Home » The web arrives in the US and the searches of Stanford physicists become accessible to all with a click

The web arrives in the US and the searches of Stanford physicists become accessible to all with a click

by admin

On December 13, 1991, the web arrives in America. Not the Internet, the network, which as it is known was born in the United States (in 1969, it was called Arpanet) and then connected the first European countries. But the world wide web that Tim Berners-Lee, with Roberto Caillau, had created at CERN in Geneva. A year earlier, on December 20, 1990 (more on that soon), the first website went online. At the time, the success of the world wide web was not at all obvious. This is why Stanford’s choice to put the first US website online was, as they say, a endorsement important.

Not surprisingly, the site was that of SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center: at the time, the web was still a project that moved in the small world of physics, having been born as a CERN project. The American website was a substantial step up from the previous version because it allowed researchers to browse the full texts of scientific research before they were published. Before the web, in fact, it was necessary to send an email (or a fax!) With the request for access to SPIRES, followed by an answer sent in the same way.

In short, the one proposed by Stanford was an essential service for physicists all over the world and immediately became a point of reference. That same day Tim Berners-Lee, who had supported the Americans in installing the server the day before, sent a congratulatory email copying the entire CERN mailing list. The dry text read: “There is an experimental W3 server for the SPIRES Hi”There is an experimental W3 server for the SPIRES High energy Physics preprint database, thanks to Terry Hung, Paul Kunz and Louise Addis of SLAC”. A few days later, in January 1992, Tim Berners. Lee did one of the first live demonstrations of the web, at a physics workshop in the south of France; and the link with the SLAC web page was the surprise grand finale that amazed everyone, including Kunz, who did not know he was the highlight of the event.

See also  The first Giro d'Italia of Moser (and of the computer)

Paul Kunz, who died in 2018, is remembered as one of the pioneers of the web: he was a nuclear physicist who actively collaborated with CERN; he was also an avid user of the computer invented by Steve Jobs, the NeXT (one model of which Tim Berners-Lee had needed to complete his work); and on the occasion of a visit to CERN, “Paul immediately recognized the potential of the web that Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Caillau had shown him”. Back at Stanford he immediately installed the software on his NeXT and created the first web server in the United States, linking it to the scientific research database and then providing the “killer app” that demonstrated the enormous potential of the European project.

.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy