Computing Biology: Things to keep in mind as a beginner
‘In theoretical physics, one can, in principle, work from any place as long as one has a computer and Internet connection’ as said by theoretical physicist Ashoke Sen. I realized the same thing but in biology. Being a biologist the painful and vexing time comes when you start learning computing from a person who is already good at it. Eventually, biologists are learning these skills in the harder way by performing trial and error. The lack of incorporation of courses within undergraduate or postgraduate biology curricula even encompassing the Ph.D., is one of the reasons that we cannot overlook. Dramatic changes in science have made a recognizable change in the model of doing science [Fig: 1].
Whatever we do whether on the bench or in the field it is almost impossible to skip the work we need to do in computers to really get a rational conclusion. The complexity of data sets and the level of sophistication of the statistical and mathematical analysis and modeling have become important to make the results of an experiment publishable. In this context, we can think about two groups of people existing, one of them is still not aware of the role of computing in biology while the other is enormously fascinated by it, but afraid of the fear of failure or maybe brooding over where start with as there are ample resources seeming the scenario a bit chaotic…
