Apple Charts the Human Body
The Visible Human Project
Easy Yet Powerful
The Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the Visible Human Project showcase the tremendous momentum of imaging technologies within the health sciences. Creating and using images, in static or streaming formats, is memory intensive, something the print and design graphics industries learned a long time ago. Macintosh provides the best in graphic support. Its RISC technology increases performance speed, while its cross-platform abilities remove file sharing barriers, and its easy-to-use interface allows quick command of diverse software packages.
“Our graphics laboratory... uses the Macintosh platform because of the speed of the PowerPC processors, simplicity of the operating system, and ease of training new personnel.”
— Daniel F.l. Kurtycz, M.D.
In a paper by Gremy and Bonnin, it was noted that the greatest of failures in man-machine cooperation lay in the difficulty of using them and poor diffusion of information (Int’l J of Medical Informatics 56 (1999): 13-23). The Macintosh is peerless in its ease of use and has met the challenge for power and speed in the creation and dissemination of imaging information. To quote Daniel F.I. Kurtycz, M.D.: “Our graphics laboratory (Dept of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin; and Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, Madison, Wisconsin) uses the Macintosh platform because of the speed of the PowerPC processors, simplicity of the operating system, and ease of training new personnel. In our experience, the plug-and-play philosophy behind the Macintosh makes set-up a great deal easier than putting together a Wintel system of equivalent capabilities.” (Clinics in Laboratory Medicine 18(3): 585-598).
Since the early 1980’s when I saw my first Macintosh being used for scientific illustration, I have associated it with the imagery inherent to the sciences. With projects like the Visible Human, that association only becomes stronger. There is a place in the health sciences for a computer able to handle the ever-expanding need for power and speed in generating visual answers about how humans function and what affects us. The Power Mac has found that place and it is a logical fit.
