Chapter 4. Digital Tools and Electronic Laboratory Notebooks

The development of computer technology has had a huge impact on the way that scientists work, providing tools not only for everyday tasks such as report writing and email, but also tools that facilitate new ways of collecting and recording data. This chapter provides a brief history of the transformation from analogue to digital in science, including the digitisation of instruments and the development of technologies for storing and managing data. We will take an in-depth look into the development and role of digital tools for record-keeping, in particular the use of electronic notebooks in both the field and laboratory. We will also take a brief look at the impact of computational science and working in silico.