Towards a cyberinfrastructure for the biological sciences: progress, visions and challenges

Hello

A new paper in Nature Reviews Genetics that talks about semantics in  
various contexts in the life sciences, might be of interest to this  
list...

Stein, L. D. (2008). Towards a cyberinfrastructure for the biological  
sciences: progress, visions and challenges. Nat Rev Genet, 9(9):678-688.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrg2414

(Sorry, this is not generally accessible, closed-access publishing,  
but a wiki-fied version is linked to below)


Abstract: Biology is an information-driven science. Large-scale data  
sets from genomics, physiology, population genetics and imaging are  
driving research at a dizzying rate. Simultaneously,  
interdisciplinary collaborations among experimental biologists,  
theorists, statisticians and computer scientists have become the key  
to making effective use of these data sets. However, too many  
biologists have trouble accessing and using these electronic data  
sets and tools effectively. A 'cyberinfrastructure' is a combination  
of databases, network protocols and computational services that  
brings people, information and computational tools together to  
perform science in this information-driven world. This article  
reviews the components of a biological cyberinfrastructure, discusses  
current and pending implementations, and notes the many challenges  
that lie ahead.

One of the potentially interesting things about this paper is ...

http://blogs.nature.com/wp/nascent/2008/08/wikiwikiwah.html

http://nrgwiki.nature.com/cyberinfrastructureforbiology/show/HomePage

.... it is accompanied by a wiki-version which they (Nature Publishing  
Group) are encouraging users to contribute to.

Duncan

---
http://duncan.hull.name

Received on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 15:42:31 UTC