Computing in the biological sciences--a survey

For most life scientists, the application of computational techniques to their subject is relatively new and has been precipitated largely by the widespread incursion of microcomputers into their laboratories. About ten years ago a laboratory computer system offering reasonable memory and mass storage and a high level language cost several times more than a preparative ultracentrifuge. Today, a sophisticated microcomputer system, offering concurrent operating systems (allowing more than one task to proceed simultaneously), and sufficient core memory and mass storage to realise the benefits of such facilities can be purchased for a small fraction of the cost of an ultracentrifuge. Powerful computers that sit on the desks of biologists can be justified relatively easily on the basis of cost, but scientific reasons for such purchases are not so easy to discover. On average, life scientists are not yet as familiar with computing as they are, for example, with centrifugation. Although the scope of the former is more widespread it constitutes a small proportion of the training of the researcher or teacher. Clearly, any development that increases awareness in this area, including Computer Applications In The Biosciences (CABIOS), will have an important role to play in the future. CABIOS has been conceived as making an important contribution to the development of the computing in the life sciences. As such, this journal must meet the needs of the readership and respond to suggestions to include topics or features that are perceived to be of value. In this context, the publishers initiated a survey of some of the group of biologists who are aware of the value of computing, and have used the information that derived from this survey in establishing the form of the journal. Presented here is an overview of the results of the survey together with brief comments on the editorial policy that CABIOS will adopt in its formative stage.