http://mndoci.disqus.com/At the interface of science and computingenFri, 17 Aug 2007 10:05:41 -0000http://mndoci.com/2007/08/16/how-much-programming-should-a-biologist-know/#comment-1302312<p>Oh, I agree, but I am not sure it's going to happen. To some extent it's the analogy of having calculators. People get so comfortable with their tools that they essentially forget simple arithmetic.</p>mndociFri, 17 Aug 2007 10:05:41 -0000http://mndoci.com/2007/08/16/how-much-programming-should-a-biologist-know/#comment-1302311<p>Well I think every biologist should at-least know one scripting language-perl , python or whatever. The justification is like the saying--if you teach a man to fish you have fed him for life.<br>Knowing scripting does not imply that good nebch scientists spend all their time writing and debugging code. It just means that they can then have a more meaningful conversation with their friendly neighborhood bioinformatician or scripting geek besides also querying databases and using workflow based software more effectively.<br>I guess what I am saying is learning a programming language gives you a good grasp of the structure of information and information flow. This is essential in this genomic age.</p>Hari JayaramFri, 17 Aug 2007 09:51:37 -0000