Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
tecting hierarchies and structures, because it is the integrity of this space
that determines the value of their work—in other words, it is through
the organization of data in virtual space that bioinformation can become
bioknowledge. Ensembl's work should be understood as integral to the
knowledge-making practice of biology. Data management or data cura-
tion consists of this work of organizing data into value. A disordered
or haphazardly organized space would be of no value because it would
contain no knowledge, reveal nothing about biology. Thus the ways
data are moved around in space and the ways they are arrayed in space
determine their epistemological status—data that are appropriately or-
dered in virtual space can attain the status of biological knowledge.
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A great deal of effort and computational time is invested in keep-
ing the data where they should be because the Ensembl brand depends
on it: if information in the publicly accessible databases is to maintain
its reputation for being reliable and usable knowledge, it must remain
highly ordered at all times. The Ensembl team itself conducts no experi-
ments, produces no raw data directly from wet samples. Yet its work
is highly valued by biologists because of its contribution to organizing
data into knowledge. The particular ways in which Ensembl structures
and organizes information are considered to be its trademark and its
greatest asset.
The careful management of and navigation through virtual space
constitutes the work of bioinformatic knowledge making. The fl atten-
ing of both sequences and language described earlier in this chapter
makes it possible to do this kind of biology in virtual space. It does not,
however, make biology completely fl uid. Rather, the constitution of bio-
logical objects becomes dependent on all sorts of structures built into
hardware and software. By understanding networks and hard drives as
a space that can be traversed, surveyed, farmed, and mapped, we can
begin to understand how biology is constrained by the virtual spaces it
inhabits.
Conclusions
This chapter has considered the virtual spaces in which biologists move
around and through which they make knowledge. In contemporary
biology, different kinds of spaces and different kinds of movements
through them produce different kinds of knowledge. Information tech-
nologies require the fl attening of biological objects and language into
data. Pipelines and ontologies are both ways of achieving this fl attening.
