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
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http://duncan.hull.name
