The changes wrought by computers in biology resemble those in the aircraft and car industries a decade or so ago, after the arrival of powerful software for CAD (computer-aided design) and CFD (computational fluid dynamics). In both industries, engineers embraced the new computational modelling tools as a way of designing products faster, more cheaply and more accurately. In a similar way, biotech firms are now looking to computer modelling, data mining and high-throughput screening to help them discover drugs more efficiently.

Posted by GeeTee at December 15, 2002 11:35 AM | TrackBack 0

It was by visiting prison that I first learnt that not all men desire freedom. Until then, I had rather airily supposed that all men wanted to be free. Not a bit of it. It gradually dawned on me that many of the recidivists whom I was seeing had shown considerable determination to get back into prison: after all, our police force shows an equal and opposite determination not to arrest and charge wrongdoers, mainly because of the subsequent paperwork involved. To be imprisoned for burglary, therefore, you have almost to want to be imprisoned for burglary, and what I discovered was that many burglars did want to be so imprisoned.

Posted by GeeTee at December 15, 2002 11:32 AM | TrackBack 0

Ahenakew said the Canadian Army was trying to liberate the world when it fought in Europe during the Second World War, not liberate Jews. When reminded the Nazis committed genocide against a variety of ethnic and social groups, he said "exactly, they were trying to clean up the world."

Posted by GeeTee at December 15, 2002 10:51 AM | TrackBack 0