That’s the question on my mind today. HPC wire carries an interview with Rick Stevens at Argonne National Labs (link thanks to Bio-IT world). Michael Feldman, who conducts the interview and writes the article, writes that since biology requires large scale computing, it has become in essence a sub-domain of information science.
In keeping with that thinking, ANL has put biology and computing under the same directorate (Computing and Life Sciences). I will let you read the article to find out more about Prof. Stevens’ (he holds a faculty position in the computer science department at the University of Chicago) desire to apply petaflop computing to systems biology and the challenges of combining computer science, mathematics and biology.
The part that I am still at odds with is the whole idea that life science is a sub-domain of information science. I do not believe that anyone will argue that modern biology, especially systems biology requires computation to be successful, and that most biologists today have to understand how to use computers to some degree, but I question the sub-domain bit. Does every biologist need to understand information science? If there is a group of experts who bridge that gap, e.g. bioinformaticians/computational biologists, then a number of biologists can use the tools that are developed by the experts to do what they do best, study biological systems. This could be done computationally or in a wet lab, or increasingly by a mix of the two. The question that always comes up is – are we training people correctly? Mathematics was not considered mandatory for biologists. Should this change? I still find that there is a disconnect between the two hands far too often.
So what is my position? Well, I think that the two intersect, and while biology is increasingly a digital science (another term that has been used increasingly over the past few years), there are enough differences that each is still a different field, just with some fascinating areas of overlap, just like there are overlaps between biology and chemistry and physics. What one would like to see is (at the high school or early college level) for students to get a decent understanding of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and computer science. Only with a complete understanding of the intersection between all the subjects will anyone be able to figure out where their true interest/skills lie.
Image from Rzhetsky et al under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Technorati Tags: Computer Science, Life Science, Information Science
4 Comments
“sub-domain of information science”? Maybe…
Biology is a wealth of information. The genome project would be the most trivial example, perhaps followed by computer models of various systems – playing around with evolution theories perhaps?
Ultimately “life” is execution of DNA encoded information, in a given environment. Computer Science would just facilitate the use of computers as a tool to work with all that information.
“sub-domain of information science”? Maybe…
Biology is a wealth of information. The genome project would be the most trivial example, perhaps followed by computer models of various systems – playing around with evolution theories perhaps?
Ultimately “life” is execution of DNA encoded information, in a given environment. Computer Science would just facilitate the use of computers as a tool to work with all that information.
This is one of those subjects where I am sure I’ll change my mind every six months depending on which side of the bed I get up. Also reminds me of someone who used to say that in the end its all chemistry.
Anyone reading this blog knows about my opinions on the importance of biological information. That said, there are cases where the computer is a tool, just like any lab instrument. An example would be a program to calculate crystal structures. I don’t believe too many people would consider that information science.
This is one of those subjects where I am sure I'll change my mind every six months depending on which side of the bed I get up. Also reminds me of someone who used to say that in the end its all chemistry.
Anyone reading this blog knows about my opinions on the importance of biological information. That said, there are cases where the computer is a tool, just like any lab instrument. An example would be a program to calculate crystal structures. I don't believe too many people would consider that information science.