Post #4087106

When I quit medical research I got lucky and landed a job as the IT Manager for a medical research institute back in Australia. At least I understood what folks were doing at the lab bench, and hence how a little IT could lighten their load for more useful tasks. Hence, building a little server to crunch RNA/DNA folding predictions. I did a three day Java course once just to write a tool to sync the folding data against spreadsheets of other data. Alignments that used to take the researchers a week at a pop could be finished in an hour with a java app. It was a nice job while it lasted. I felt I was useful and could be creative. I had done my time running gels in the lab, and even worked on early research to build PCR tests (where you amplify very small amounts of nucleic acid to make it easier to detect). We never had a fraction if the computing power we have today. hence, unix was a key part of my IT skills. My android phone today has more power than most servers I ever ran. Cannot even imagine the wasted processing power being thrown at AI slop now. Anyway, every instance of community involvement in science is a win. Doesn't actually take much to be humbled by the natural world and our endeavours to understand it. There's a beauty to science that I wish everyone could have a chance to experience. Apologies for the waffle :)