Two applications of the Divide&Conquer principle in the molecular sciences

In this paper, two problems from the molecular sciences are addressed: the enumeration of fullerene-type isomers and the alignment of biosequences. We report on two algorithms dealing with these problems both of which are based on the well-known and widely used Divide&Conquer principle. In other words, our algorithms attack the original problems by associating with them an appropriate number of much simpler problems whose solutions can be ‘glued together’ to yield solutions of the original, rather complex tasks. The considerable improvements achieved this way exemplify that the present day molecular sciences offer many worthwhile opportunities for the effective use of fundamental algorithmic principles and architectures.