Datasheet

Chapter 1
Finding Out What Bioinformatics
Can Do for You
In This Chapter
Defining bioinformatics
Understanding the links between modern biology, genomics, and bioinformatics
Determining which biological questions bioinformatics can help you answer quickly
Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. Biochemistry is
the study of carbon compounds that crawl.
— Mike Adam
I
t looks like biologists are colonizing the dictionary with all these bio-
words: we have bio-chemistry, bio-metrics, bio-physics, bio-technology,
bio-hazards, and even bio-terrorism. Now what’s up with the new entry in
the bio-sweepstakes, bio-informatics?
What Is Bioinformatics?
In today’s world, computers are as likely to be used by biologists as by any
other highly trained professionals — bankers or flight controllers, for example.
Many of the tasks performed by such professionals are common to most of us:
We all tend to write lots of memos and send lots of e-mails; many of us use
spreadsheets, and we all store immense amounts of never-to-be-seen-again
data in complicated file systems.
However, besides these general tasks, biologists also use computers to
address problems that are very specific to biologists, which are of no interest
to bankers or flight controllers. These specialized tasks, taken together, make
up the field of
bioinformatics. More specifically, we can define bioinformatics
as the computational branch of molecular biology.
05_089857 ch01.qxp 11/6/06 3:52 PM Page 9
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

Summary of content (20 pages)