Biometricians vs. Mendelians

Great post over at the Biochemist Blog: Biometricians vs Mendelians: What a century old debate ago can teach researchers today.

"As researchers within genetics come together from increasingly specialised fields, each with their own pre-conceptions and biases, perhaps what is needed is a 21st Century Ronald Fisher to bring together the disparate ideas across biology to address these larger questions. As cross-disciplinary collaborations become more popular and incentives for such projects more common, the future for another 100 years of quantitative genetics becomes increasingly exciting and vibrant."

Biometry vs Biostatistics vs Bioinformatics

There is a very good post by Emi Tanaka on her Savvy Statistics blog titled: "What’s in a name? The difference between Bioinformatics, Biometrics and Biostatistics: Doing analytics in the life sciences? What’s your identity label?" I'll share some highlights focused mostly on biometry but encourage reading the whole thing. 

The International Biometrics Society includes a definition in their website:

"The terms “Biometrics” and “Biometry” have been used since early in the 20th century to refer to the field of development of statistical and mathematical methods applicable to data analysis problems in the biological sciences. Statistical methods for the analysis of data from agricultural field experiments to compare the yields of different varieties of wheat, for the analysis of data from human clinical trials evaluating the relative effectiveness of competing therapies for disease, or for the analysis of data from environmental studies on the effects of air or water pollution on the appearance of human disease in a region or country are all examples of problems that would fall under the umbrella of “Biometrics” as the term has been historically used."


Biometrics have a rich history dating back to Ronald Fisher’s conception of modern day statistics. The Biometrics journal, while having emphasis on problems in the biological sciences, is strongly geared for statisticians.

Biometry, the active pursuit of biological knowledge by quantitative methods.
— R.A. Fisher, 1948

Much of Fisher’s work was motivated by agriculture and perhaps rooted with this part of the history, a biometrician often references a person who is adept to apply statistical methods in the agricultural field. Although biometrics is not constraint to genetics alone, Fisher was an important figure in both statistics and genetics.

I really enjoyed how she concluded her article:

In the end, a title is just a title, a name is just a name and a label is just a label. I personally care more about working with people whose principle and values are aligned with mine. To that end, I believe everyone should choose an identity that they are comfortable and happy with. I appreciate that some people have identities that are transient; some don’t and some are still figuring it out. Regardless, it’s good to reflect and think.

This actually makes me think of Thich Nhat Hanh as he writes in Peace is Every Step: "So we must be careful not to imprison ourselves in concepts."