Big Data in Biosciences

Abstract

We are in an information era when data are generated in masses: from devices that stream data in a health context, such as wearable fitness devices, to genomics data, to health exposure data from a variety of monitors that may be misaligned, and to earth observation data from satellites. The Big Data era in which we live is viewed as having the power to revolutionize society. The term big data has different meanings to different sectors: for engineers, for example, this term encompasses methods and tools for transmission of data faster, including wireless transmissions; for sociologists, it encompasses curation methods and techniques; for computer scientists, the term encompasses information management and security systems and analytics; and for statisticians, the term principally refers to data analytical techniques. This entry discusses challenges and opportunities in big data in biosciences exemplified through three important big data areas from health, environmental studies, and earth observation: human population genomics, forest fire analytics, and smoke estimation from satellite imagery.