1. Things I'm Glad I Learned

   Skills, concepts, techniques, and models

   WARNING: This post was written with haste and therefore contains all kinds of typos, spelling errors, grammatical issues, and delusions of grandeur, wisdom, and writing ability.

   This post is intended as a living document—a gratitude journal of sorts—of some things that I'm glad I learned. I expect many of the items on this list will be relevant to computation biology, but that may change in the future.

   The big idea is that for every item on this list I am (A) glad that someone introduced me to it, and (B) think more people should know about it. This post is my chance to "pay it backwards", as it were; maybe someone else will be grateful for something they find for the first time on this list.

   It may also double as an inspiration list for future posts.

   My goal is to write a small blurb for each item …

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2. Do bacterial species exist?

   Any of my friends or colleagues who have had the "pleasure" of talking about science with me for more than a few hours know that I am prepared, at the drop of a hat, to rant extensively about several standing debates in biology which I consider merely semantic. For instance:

   Q: Are viruses alive?

   A: Who CARES!? Viruses do what they do. Cellular organisms do something else. What difference does it make if we decide to allow our middle-schoolers to draw little dotted lines around animals, bacteria, and viruses? And I don't even want to hear the word "prion".

   I have a similar level of disdain for people who try to decide on a single definition for "species". Ultimately I am a pluralist: the definition should be tailored to the scientific question. Paleontologists, you have your morphological species concept, because what else do stony fossils allow? Are you studying speciation …

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