"Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science."

-- Henri Poincare (1854-1912), French mathematician, physicist, and author, was appointed to a chair of mathematical physics at the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1881 where he taught until his death. One of the greatest mathematicians of his time, he is remembered as the last great generalist in mathematics. Equally at ease in pure and applied math, Poincare contributed significantly to analysis, algebra, topology, astronomy, and theoretical physics. He published considerably, including popular books on science for nonscientists. He originated algebraic topology and the theory of analytic functions of several complex variables. In his award-winning study of the three-body problem in celestial mechanics, Poincare was the first to notice that small changes in initial conditions can produce chaotic behavior.

Poincare's thought-provoking words stimulate the imagination to focus on the objectives of scientific research. As he says, science is much more than "a collection of facts." Interpretation and analysis of facts bear fruit as well. NCSA's powerful resources in high-performance computing enable scientists to go beyond data gathering so they can concentrate on the creative aspects of their endeavor.

"Modeling Hierarchies -- Doing More with Less" and "Chemistry 'in silico' " describe the work of scientists, ranging from atomic-level research in viruses to materials, who use NCSA's state-of-the-art HPCC systems. In "Riding the WAVE: I-WAY in Real Time at SC'95," you are updated on this prototype for distributed computing here and abroad. Many recent outreach activities extended to educators and the community that involve them in Internet connectivity are reported on.

Read about the second generation of Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) -- a useful NCSA-developed tool for managing scientific data -- in "HDF: The Next Generation". To learn about recent and upcoming Web-related activities, click.

NCSA's newest industrial partners are announced. Activities of some of the people at NCSA complete this issue.

Mailed with this issue of access is a poster commemorating NCSA's tenth anniversary. Created by the award-winning designer Jack Davis, the images reflect highlights of the center. Davis also designed NCSA's tenth anniversary logo (see inside front cover). Stephanie Drake, NCSA editor, coordinated the poster and researched its images.

Many at NCSA were saddened to learn of the sudden death of Yuri Rubinski. The words of Joseph Hardin, associate director of NCSA's Software Development Group, express their feelings: "Yuri was a great supporter of NCSA and the vision that we all share of universal empowerment through advanced technology. We worked together on the World Wide Web Conference Committee, where Yuri was a founding member and a voice of reason and compassion. We will miss Yuri very much".

-- Fran Bond, Editor

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