Scientist-Centered Graph-Based Models of Scientific Knowledge

At the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, we are researching and developing visual models and paradigms that will allow scientists to capture and represent conceptual models in a computational form that may linked to and integrated with scientific data sets and applications. Captured conceptual models may be logical in conveying how individual concepts tie together to form a higher theory, analytical in conveying intermediate or final analysis results, or temporal in describing the experimental process in which concepts are physically and computationally explored. In this paper, we describe and contrast three different research and development systems that allow scientists to capture and interact with computational graph-based models of scientific knowledge. Through these examples, we explore and examine ways in which researchers may graphically encode and apply scientific theory and practice on computer systems.