for the impact of large data on scientific research activities, Li Jianhui that a typical example is the virtual observatory in astronomical research. Astronomy was the first observational science, mainly using telescopes to find new stars. But now, with the rapid development of a variety of new instruments and equipment, humans gradually have the ability to collect the astronomical phenomena and technical means, resulting in a huge amount of complex data. Therefore, in the future astronomical research, the observation ability has not constituted the question, the real question is how the researcher carries on the analysis and the excavation in the voluminous data, finds the need, raises the scientific question. Li Jianhui further explained, "So, at a very early time, a virtual observatory was put forward, assuming that the observed data could be shared and that the data could form an observatory." Unlike the traditional observatory, which is made up of instruments and equipment, these data-formed observatories are actually virtual observatories. In such an environment, how researchers collaborate, analyze data, discover new astronomical phenomena, all require scientific research methods to be changed.

Li Jianhui has long argued that large data is a phenomenon, or a problem or challenge, and one way to deal with big data challenges is to build a new discipline-data science. The so-called data science, is from the data-intensive disciplines to extract the common problems and methods, resulting in a new discipline.

At present, there is no clear understanding of the connotation, extension and scientific problems of data science, and there is no consensus. But according to Li Jianhui, the data science has accelerated since last year, and at the international level, the University of Columbia in the United States, the University of California, Berkeley, the British Imperial Institute of Technology and other universities have set up the Institute of Data Science, Tsinghua University in China this May set up a data scientific research institute. "Now, everyone realizes that data science seems to be coming. "

" of course, just as the computational science was confronted with many questions, it was also argued that data science is not a science, because in fact every subject can be called Data science. Li Jianhui said, "Some people think that data science can provide tools and models for the development of other disciplines, but on the other hand, they also have their own discipline development needs." At present, there is no consensus on data science and there is a need for constant discussion and collision. The