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look at the other data around the company or research institution. These data could be at other sites around the world. They have to look at the Internet and all the various databases that are out on the Internet. They have to look at commercial databases, where they are loaded internally or externally. These researchers need to be able to have all of this synthesized for them in some fashion so that it ultimately facilitates their work, which is the research and creation of the new knowledge that we all like to talk about.

Having access to all these data is essential, whether they come from one's own lab or from some small college. If those particular data are relevant to the project you are working on, it is absolutely critical that all these data continue to be collected and made available in some reasonable form. Commercial databases provide an essential part of the information chain that we have to consider. However, noncommercial sources of data are also vital for the scientific community. These often fill huge gaps that, for whatever the reason in the commercial sector, have not been funded and have not been supported and actually fill out what I like to call our “data portfolio.”

It is the integration of all this information that ultimately will enable us to continue to assist the working scientific community, to push back the frontiers of science, and to expand human knowledge into the future.