Computer simulation helps explain how plants grow
The petals of every flower and the leaves sprouting from every plant stalk have characteristic arrangements, a phenomenon called phyllotaxis. For two centuries, botanists have puzzled over the force...
Jul, 01, 2007
Confidence boost for modelers
It’s often said that all models are wrong, but some are useful. And one model that certainly falls in the “useful” category is the human lower-limb model that Scott Delp published...
Jun, 01, 2010
Researchers examine the connection between editorial boards of medical informatics and bioinformatics journals
How ideas spread gets at the very fabric of scholarly research and has been studied from many different angles.
Many studies examine person-to-person connectivity in social networks. Within a...
Jul, 01, 2007
Exploring the current state of connectomics--in the midst of hype
Connectomics is having a moment. Following on the heels of genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics, the latest “omic” to seize the spotlight is generating...
Jun, 20, 2013
Navigating the oviduct and other mysteries
The essential elements of human fertilization are clear: sperm swim through the uterus, travel up the fallopian tube, and fertilize an egg. Not as well understood are the the nitty-gritty details of...
Jun, 19, 2013
Model fits experimental evidence
In biology textbooks, the carefully rendered cross-section of an E. coli cell often resembles a well-organized and spacious apartment, with everything in its place and ample room for movement. But a...
Jun, 01, 2010
Pursuing the frontiers of systems biology in an interdisciplinary, non-academic enviroment
The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) was founded in Seattle, Washington in 2000 by Leroy Hood, MD, PhD, Alan Aderem, PhD, and Reudi Aebersold, PhD. Five years later, they are pursuing the...
Apr, 01, 2006
How precise an image can fluorescence microscopy provide?
As modern optics and cell biology have flourished in recent years, they’ve each driven innovation in the other. Yet commonly employed imaging techniques, such as fluorescence microscopy, have...
Sep, 01, 2011
Disentangling the different types of skeptics and what modelers can learn from each.
What are the telltale signs of a modeling talk at a biology conference? Just look for the sighs, shifting, and eye-rolling in the audience, says Donald C. Bolser, PhD, professor of physiological...
Jun, 05, 2012
Set objectives and follow through
Having engineered several scientific software applications for public consumption, the authors know from experience that the process offers unique challenges. Typically, the algorithms being...
Oct, 22, 2012