dd@beta.UUCP (10/04/87)
Introduction to the Matrix of Biological Knowledge Bulletin Board
The BIO-MATRIX bulletin board is designed to continue the work begun at
the Matrix of Biological Knowlede Workshop, held at St. John's College
in Santa Fe, N.M July 13- August 14, 1987. The meeting has become known
as "Camp Matrix".
The following text is excerpted and rearranged from the Preliminary
Report of the workshop. Other texts are anticipated, especially a
"Primer on Matrix Biology", which will go into some detail about the
Matrix concept and its realization from the biological, computer
science, information retrieval, structural chemistry, and other
viewpoints. We expect that chapters of the Primer will be available via
e-mail or FTP but those arrangements have not yet been made.
This text was written by Harold Morowitz, the guiding light of the
conference. It was adapted by Dan Davison; any textual errors are
strictly due to my transcription.
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Current understanding of biology is rooted in complex relationships
involving enormous amounts of data. Few scientists are currently able
to keep up with the enormous increase in knowledge, let alone able to
search it efficently for new or unsuspected links and important
analogies. Yet, this is what is required, if the continued and rapid
generation of such data is to lead to major conceptual, medical, and
agricultural advances anticipated over the next decades in the United
States.
As noted in the earlier "Models for Biomedical Research: A New
Perspective" :
We seem to be at a point in the history of biology
where new generalizations and higher order biological
laws are being approached but may be obscured by
the simple mass of data.
The organization of all biological experimental data coordinately within
a structure incorporating our current understanding--the Matrix of
Biological Knowledge--will provide the data and structure for the major
advances forseen in the years ahead.
In 1985 the report "Models for Biomedical Research: A New Perspective"
was issued by the National Academy of Sciences Press, reporting on the
work of a committee convened under the sponsorship of the National
Institutes of Health. The committee conducted, over a period of two
years, a series of workshops in which leading scientists from six
different areas reported on the use of "models" in their areas of
specialities. On the basis of these reports, the committee concluded
that modeling in contemporary biology consists of:
1) decomposing a problem into its component parts,
2) searching across the vast range of biological
information for linked or analogous behaviors
and structures, and
3) then applying the material found to our understanding
of the original problem.
Where more experiments and/or theoretical analyses are required, this
becomes the familiar loop. Results from the model system are fed back
to the original problem. In considering the vast and highly
interdisciplinary nature of biological information and the importance of
accessing that information, the models committee began to focus on a
concept which became known as "The Matrix of Biological Information" or
"The Matrix of Biological Knowledge", and defined as:
The complete database of published experiments,
structured by the laws, empirical generalizations,
and physical foundations of biology and connected
by all the interspecific transfers of information.
Subsequent to the original study, a distinction has been drawn between
the Matrix of Biological Information and the Matrix of Biological
Knowledge. The first is defined as the complete data base of published
biological experimental data, and the latter is expanded to include the
empirical generalizations, interconnections, laws, and models that are
used to structure the primary data. The Matrix of Biological Knowledge
thus includes the analysis of biological data as well as the data.
The Matrix concept does not represent a radical departure from the
conceptual approaches of many working biologists. Insightful life
scientists have always scanned the horizon of biolgical information for
analogies and new generalizations. What is new is the current size,
complexity, and rate of expansion of this information, which makes the
unaided and unstructured search virtually an impossibility. This
suggested to the models committee the following:
The development of the matrix and the extraction
of biological generalizations from it are going
to require a new kind of scientist, a person
familiar enough with the subject being studied to
read the literature critically, yet expert enough
in information science to be innovative in develop-
ing methods of classification and search. This implied
the development of a new kind of theory geared
explicitly to biology with it particular theory
structure. It will be tied to the use of computers,
will be required to eal with the vast amount and
complexity of information....
Finally, the models report recommended: "the matrix of biological
knowledge should be further investigated as a potential tool in
biomedical research under the aegis of the NIH. The concept must be
sharpened and tested as to its utility"
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The Matrix bulletin board is available on the Arpanet/CSNET and BITNET:
requests to be on the mailing list can be sent to BIO-MATRIX-REQUEST@
BIONET-20.ARPA. For those on BITNET, use the MAIL program and address
your note to BIO-MATRIX-REQUEST%BIONET-20.ARPA@WISCVM.BITNET.
The bulletin board is also available on USENET as bionet.bio-matrix.
Contact your site manager for information about its availability.
Submissions and questions about the Matrix concept can be sent to
BIO-MATRIX@BIONET-20.ARPA or BIO-MATRIX%BIONET-20.ARPA@WISCVM.BITNET.
Notes addressed to this address will be seen by all the Matrix
participants. At present there is no way to get e-mail from USENET to
BIO-MATRIX, but notes can be sent to ...cmcl2!lanl!dd (old style)
or dd@lanl.uucp (new style).
Dan Davison/ BIO-MATRIX editor/ bio-matrix-request@bionet-20.arpa