A debate
Say you are performing biomolecular investigations that are extremely compute intensive. You have a finite amount of money and time. You could get (1) a supercomputer (fast custom CPUs and high-speed...
Oct, 01, 2009
Early evidence suggests a mixed picture
Stanford University’s 2004-2005 computer science T-shirts exhibited symbols for six men and one woman -- an accurate portrayal of the ratio in the department and only slightly worse than the...
Apr, 01, 2006
Modelers should take the lead.
Many collaborators 1 with whom modelers2 work have little or no training in modeling3 and so it is natural that they may be cautious,...
Jun, 05, 2012
Bringing models closer to reality
When the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia launched on January 16, 2003, a large piece of foam fell off and hit the left wing. Alerted of the impact, NASA engineers used a computer model to predict...
Oct, 19, 2012
POINT/
Less than meets the eye ...
Oct, 05, 2012
The new Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) program signals NIH's faith in computational research
In December, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved a new trans-NIH initiative called Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K). With this action, the NIH signals its intention to invest a significant...
Feb, 19, 2013
How errors in data, software, and methodology can teach us how to do better
In 2006, a paper in Nature Medicine suggested a novel and potentially revolutionary method for predicting patient responses to cancer therapies using gene signatures. The finding piqued the interest...
Sep, 01, 2011
Balancing Breadth and Depth
The last decade saw a proliferation of training programs at the intersection of life science and computation, with more than 60 new degree and certificate programs launched in the United States alone...
Sep, 01, 2005
Anyone who has ever waited minutes, hours, or even days for software to complete a biomedical computation will be happy to hear that almost every personal computer is capable of better. Today,...
Jul, 01, 2008
How to share knowledge, data, tools, and computational resources in a sustainable manner
Once upon a time, a deep divide existed between scientists who did and those who did not have easy access to scientific content (journals, lectures, data), hardware (imaging devices, lab instruments...
Apr, 01, 2011