Guide to the Internetjt
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The Trends , 1^ ^ . Guide to the Internetjt 3 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/trendsguide 1996 ~ NEW from R&D Systems Confidence that you are heading for perfect results ✓ Assay sensitivity < 0.5 ng/mL ✓ Standard range 0-46 ng/mL - to ensure normal and pathological samples lie within the range of the standard curve ✓ Results in only 11/4 hours ✓ Control serum - to run as an internal quality control P-Selectin Concentration (ng/mL) ✓ Colored reagents - to prevent addition errors The Parameter ELISA range: ✓ Pre-dispensed standards - to ensure accuracy • sP-Selectin • slCAM-1 • sE-Selectin • sVCAM-1 For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. • sL-Selectin • Endothelin-1 For more information or to place an order, call: www.rndsystcms.com UK & Europe USA and Canada Germany International Freephone Numbers R&D Systems Europe Ltd. R&D Systems, Inc. R&D Systems GmbH Belgique/België: 078 11 04 68. 4-10 The Quadrant, Barton Lane 614 McKinley Place N.E. 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Venezuela: (58) 2-237-0780. 1- 800- 343-7475 Contents Evolution of the Net T ile Trends Guide to the Internet ... the origins of the Internet and how it has developed Net Jargon ... the key terms explained Basic Internet Facilities Cover design by Nigel Hynes. e-mail, list servers, newsgroups, ftp, Telnet and gopher Guest Editor Jem Rashbass Editor Louise Walsh Webwatching 8 Production Designer Margaret Newell ... getting to grips with the Illustration Craig Santus World Wide Web Publisher Peter Desmond S o ftw a re The Internet - the global communication system that connects ... for Mac, PC and Unix platforms millions of users - is becoming hard to ignore. How important is the Information Superhighway? Well, it seems likely that the effect of this technological revolution on our lives will be as significant as television, telephone or radio. Soon we will be How to Connect 10 able to do our shopping in virtual reality supermarkets; read . a few easy steps books and journals in virtual libraries; and attend conferences in cyberspace. These facilities will be widespread and taken for granted, both in the workplace and at home. Net Publishing 12 However, with this enthusiasm and excitement come concerns: ... new frontiers in communicating how will the infrastructure of the Internet cope with the spiralling information demand? At the present rate of increase, the number of people connected to the Internet will equal the current world population by the year 2002. Ironically, the Internet’s limitless capacity for providing information can be frustrating rather than enlightening; Destinations 14 as the Internet grows, so must the means for searching, sorting . a selection of sites to visit and displaying its wares if you are going to find what you want. However, these are exciting times, and as we move towards the 21st century, it is becoming increasingly clear that you can’t afford not to be connected. Bookshelf 14 But where do you start if you are relatively new to this . where to go next for help technology? How do you find out what it can offer? How do you connect? Which software should you use? Don't panic! This guide will lead you through those all-important first steps to help For information about the Trends journals, please you access the wealth of resources available. We have provided contact one of the following addresses: a glossary of key terms and, throughout the text, we highlight these acronyms or terms as they appear in each section. Editorial and Advertising enquiries Elsevier Trends Journals, 68 Hills Road, Cambridge, UK CB2 1LA. Furthermore, you will find all the URLs listed in this guide, as well Tel: +44 1223 315961 as links to the Elsevier Science home page, at our Web site: Fax: +44 1223 321410 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/trendsguide Subscription enquiries UK and Rest of World: The Americas: Elsevier Science Ltd, Elsevier Science Inc., Jem Rashbass Louise Walsh Journals Circulation Department, 660 White Plains Road. Dept of Histopathology Elsevier Trends Journals PO Box 800, Kidlington, Tarrytown, Oxford, UK 0X5 1DX. NY 10591-5153, USA. University of Cambridge 68 Hills Road Tel: +44 1865 843300 Tel: +1 914 524 9200 Cambridge Cambridge Fax: +44 1865 843940 Fax: +1 914 333 2444 UK CB2 2QQ UK CB2 1LA e-mail: [email protected] http://www.elsevier.nl ([email protected]) ([email protected]) http://www.elsevier.com Copyright Information: ©1996 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. This supplement and the individual contributions contained in it are protected by the copyright of Elsevier Science Ltd. See page IV or the Diary section in the accompanying Trends journal for further terms and conditions that apply to ELSEVIER Elsevier Trends Journals would the copyright. Except as outlined in the terms and conditions, no part of this like to thank Beckman for their publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted TRENDS support In sponsoring this in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording I öl «Mils supplement. BECKMAN or otherwise, without prior written permission of the Publisher. 3 Evolution of the Net he Internet grew out of an began to spring up in Europe, including EARN a much larger science research community, experimental network, called the (European Academic Research Network) and and eventually superseded the ARPAnet as TARPAnet, built for the US JANET (Joint Academic Network). the framework for the Internet; ARPAnet was Department of Defense in 1969 by the officially decommissioned in 1990. The Advanced Research Project Agency current NSFnet backbone transmits at (ARPA). This was based on a so-called 45 million bits per second (Mbps) and Sender ‘packet-switching network’ whereby data, upgrades to 155 Mbps and beyond are such as an e-mail message, is broken up into planned. packets. These packets are forwarded individually by adjacent computers on the Grasping the Net network, acting as routers, and are What now comprises the Internet is hard to reassembled in their original form at their define. John Quarterman of the Matrix destination. Packet switching allows Information and Directory Services (MIDS) multiple users to send information across coined the term ‘the Matrix’ to encompass the network both efficiently and ‘all computers and networks able to simultaneously, saving time and costs over communicate with each other’, although phone lines, and satellite and radio many of these computers only provide e-mail. connections. And, because packets can take - Technically, the ‘Internet’ constitutes only alternative routes through the network, interconnected IP networks and networks data transmission is easily maintained if parts Data transmitted via the Internet is broken Into that are moving to a new standard called OSI packets, forwarded by routers and reassembled of the network are damaged or not (Open System Interconnection) protocol. functioning efficiently. Using this technology, Today, approximately half of the Internet military communications could be Correct protocol networks are commercial and one third are maintained in the event that nuclear war or In 1983, ARPA changed the original Network associated with educational and research sabotage were to interfere with Control Protocol, which governed how the institutions. There are about 40 000 registered communication lines. However, even from electronic message is broken up and computer networks containing over five early on, the use of the network for peaceful reassembled across the network, to the million host computers and an estimated scientific research and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP ). The 20-3 5 million users worldwide. Why is the communication dominated any widespread use of TCP together with IP Internet so popular? This technology has potential military uses. allowed many networks to become revolutionized the way we communicate and interconnected with ARPAnet through devices obtain information: never before have so Going global called gateways. Connecting networks, many resources been available to so many By December 1969, technically known as ‘internetworking’, gave people. Of these facilities, the World Wide four American rise to the term the ‘Internet’ for this Web (WWW ) is the newest available, and has universities were ARPAnet-centred network of networks. spawned tremendous growth of Internet connected, forming services. Developed in 1992 by the first distributed Tim Berners-Lee at the European high energy packet-switching physics laboratory, CERN, it permits the network. Over the display of data as pages of multimedia 1970s and early JANET « 1 network -y objects that can include text, graphics, audio 1980s, the Internet Router/ and video. These pages are linked together ’ Protocol (IP) - the Gateway with hypertext pointers so that data stored ARPAnet decommissioned procedure that on computers in vastly different locations can determines the be pulled in over the network onto your IN TER N ET addressing and computer. Currently, there are estimated to appropriate routing BITN ET be approximately 200 000 WWW sites. of data packets over As you might expect from something the network - was originally set up by computer experts implemented on many Commercial Internet -'U working for the military, the jargon abounds.