science

PROPHET system

PROPHET system is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand PROPHET system rather than just read about it. In short: The PROPHET system was an early medical expert system. The system was initiated in about 1965 by a young administrator at NIH, William Raub, who had the idea to set up a collaborative communication network modeled on ARPANET, for use among biomedical investigators to share data and procedures, with a wide range of computational tools, ranging from statistics to molecular orbit calculations.

Key takeaways

PROPHET system belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect PROPHET system to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of PROPHET system from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The PROPHET system was an early medical expert system. The system was initiated in about 1965 by a young administrator at NIH, William Raub, who had the idea to set up a collaborative communication network modeled on ARPANET, for use among biomedical investigators to share data and procedures, with a wide range of computational tools, ranging from statistics to molecular orbit calculations. A panel of NIH advisors planned the system over a couple of years, until Bolt, Beranek and Neman (BBN Technologies) received the contract for implementation. The PROPHET system was operational for 15 to 20 years before being superseded by more current Internet tools. According to NIH, "PROPHET is the most nearly comprehensive set of information-handling tools for this area of science ever to be presented in a unified system, and offered as a service to the biomedical community."

Further reading Silvio Garattini (1975). Advances in Pharmacology and Chemotherapy. Academic Press. pp. 82–83. ISBN 9780120329151. Division of Research Resources, Beranek Bolt, and Newman inc (1982). PROPHET User's Manual: A User's Manual for the PROPHET System. National Institutes of Health.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) William F. Raub (1977). "Drug Information Retrieval Systems". In Jack Belzer; Albert G. Holzman; Allen Kent (eds.). Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology. Vol. 7 — Curve Fitting to Early Development of Programming Languages. CRC Press. pp. 364–373. ISBN 9780824722579. William F. Raub (1974). "The PROPHET system and resource sharing". Computers in Life Science Research. FASEB Monograph. Vol. 2. pp. 2390–2392. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-0546-1_29. ISBN 978-1-4757-0546-1. Castleman, P. A., et al. "The implementation of the PROPHET system." Proceedings of the May 6–10, 1974, national computer conference and exposition. ACM, 1974. Ransil, Bernard J. "Applications of the PROPHET system in human clinical investigation." Proceedings of the May 6–10, 1974, national computer conference and exposition. ACM, 1974. Rohrer, Douglas C., et al. "Functional receptor mapping for modified cardenolides: Use of the PROPHET system." 1979. 259–279. Weeks, Charles M., et al. "Applications of the PROPHET system in correlating crystallographic structural data with biological information." Proceedings of the May 6–10, 1974, national computer conference and exposition. ACM, 1974.

Archival materials The Computer History Museum holds materials related to PROPHET, including two brochures about "Prophet, a National Computing Resource for Life Science Research" from BBN and a BBN Prophet II Design Manual.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with PROPHET system

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what PROPHET system claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to PROPHET system before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about PROPHET system ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of PROPHET system

In research: PROPHET system appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses PROPHET system in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: PROPHET system is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Expert systems, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for PROPHET system outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study PROPHET system in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what PROPHET system means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain PROPHET system out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is PROPHET system in simple terms?

Why does PROPHET system matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study PROPHET system?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on PROPHET system.