首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Only recently has biology begun to see itself as an information technology. An organism’s physiology and behavior are dictated l
Only recently has biology begun to see itself as an information technology. An organism’s physiology and behavior are dictated l
admin
2011-03-10
38
问题
Only recently has biology begun to see itself as an information technology. An organism’s physiology and behavior are dictated largely by its genes. And those genes contain information written in code that is surprisingly similar to the digital code that computer scientists have devised for the storage and transmission of other information.
There are some differences, of Course. The genetic code has four elements (known as bases or letters), while a computer’s binary code has only two. And the bases of genetic code are grouped together in threes rather than in the eight-bit bytes of computing. But the similarities are so striking that biology is suddenly undergoing a serious amount of computerization. At the same time, there has been rapid progress in the machines that supply the raw material for the computer - the sequences of genetic bases to be analyzed. A single gene-sequencing machine can now read hundreds of thousands of bases per day; and newer technologies, such as "gene chips", should produce even more data to be stored and annotated for subsequent study.
The result is a mind-boggling amount of information. A genetics laboratory can easily produce 100 gigabytes of data a day--that is about 20,000 times the volume of data in the complete works of Shakespeare or J. S. Bach. The analysis of such data poses problems beyond mere volume control. Computer programs must analyze what constitutes a biologically meaningful relationship between a newly discovered sequence of DNA and existing sequences stored in a central database. Programming a computer for such tasks requires both extensive knowledge of computing theory and a keen biological intuition.
And there’s the rub. The real problem about the growing quantification of biology is not the change in the subject but the lack of change in its practitioners. For a sudden in pouring of data is not unique to biology .Astronomers must now deal with squillions of bits of data from automatic sky surveys; particle physicists would not have the first idea of what was going on in their machines if the results of their experiments were not processed automatically. Yet neither of these fields seems to be suffering unduly from information overload because the physical sciences are founded on number crunching. Many biologists, however, avoided the fields of astronomy or particle physics because they have, in the delicately chosen words of Sylvia Spengler of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics in California, "some problem with mathematics." The result is that there is a desperate shortage of specialists capable of developing the tools that biologists need. What is required is genuinely new kind of scientist who is trained both in computer science and biology. It used to be said that the physicists got all the research money. Now, however, it is the biologists’ budgets that are growing. But there is a price. As biology becomes numerically rigorous, its practitioners have no choice but to do the same.
What will "gene chips" (Line 7, para. 2) do?
选项
A、Allow continual database searches.
B、Speed up the sequencing of genetic code.
C、Organize he presentation of genetic information.
D、Reduce the amount of data to be processed.
答案
A
解析
第二段最后一句在讲到gene chips的时候实际上也点出了其作用,即储存并注释更多的信息以便供以后的研究使用。选项A是对该内容的解释,故为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/SDYO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ManyAdecadeago,atatimewhenplaceslikeIvoryCoastandEquatorialGuineawerebeinglargelyignoredbythepetroleumworl
Theprincipalcharacterinoppositiontotheheroorheroinofanarrativeordramaiscalleda(n)______.
ItisoverfivehundredyearssinceColumbus"discovered"America.Thecelebrationoftheanniversaryhasatleastproducedone
Amongherfellowastronomers,VeraRubinisknownasanexpertobserverofthenightsky,oneofthebest.Herreputationderive
Amongherfellowastronomers,VeraRubinisknownasanexpertobserverofthenightsky,oneofthebest.Herreputationderive
StatisticⅠ.Thedefendantisguiltyornot?Expert:1)ADNAsample【1】______defendant’s.
ThomasJefferson,whodiedin1826,loomseverlargerasafigureofspecialsignificance.Americans,ofcourse,arefamiliarwi
FredCookeofSalfordturned90twodaysagoandtheworldhasbeenbeatingapathtohisdoor.Ifyouhaven’tnoticed,theback
Somepeoplebelievethatinternationalsportcreatesgoodwillbetweenthenationsandthatifcountriesplaygamestogetherthey
Althoughthetopmeninsmugglingbusinessmustworktogether,mostofasyndicate’ssmallfry,especiallythemules,knowonly
随机试题
女孩3岁,发热伴咳嗽3~4天,今出皮疹,外院拟诊药物疹,口服阿司咪唑,回家后病情变化,咳嗽加剧,来院就诊。体检:体温39℃,气急,鼻煽动,唇周青紫,两结膜红,口腔黏膜粗糙,心率160次/分,心音低钝,两肺闻及细湿啰音,肝肋下3.5cm,剑下4cm,头躯干可
求二重积分[1+x3一(x2+y2)]dxdy,其中D为x2+y2≤2ay.
某37岁孕妇,妊娠36周检查发现妊娠期高血压疾病,2小时前突然发生持续性腹痛伴阴道少量流血,面色苍白。首先考虑为
根据《合同法》,“数据电文”包括( )。
在“抱娃娃”游戏中,一开始,参加者把自己当成娃娃的妈妈,耐心地喂饭,但当他转身去拿“饭”时,发现其他小朋友正在沙坑里搭起一座“小花园”,他的注意便一下子转到“小花园”而走到沙坑去玩了。
有关犯罪预备,错误的说法是()。
Nowadays,oursocietyisbeingreshapedbyinformationtechnologies—computers,telecommunicationsnetworks,andotherdigitalsy
StrategiesforWritingaLiteratureReviewAliteraturereviewdiscussespublishedinformationinaparticularsubjectarea.
PartⅡReadingComprehension(SkimmingandScanning)Directions:Inthispart,youwillhave15minutestogooverthepassageq
Asateacher,youshouldn’tbe______toanyofthekids,theyshouldshareequalcare.
最新回复
(
0
)