But just before I go…

…I have to mention Carl Zimmer’s post on the quest to find English words in human protein sequences.

This game has been around as long as sequence databases have existed. I have a vague memory of a letter from the early 1990s (possibly in Trends in Biochemical Sciences Nature) in which the authors reported the results of comparing SwissProt with the Oxford English Dictionary. As I recall, the longest word that they found was ENSILISTS - meaning people who practice the art of making silage.

Anyway - here’s a quick and easy way to tackle the problem using EMBOSS and some Linux command line trickery.

Vacation

I’m going offline for a couple of weeks (Feb 3 - 17), to enjoy the scenery of our neighbours across the ditch and “tramp” along one of their famous tracks. Normal service resumes Feb 18; comments requiring moderation will be held until then. Expect lots of Flickr activity on my return.

Bio::Blogs #18

A new year, a new Bio::Blogs - edition #18. Hosted by Mike over at Bioinformatics Zen, this issue focuses on open notebook science. If you’re wondering what was hot in the bioinformatics blogosphere the past month, that’s the place to go.

Remember, hosts and monthly contributions are always welcome - details here.