Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Glycomics and glycobiology -- Comment()
What are glycomics and glycobiology? This is a field where a lot is happening but the future is still unknown. On glycobiology there was a review in Science (in PDF format). And Wikipedia has a short definition for glycomics:

Glycomics is a discipline of applied biology that deals with the structure and function of oligosaccharides (chains of sugars). The term glycomics is derived from the chemical prefix for sweetness or a sugar, "glyco", and was formed to follow the naming convention established by genomics (which deals with genes) and proteomics (which deals with proteins).
This area of research has to deal with an inherent level of complexity not seen in other areas of applied biology. Whereas genes have four building blocks and proteins have 20, the saccharides have a multitude of building blocks. Advances in glycomics are anticipated to be driven by improvements in molecular sequencing and bioinformatics which is the computational organization and processing of sequence data.

The glycomics/glycobiology field is worth following. There are close connections to chemistry, bioinformatics, drug discovery, and medicine.

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Are developers programmers or engineers? "Software project management suffers from confusion over project goals, developers working without supervision, and even from developers being miscast as engineers, said panelists during a keynote session at the VSLive show here on Wednesday." [IDG InfoWorld]

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Congress nixes TIA use on Americans: "...the Senate decided to block funding for the Pentagon's information grab system. Now, the New York Times is reporting the House, along with the Senate, has agreed the Total Information Awareness system cannot be used against Americans. They also have agreed to restrict further research on the project without consultation with Congress." [Ars Technica]

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Happy Darwin Day! "Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate humanity and the science in our lives. While you're celebrating you may want to see who has won awards in his name..." [MetaFilter]

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Introducing 100 stories: "They are not syndicated. They are not categorized. They are not archived in reverse chronological order." [dive into mark > Sample the Web]

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Lessig Meets with UK Policy Advisers: "BBC News reports that Larry Lessig held a private meeting with government media policy advisers at Number 10 Downing Street to urge them to ensure that laws designed to prevent digital piracy do not trample over the right of fair use. Lessig's views could influence the government's approach to proposals to change the Patent Act to implement the European Union Copyright Directive." [GrepLaw]

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Scientific American Article on Creative Commons: "In the latest Scientific American issue, the article Some Rights Reserved outlines the basics of the Creative Commons project. (Those unfamiliar with the project should definitely check out the presentation, Get Creative.)" [GrepLaw]