Category Archives: Bioinformatics

Public Health Big Data: The Wages of Privatization

Posted on May 20, 2020 by mikethemadbiologist

I spent a significant part of my career in and around these kinds of data, and I think the article below, while very good in terms of description of the failures of COVID-19 data collection, misses the larger picture: this … Continue reading →

Posted in Bioinformatics, COVID-19, Funding, Public Health, We're Really Fucked | Comments Off

Biologists Should Not Learn How to Code

Posted on December 6, 2019 by mikethemadbiologist

Update added here OK, that’s a little extreme, but over the Thanksgiving weekend, I came across some advice which essentially amounted to biologists should learn how to code. I’m not sure that’s great advice. Since I’m in the genomics bidness, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bioinformatics, Computers, Statistics | 5 Comments

The Mad Biologist’s Rules of Bioinformatics

Posted on June 26, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

Just some random observations, most of them snarky, that I’ve made over the last decade: 1. The server will always go down when you need it the most. Pretty self-explanatory. 2. The documentation is always no more than 95 percent … Continue reading →

Posted in Bioinformatics | 4 Comments

The Phrase That Makes Bioinformaticians Grind Their Teeth: Another Short-Read Genome Assembler

Posted on April 21, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

Michael Barton laments the state of bioinformatics software: Grants are harder and harder to obtain, yet we fund the current attrition of moving bioinformatics software forward one reinvention at a time. Where else is it acceptable to reinvent a tool … Continue reading →

Posted in Bioinformatics, Genomics | Comments Off

Why Should Publishers Organize Science?

Posted on April 12, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

We do need to rethink project and data management, communication networks, and so on. But I’ll be damned if I let a publisher be involved from the outset.
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Posted in Bioinformatics, Publishing | 3 Comments