Recs.
Updated
Specs
Pros
Cons
Con Use in computational physics was only due to timing, and is rapidly changing
On Cray systems and other supercomputers Fortran was the language used for research due to implementation, not performance. At this point giant supercomputers have been almost completely replaced with massively distributed systems that Fortran cannot very well take advantage of.
Con Most modern bioinformatics has long since gone to more flexible languages
Despite hits to performance, nearly all modern research is done using languages like python which are much, much faster to prototype on and can be optimised using their massive library of carefully optimised libraries in native (often assembly) code. The result is faster iteration, more useful results in shorter time and more portable code that can be reused for later projects.
Con Requires archaic costly and brittle architectural design
Fortran is principally deigned for applications to be precisely purpose built and optimised by empirically solving a specified case. As a result, solutions are not portable or adaptable at all, especially after the hand crafting necessary for performance on Big Iron.