Published by Sinauer Associates, an imprint of Oxford University Press. Practical Computing for Biologists shows you how to use many freely available computing tools to work more powerfully and effectively. The book was born out of the authors' own experience in developing tools for their research and helping other biologists with their computational problems.
Practical Computing for Biologists shows you how to use many freely available computing tools to work more powerfully and effectively. The book was born out of the authors' own experience in developing tools for their research and helping other biologists with their computational problems. Many of the techniques are relevant to molecular bioinformatics but the scope of the book is much broader, covering topics and techniques that are applicable to a range of scientific endeavours.
Twenty-two chapters organized into six parts address the following topics (and more; see Contents):
. Searching with regular expressions
. The Unix command line
. Python programming and debugging
. Creating and editing graphics
. Databases
. Performing analyses on remote servers
. Working with electronics
While the main narrative focuses on Mac OS X, most of the concepts and examples apply to any operating system. Where there are differences for Windows and Linux users, parallel instructions are provided in the margin and in an appendix. The book is designed to be used as a self-guided resource for researchers, a companion book in a course, or as a primary textbook. Practical Computing for Biologists will free you from the most frustrating and time-consuming aspects of data processing so you can focus on the pleasures of scientific inquiry.
When considering my research and use of time, this book has been the most important book I've read in the last year, and perhaps the last decade. Striking a perfect balance by guiding you through tutorials and nudging your own self-exploration, the book has just enough guided direction to not annoy or overwhelm. It has helped (and is still helping) me to do what I was doing before, but more efficiently.
