I learned about #computers and #programming when I was younger for a specific reason: I was into math and science, and these days it's basically impossible to separate the study of mathematics and the practice of science from *personal computing*, or "microcomputing" as it used to be called.

These days it's taken for granted that you'll be doing all your data collection and numerical analysis and so forth on a computer, using some mathematical or scientific #software packages. Microcomputers are likely to be how a person in the laboratory interacts with scientific instrumentation.

(cont'd)