The Nexus Between Computers and Modern Biology: The Changing Face of Scientific Research

Abstract

There is a widely held perception that science today, under the impact of computer science, is on the verge of a revolutionary shift in paradigm. This perception has been elaborated in detail in a recent document: Towards 2020 Science published by Microsoft Research Cambridge, which has been prepared by 34 scientists of international repute. The report examines the value added aspects, involving new conceptual and technological tools, of computer science with respect to mathematical computations and computing power of computers. It goes on to suggest that these aspects make computer science ideally suited for getting embedded into the very methodology of science that is emerging today, particularly in the context of understanding complex multi component information-processing systems, as e. g. seen in the field of biological sciences. The proposition is Computer science is poised to become as fundamental to science, and in particular the natural sciences, as mathematics has become to science, and in particular the physical sciences. Borrowing liberally from the above document, this article reviews some of the advances that are taking place in natural sciences research, as a result of its nexus with computer science.