What bothers me with the common usage of the word "bioinformatics" is
that it seems to cover *any* use of informatics in biology.
Unfortunatly this is far from the truth. For example, I work in
computer simulation of biochemical dynamics which is not considered
"bioinformatics". If I was to apply to bioinformatics job I would
most certainly be turned down since I have little knowledge of what to
do with a string of letters... (even though I could be of use in
designing a user-interface).
There is a lot more to the usage of computers in biological sciences
than what is covered by the term "bioinformatics".
On the subject of availability of bioinformatics jobs in the industry
I would say they are on the increase. Adverts for bioinformatics jobs
are frequent in Nature. I wish I could say the same for jobs in
"simulation of biochemical dynamics" (whatever one would call those
who practice it!)
--
Pedro Mendes
home: pedro at enzyme.demon.co.uk , work: prm at aber.ac.uk | Aberystwyth,
http://www.enzyme.demon.co.uk/pedro.html | Wales, U.K.
Author of GEPASI, a biochemical kinetics simulator | European Union
