As swine flu (or should I be calling this H1N1) was at the top of the news, I saw this story on TV about a genetic scientist who was riveted to his computer screen watching the genetic sequence of the virus as it was changing. He has these strings of numbers and characters coming up on his screen with highlights when one of the digits or characters changed. In near-real-time he was watching the evolution of the virus.

As I watched this story, I was reminded how even biology today is an information science. The importance of data and information to generating knowledge about this virus is underscored in stories such as this.