Bioinformatics is a relatively recent study in science. It studies massive amounts of biological data, mostly focusing on molecules like DNA. A normal person wouldn't be able to compute all the information in a timely manner, so computers are used in large part in this field. Because DNA is constantly changing, bioinformatics allows scientists to see into what exactly is changing, and what these changes might lead to.

As evolution kicks in, the information contained in our DNA is changed. When we take the information from living creatures and compare them to each other, we can see how closely related species are. With this information, biologist can construct family trees for whole species and their subfamilies. By finding the connecting points between each tree for each species, a grand tree is created, often referred to as the "Tree of Life".

If you're looking for information on a cell, you don't need to look any further than the DNA. When a cell wants to do something, such as building a protein, it accesses that part of its DNA to create it. These proteins are the working structures of the cell. They do everything from transportation, supporting the structure, to movement and even metabolism.

With twenty different amino acids used to build many, many different (Millions) of types of protein, it can make breaking it down a taxing process. This makes computers more viable for information like this, as again a human brain cannot process information like this in a timely fashion. As such, computers are used to analyze the DNA and amino acid sequences when they are created.

Recent developments from chemists have provided a variety of ways to understand the behavior of small molecules as well as their shape. The way they do this is through mathematical analysis, which is just using math to analyze situations. With this information, as well as DNA being broken down, we can see how a protein binds to another, which proteins will be built from what part of DNA, or even how a cell has changed through evolution.

Breaking down DNA isn't as simple as it sounds, either. There are over 20,000 different genes, each one meaning something completely different. There are also dominant and recessive traits, dominant traits being the ones most likely to show and recessive being the ones that are least likely to show. This information can help determine many childhood diseases, including asthma, allergies, leukemia, and even Brain Tumors.

Bioinformatics consists of creating and advancing algorithms, computational, algorithms and statistical techniques. These allow for the possibility to solve problems in biological data. Through gene finding, drug design, or even the modeling of evolution, we are able to comprehend things that weren't a possibility a mere 30 years ago. It has been said many times that computers are the future, and science seems to have fully embraced that.

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