All biology is computational biology

2017/03/09 by Florian Markowetz · 1 voice · 6 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research

paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2002050

openalex publication_date 2017/03/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Here, I argue that computational thinking and techniques are so central to the quest of understanding life that today all biology is computational biology. Computational biology brings order into our understanding of life, it makes biological concepts rigorous and testable, and it provides a reference map that holds together individual insights. The next modern synthesis in biology will be driven by mathematical, statistical, and computational methods being absorbed into mainstream biological training, turning biology into a quantitative science.

Cited by

• Improving bioinformatics software quality through teamwork
• A call for clean code to effectively communicate science
• Becoming amphibious: scientists’ identities and affective relations in the swamp of computational biology
• Using Open Science Tools to Teach Environmental Sciences
• Facilitating open science without sacrificing IP rights
• Tensor Network based Gene Regulatory Network Inference for Single-Cell Transcriptomic Data

Discussions

• 🧵"All biology is computational biology." That sounds bold. But it’s true. Here’s why: doi.org/10.1371/jou... [bsky, 4 points, 1 comments]

Related

• Computational biology in the 21st century
• Advances in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology: Don't take them too seriously anyway
• Causality, Information and Biological Computation: An algorithmic software approach to life, disease and the immune system
• The Future of Computation
• There's Plenty of Room Right Here: Biological Systems as Evolved, Overloaded, Multi-scale Machines