Biological Informatics question

[Bryan Heidorn]

I believe it may be too late (or too early) to reclaim the terms
"bioinformatics" to mean "information about biology" in general as the root
terms would imply, but I need to point out how strange it seems
linguistically. In linguistics (most languages) the more general, less
specific, normal, base form of a concept is generally "unmarked" meaning
there are no added morphological embellishments to set it apart. The
unmarked form is shorter. Only the specialized forms of concepts, the
special cases, get extra morphological markers. e.g. "blue" vs "royal blue"
and even "aquamarine". From that, you would think that "bioinformatics"
would stay the general concept and if you wanted to talk about information
about genetics/protomics you would need to say "molecular bioinformatics."

I think the takeover of the term was unavoidable, however, because of a
different and more powerful force in setting markedness. That is frequency
of use. Concepts that are used more frequently become shorter words.
Molecular bioinformatics has been in the news (and Wall Street) a great
deal more than the more general term "bioinformatics - information about
biology". People and news print editors quickly got tied of saying
"molecular bioinformatics" and used the abbreviated form instead. The only
way to reverse the trend would be to use the original meaning more often in
the press. I don't see that happening but at least scientists should keep
aware of the distinctions so that we don't get confused about which we are
discussing.

I am sure I've succeeded in making this seem much more reasonable!? Right?

Bryan Heidorn


At 09:07 AM 1/29/01 -0800, Peter Rauch wrote:
>[Crossposted from ecolog-l. Peter]
>
> >>> Posting number 3806, dated 28 Jan 2001 16:41:47
>Reply-To:     Ken Klemow <kklemow at WILKES1.WILKES.EDU>
>Sender:       "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news"
>               <ECOLOG-L at UMDD.UMD.EDU>
>From:         Ken Klemow <kklemow at WILKES1.WILKES.EDU>
>Subject:      Are there job opportunities in Biological Informatics?
>
>Colleagues,
>
>I am writing to solicit some advice, insights, or reaction to the following:
>
>As we all know, progress in molecular biology and genomics has been
>greatly aided by the ability to exchange information on-line; an area
>now known as "BioInformatics."  During the past few years, biologists
>working in ecology, biosystematics, and other organismal disciplines
>have also begun to exchange on-line information (see
>http://wilkes1.wilkes.edu/~kklemow/Biolog-Informatics-links.html for
>a developing webpage that serves as a gateway to such sites).  Since,
>the molecular biologists have co-opted the BioInformatics term, we
>use the term "Biological Informatics" to describe the exchange of
>ecological / taxonomic information on line.
>
>Certainly, teaching undergraduate students about such sites and about
>how to access and analyze on-line data seems like an important thing
>to do.  However, can an argument be made that having such skills will
>make students more marketable after graduation?
>
>Does anybody know of any white papers or reports that point to the
>need for students to have skills in uncovering on-line information in
>organismal biology?  Does anybody have personal knowledge of recent
>graduates using Biological Informatics skills.in jobs that they got
>following graduation?
>
>Any replies would be appreciated.
>
>Ken K.
>--
>Kenneth M. Klemow, Ph.D.
>Professor of Biology & GeoEnvironmental Science
>Biology Program
>Wilkes University
>Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
>e-mail: kklemow at wilkes1.wilkes.edu
>webpage: http://wilkes1.wilkes.edu/~kklemow
>phone: 570-408-4758
>fax: 570-408-7862

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   P. Bryan Heidorn    Graduate School of Library and Information Science
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