Recently I wrote an essay for Frontiers in Genetics (an OA journal) addressing some of the origins of modern computational biology in genetics and how genetics serves as a bridging discipline between the molecular biosciences and the biodiversity sciences:
"We're all computational biologists now... Next stop, the Global Brain?"
The first two paragraphs are offered here as an 'abstract'....
"In the late Twentieth Century the aphorism “We’re all biologists now” entered the main-stream consciousness of biologists of all types. The new science of genomics had arrived on the scene, brashly and boldly challenging the many subdisciplines of biology to breach the walls that had served to separate them for decades. The result was a gradual, but eventually widespread realization that genomics comprised a new “commons” – a “marketplace” where the diverse cultures of biology could meet, learn each others’ languages, exchange ideas, and form new ventures to exploit the astounding number of synergies that were rapidly becoming apparent.
"Of course, we all know that the molecular biology revolution was the foundation of the genomics revolution – don’t we? Molecular biology indeed made genomics possible, but it was wholly inadequate on its own to fully exploit the potential for genomics to revolutionize biology. In fact, most molecular biologists found themselves woefully unprepared for the new revolution that was beginning to emerge. Why? Ironically, it was molecular biologists who had instigated a rather messy divorce from what they viewed as the tradition-bound sciences of ecology, evolution, taxonomy, and systematics. These brash, “young bucks” of molecular biology shook traditional biology to its foundation, triggering a tsunami of divisions of biology departments into two distinct types of entities: new, reductionist-driven departments centered on molecular biology and biochemistry and more traditional, holistic departments centered on ecology, evolution, and biodiversity....."
Continued at:
"We're all computational biologists now... Next stop, the Global Brain?"
"We're all computational biologists now... Next stop, the Global Brain?"
The first two paragraphs are offered here as an 'abstract'....
"In the late Twentieth Century the aphorism “We’re all biologists now” entered the main-stream consciousness of biologists of all types. The new science of genomics had arrived on the scene, brashly and boldly challenging the many subdisciplines of biology to breach the walls that had served to separate them for decades. The result was a gradual, but eventually widespread realization that genomics comprised a new “commons” – a “marketplace” where the diverse cultures of biology could meet, learn each others’ languages, exchange ideas, and form new ventures to exploit the astounding number of synergies that were rapidly becoming apparent.
"Of course, we all know that the molecular biology revolution was the foundation of the genomics revolution – don’t we? Molecular biology indeed made genomics possible, but it was wholly inadequate on its own to fully exploit the potential for genomics to revolutionize biology. In fact, most molecular biologists found themselves woefully unprepared for the new revolution that was beginning to emerge. Why? Ironically, it was molecular biologists who had instigated a rather messy divorce from what they viewed as the tradition-bound sciences of ecology, evolution, taxonomy, and systematics. These brash, “young bucks” of molecular biology shook traditional biology to its foundation, triggering a tsunami of divisions of biology departments into two distinct types of entities: new, reductionist-driven departments centered on molecular biology and biochemistry and more traditional, holistic departments centered on ecology, evolution, and biodiversity....."
Continued at:
"We're all computational biologists now... Next stop, the Global Brain?"
(Originally posted 12/20/11)
