My goal is that readers of this book will emerge with

• An appreciation of the nature of the very large amount of detailed information about ourselves and other species that has become available.

• A sense of the range of applications of bioinformatics to molecular biology, clinical medicine, pharmacology, biotechnology, agriculture, forensic science, anthropology and other disciplines.

• A useful knowledge of the techniques by which, through the World Wide Web, we gain access to the data and the methods for their analysis.

• An appreciation of the role of computers and computer science in the investigations and applications of the data.

• Confidence in the reader's basic skills in information retrieval, and calculations with the data, and in the ability to extend these skills by self-directed 'field work' on the Web.

• A sense of optimism that the data and methods of bioinformatics will create profound advances in our understanding of life, and improvements in the health of humans and other living things.

Plan of the book

• Chapter 1 sets the stage and introduces all of the major players: DNA and protein sequences and structures, genomes and proteomes, databases and information retrieval, the World Wide Web and computer programming. Before developing individual topics in detail it is important to see the framework of their interactions.

• Chapter 2 presents the nature of individual genomes, including the Human Genome, and the relationships among them, from the biological point of view.

• Chapter 3 imparts basic skills in using the Web in bioinformatics. It describes archival databanks, and...