{"id":1619,"date":"2007-12-01T21:02:54","date_gmt":"2007-12-01T20:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/12\/01\/bioinformatics\/"},"modified":"2009-02-24T01:34:21","modified_gmt":"2009-02-23T16:34:21","slug":"bioinformatics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/12\/01\/bioinformatics\/","title":{"rendered":"Bioinformatics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having the opportunity to pick a class slightly outside of my main curriculum, I signed-up for an eight-week pluridisciplinary session on bioinformatics in genetics. I had my first lecture on Friday.<\/p>\n

What I’ve learned so far:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. This particular area of bioinfo (applying advanced AI algorithms to genetic research) is absolutely fascinating. With its mixing of cutting-edge results in biology, mathematics, physics and AI, it’s tough not being sucked in by the way they all combine into truly sci-fiesque results.<\/li>\n
  2. About 3 month away from graduating into a field I have planned to pursue my researches in, I am suddenly starting to wonder about a switch in research paths. Yes: yet another existential academic crisis. Just what I needed now.<\/li>\n
  3. During the introductory part on gene decoding patterns, when asked about information entropy in gene sequences, the lecturer: “Oh, it varies a lot between life forms. Viruses, for instance, have an extremely high entropy: lots of genes are coded using both directions of the helix”.<\/li>\n
  4. What this means in layman’s term: viruses’ use compression<\/em> in their genetic code… Yes, your flu virus may come in its own zip<\/a> archive, just like your e-mail viruses!<\/li>\n
  5. “Viruses are amazing things”, she concluded with an earnest look of admiration on her face (maniacal laughter did not follow, however).<\/li>\n
  6. Yes, there is<\/em> something ever so slightly chilling about hearing a respected biotech researcher uttering such phrases.<\/li>\n
  7. I think I want to go into bioinformatics.<\/li>\n
  8. Viruses are, like, totally cool.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Having the opportunity to pick a class slightly outside of my main curriculum, I signed-up for an eight-week pluridisciplinary session on bioinformatics in genetics. I had my first lecture on Friday. What I’ve learned so far: This particular area of bioinfo (applying advanced AI algorithms to genetic research) is absolutely fascinating. With its mixing of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-geek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1975,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions\/1975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}