Helping protists to find their place in a big data world
In: Acta Protozoologica. Instytut Biologii Doswiadczalnej im. M. Nenckiego: Warszawa. ISSN 0065-1583; e-ISSN 1689-0027, more
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| Author keywords |
Big data, biodiversity informatics, protistology, name-based cyberinfrastructure |
| Abstract |
The ‘big new biology’ is a vision of a discipline transformed by a commitment to sharing data and with investigative practices that call on very large open pools of freely accessible data. As this datacentric world matures, biologists will be better able to manage the deluge of data arising from digitization programs, governmental mandates for data sharing, and increasing instrumentation of science. The big new biology will create new opportunities for research and will enable scientists to answer questions that require access to data on a scale not previously possible. Informatics will become the new genomics, and those not participating will become marginalized. If a traditional discipline like protistology is to benefit from this big data world, it must define, build, and populate an appropriate infrastructure. The infrastructure is likely to be modular, with modules focusing on needs within defined subject and makes it available in standard formats by an array of pathways. It is the responsibility of protistologists to build such nodes for their own discipline. |
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