Title: Bioinformatics and driving cars
Date: 2015-04-28 22:32
Category: Science
Tags: science, policy, development
Slug: 2015-bioinformatics-driving-cars
Author: Kai Blin
Summary: On driving cars, comparisons for bioinformatics

In a [recent opinion article in *Frontiers
Genetics*](http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fgene.2015.00164/full),
Antony Vincent and Steve Charette argued that using bioinformatics tools
doesn't make you a bioinformatician, the same as driving a car doesn't make you
a mechanic. For cars, that certainly is true. At least these days it is. About
a hundred years back, when the technology used wasn't as established and there
was more of a hand-crafted touch to each and every car, I would argue that
while driving a car didn't necessarily _make_ you a mechanic, _being_ a
mechanic (or at least knowing how to perform some of the more common
maintenance tasks on your car) made it much more likely the car actually would
get anywhere.

For many areas of bioinformatics, I would argue that that's pretty much where
we are right now. Mick Watson [made the good
point](https://biomickwatson.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/on-bioinformatics-and-torturing-the-mechanic-metaphor/)
that being a mechanic doesn't actually allow you to design and build cars in
the first place.  This is true again, for a certain level of technical
refinement and finesse.  One hundred and fifty years back, if you wanted to
drive a car, you probably were best off if you could design, build and maintain
it yourself.

So, building on the car analogy, we can see that the more technology matures,
the more accessible it is to less technical users.

Add bioinformatics and driving cars post
Add bioinformatics and driving cars post

Signed-off-by: Kai Blin <ad3597797f6179d503c382b2627cc19939309418@biosustain.dtu.dk>
