Commenters here are noting many ways in which CS and biology are different, and how computer analogies can break down.<p>I've got a PhD in biology, and have been into computers all my life. I write code as a biology researcher every day.<p>To me, there's a much more practical level to this than that of philosophical questions on how far analogies take you. Biologists and computer scientists learn, in their studies and through lots of experience, a different mindset about how things work.<p>As a computer scientist, finding a solution to a problem, or predicting how a system will behave, is ultimately just a question of having a deep knowledge of the system, plus being a little bit smart about using that knowledge.<p>As a biologist, having a deep knowledge of what you are dealing with plus being a little bit smart is just a starting point for formulating hypotheses that you will then still need to test. Every biologist knows in their gut that a plausible story is ultimately just that. It's not a proof of anything, just a starting point.<p>This runs really deep and can make communication between people who aren't aware of this difficult. I see this in comments here all the time, where someone has read up on a little biology, and then goes on to explain that, therefore, clearly this or that has to be true. Usually that makes me go: "Yeah, maybe. But what about all these other things you didn't consider? And what about all those things that literally no one in the world knows you would need to consider in this particular case?"<p>Anyhow, I think it's still productive to try to find simple physicsy explanations in biology. Sometimes it does work, and then you get things like PCR or gene editing... ;)
This looks like a pretty awesome resource. I think it's well worth it to spend some of your quarantine time on learning the basics of the biology you need to know to understand what's actually going on with the virus that's the reason you're in quarantine in the first place. It's not super productive to try and understand this stuff through analogy to computers and algorithms. Assuming DNA works just like code amd that cells are biological computers turned out to be a very poor assumption indeed, as evidenced by how much less we understand after sequencing the human genome compared to what we thought we would have known. It's also why the secrets of the coronavirus didnt reveal themselves immediately after sequencing it's genome. See the epigenetics section for a bit of an understanding of the layer of complexity that lies on top of DNA, and let's take a moment to appreciate the biochemists and the protein biologists unraveling what makes SARS-COV-2 tick.<p>If you want to really grok genetics and be able to understand and interpret news and discussion about the field, especially considering how important the field is in our day to day lives, both with the virus and with biotech/medicine in general.
Thanks a lot for this!
Could someone recommend me a good book to start learning cell biology and genetics? I study physics and I'd like to learn about biophysics.
I like this. On a more meta note, does anyone have any generalist advice on picking up the basics of a new field? For instance, I'm looking into hobbyist electronics, but it's hard to know where to start.
People say DNA is not like computer code. However, it seems that people are really saying it is not like human written computer code. Otherwise, it is still a digital code that is turing complete.