# History of science

Published articles for History of science.

This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles.

## How a medical database developed at MIT evolved into a global standard of data-sharing

DevFeed: [How a medical database developed at MIT evolved into a global standard of data-sharing](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-a-medical-database-developed-at-mit-evolved-into-a-global-standard-of-data-sharing-37955.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://news.mit.edu/2026/how-an-mit-database-evolved-into-global-standard-data-sharing-0729>)

Author: Emma Foehringer Merchant | Institute for Medical Engineering and Science

Published: 2026-07-29T14:00:00Z

Content type: news

Language: en

Sources: [MIT AI News](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/mit-ai-news.md>)

Topics: [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [Database](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/database.md>), [datasets](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/datasets.md>)

Tags: [academic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/academic.md>), [artificial-intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/artificial-intelligence.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-eecs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-eecs.md>), [global-data-sharing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/global-data-sharing.md>), [harvard-mit-health-sciences-and-technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/harvard-mit-health-sciences-and-technology.md>), [harvard-mit-health-sciences-and-technology-hst](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/harvard-mit-health-sciences-and-technology-hst.md>), [health](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/health.md>), [health-care](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/health-care.md>), [health-data-nexus](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/health-data-nexus.md>), [health-sciences-and-technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/health-sciences-and-technology.md>), [history](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history.md>), [history-of-mit](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history-of-mit.md>), [history-of-science](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history-of-science.md>), [history-of-science-and-technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history-of-science-and-technology.md>), [information-systems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/information-systems.md>), [institute-for-medical-engineering-and-science-imes](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/institute-for-medical-engineering-and-science-imes.md>), [internet](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/internet.md>), [medical-data-sharing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/medical-data-sharing.md>), [medicine](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/medicine.md>), [mimic-medical-information-marked-for-intensive-care](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mimic-medical-information-marked-for-intensive-care.md>), [mit-imes](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mit-imes.md>), [mit-rle](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mit-rle.md>), [physionet](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/physionet.md>), [repositories](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/repositories.md>), [research](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research.md>), [research-laboratory-of-electronics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research-laboratory-of-electronics.md>), [school-of-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/school-of-engineering.md>), [science](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/science.md>), [thomas-heldt](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/thomas-heldt.md>), [tom-pollard](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tom-pollard.md>)

### AI overview

An MIT-developed collection of digitized electrocardiogram recordings became the foundation of PhysioNet, a global repository for biomedical and clinical data. The platform now hosts hundreds of databases and supports research users worldwide.

### Source excerpt

The visionary PhysioNet platform launched 25 years ago, based on a system developed at MIT in the 1970s. It has become one of the most comprehensive biomedical and clinical data repositories in existence.

## On Chomsky and the Two Cultures of Statistical Learning

DevFeed: [On Chomsky and the Two Cultures of Statistical Learning](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/on-chomsky-and-the-two-cultures-of-statistical-learning-40547.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://norvig.com/chomsky.html>)

Published: 2011-05-27T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Peter Norvig](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/peter-norvig.md>)

Topics: [Statistics](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/statistics.md>), [Language models](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/language-models.md>), [Machine learning](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/machine-learning.md>), [syntax](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/syntax.md>)

Tags: [essay](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/essay.md>), [history-of-science](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history-of-science.md>), [language-models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/language-models.md>), [probabilistic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/probabilistic.md>), [science](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/science.md>), [statistics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/statistics.md>)

### AI overview

This essay responds to Steven Pinker and Noam Chomsky on the role and success of statistical and probabilistic models in language. It argues that interpreting success as approximating unanalyzed data is not novel, and uses examples from language modeling, communication, gravitation, and statistical mechanics to distinguish trained, probabilistic, continuous, and quantitative models.

### Source excerpt

At the MIT 150 symposium, Chomsky said that the notion of success used by statistical language models (namely, that they successfully predict the world and allow programs to accomplish tasks) was "very novel ... I don't know of anything like it in the history of science." This essay argues that it is not novel at all, but perfectly commonplace.