Bioinformatics and the disciplinary structure
August 15th, 2006
Bioinformatics is an en emerging field, combining the practices and cultures of maths/physics/computer science/statistics with … biology of all fields: back in the day, the people I studied with were selected such that people interested in computing, programming, maths and so on early moved towards a kind of physics track; other people went towards biology and medicine. (Never mind the humanists and social scientists …)
Now, all that seems to be changing and possibilities are being opened up when combining computing/visualization/simulation/data handling with biology. For a historian of science, processes that occur when people from different backgrounds - scientific subcultures - shall do stuff together, or at least compare and compete what they’ve done, can be worth looking at.
It can also be quite interesting to see what happens when this merging of the two tracks in science happens in one and the same person. Developments in scientific practice are faster than the structural dimensions of the academic system.
A very interesting and enlightening (and long, which is good) blogpost on these issues was published recently by N. Saunders. Recommended.
For some historical examples of scientific subcultures from physics, see Peter Galison, Image and logic: A material culture of microphysics.
Entry Filed under: scientific practice, scientific subcultures
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