Again, a short note today (but I have some longer posts on the way). I’ve just fished reading slides of the talk Kevin Karplus had given on the 3DSig (satellite conference of the last ISMB in Vienna). The talk was entitled: Better than chance: the importance of null models. If you haven’t been there, I hope take-home messages will convince you to have a look:

• Base your null models on biologically meaningful null hypotheses, not just computationally convenient math.
• Generative models and simulation can be useful for more complicated models.
• Picking the right model remains more art than science.

Very good connection of math skills and a feeling of biological problems.