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Maths Becomes Biology's Magic Number (bbc.com)
In the middle of a discussion about the pros and cons of statins, Sir Rory Collins, the head of clinical trials at Oxford University, noted that If you want a career in medicine these days you're better off studying mathematics or computing than biology. A report on BBC adds: It is a nice one-liner, but I didn't think much more about it until a few days later, when I found myself sitting in a press conference to mark the launch of a new initiative on cancer. Rubbing shoulders on the panel with the director of the Institute of Cancer Research, Professor Paul Workman, was a scientist I didn't recognise, but it soon became clear this was exactly what Sir Rory had had in mind. Dr Andrea Sottoriva is an astrophysicist. He has spent much of his career searching for Neutrinos -- the elusive sub-atomic particles created by the fusion of elements in stars like our sun -- at the bottom of the ocean, and analysing the results of atom smashing experiments with the Large Hadron Collider at Cern in Geneva. "My background is in computer science, particularly as it applies to particle physics," he told me when we met at the ICR's laboratories in Sutton. So why cancer? The answer can be summed up in two words: big data. What Dr Sottoriva brings to the fight against cancer is the expertise in mathematical modelling needed to mine the vast treasure trove of data the information revolution has brought to medicine. "The exciting thing is that we can apply all the new analytical techniques we've developed in physics to biology," he says. "So we have all these new quantitative technologies that allow us to process an enormous amount of data, and all of a sudden we can start to apply that to implement the paradigm of physics in biology."
Tequ!!!a.
Anyone?
In the US, Mathematics is abbreviated as "Math" (this article is tagged with "math"), not "Maths".
The number of emails Clinton hid.
"My background is in computer science, particularly as it applies to particle physics," he told me...
Hey slashdot, that doesn't mean he fixed computers and changed toner cartridges at the particle physics wing, and it doesn't mean he codes "apps" for particle physics. Finally, slashdot has a summary where actual, legitimate computer science is mentioned and it really is referencing computer science done by a bone fide computer scientist. Wait long enough, you see anything.
Son, let me give you a tip... data science.
Sir, you are so behind.
You'll never end up being the guy designing the experiments or a CSO if you learn math/comp sci instead of biology. You may be hired by those guys to do some work, but that's about it.
right now. I tried, We strongly urge that the project a los"ing baatle;
This subject is very hardcore. Just to provide for the needs of surgery, imaging and modelling for better patient outcomes requires a peta-scale supercomputer at the top of the hospital. The models are also complicated as they should not become useless once the patient is standing or walking.
Clobbering reality with statistics is what you do when you don't have a theory to work with.
It's kind of un-scientific, but it puts all that equipment to 'good use.'
published, I am all for it. Every day we see articles with studies which cannot be statistically valid being flaunted. It's no wonder two thirds of them cannot be reproduced. If they only applied the analysis required by a first-year physics or chemistry student the world would be a lot nicer place.
What should I study? ROFL. How about learning what is what.
Without math, you don't have science, you're just collecting anecdotes.
Really--I don't know what further to say. I'm just floored this is even a subject for discussion.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
It's like, all the numbers, if you think about it.
Reminds me of the quote 'The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.'
This is an American site, editors. Please do the needful and edit the orthography to match American standards.
Good to see multi discipline efforts on this fight. How many times have we all heard of people with problems that can be solved with some programming or data mining. If you've got data, talk to a computer programmer!
https://xkcd.com/435/ [xkcd.com]
I was a graduate student under a very famous biologist
and he often remarked, of all the physicists who have gone into biology, only one or two have made a substantial contribution - their minds don't work the right way
True, we need math for clinical trials, and omics, but for biology you need a feeling for the organism
Physicists have been doing this for a long time. See Max Delbruck and the phage group in the 40's and 50's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The entire concept of "consent" is extremely patriarchal.
Women don't really know what they want... this information is just as unknowable to them as the sensation of pregnancy is unknowable to a man.
Allowing them to vote was and is totally insane.
Perhaps that's too optimistic of an idea, but if some working in finance can do a useful reconversion, they'd put talent to better use.
*Math
B. F. Skinner's exposition of the appropriate approach to conducting science: http://courses.umass.edu/psyc241/Skinneracasehist.pdf
Why not study newt-rhinos while you're at it?
Ezekiel 23:20