Visualising Large Data Sets in Molecular Biology

Abstract

As the wealth of information in molecular biology continues to grow there is a pressing need for powerful graphical tools to aid in the comprehension of this mass of data. This paper discusses a number of such tools that have been developed at EMBL that aim to provide data visualisation and graphical interface environments so that the molecular biologist can perform analysis of biological information more easily. A number of scientific disciplines that were once distinct from computer science are now inextricably interwoven with it such as molecular modeling, computational chemistry, astrophysics, and fluid dynamics. These are disciplines for which visualization is not simply a tool, but an enabling technology. [Computer Graphics World, July, 1989]