Hello friends
Welcome to Life, explained, a newsletter about the science of decoding the living world with data and algorithms. I publish long-form essays that discuss recent life sciences research and the 3x10 (three times ten) monthly digest summarizing the top 10 most exciting papers I read each month in 3 sentences. My writings have a strong bias on innovation in cancer research, deep learning, and genomics.
I invite everybody to discover Life, explained: researchers, data enthusiasts, explorers, economists, artists, athletes - simply anybody who wants to know more. If you are marginally interested in either Biology or Algorithms, then my newsletter might be relevant for you and support you to:
Understand genomics and computational biology (DNA, algorithms, data)
Enhance your own critical and scientific thinking skills
Live a more fulfilling and healthier life, equipped with novel insights about your own biology
How is this newsletter different?
In today’s chatGPT world, you can generate vast amounts of content on any topic with minimal effort. But, as people, we remain deeply wired to relate to each other’s voices and experiences. Even though chatGPT can provide valuable information, it can neither motivate your interest in the how and the why nor spark your curiosity about concepts yet unknown to you. With my writings, I share my awe and excitement about the science of life and hopefully inspire you to think differently about the world around you.
Do not forget this: you only owe one thing: your time. Be the one in charge of how you spend it. Life, explained will not flood your Inbox with email after email. You will only receive the 3x10 digest on the 30th of every month (earlier for February) and, every once in a while, a long-form essay, on which I usually work for quite a long time.
Hmm, what is life, anyway?
Isn’t it amazing? Complexity is everywhere within and around us. Fancy algorithms promise to disentangle our complex reality that we can’t map by eye or solve by hand. Genomics promises to (ultimately) explain life, one mystery at a time.
But what is there to explain? There is nothing more natural than life. We know so much about life, yet we know so little. And we all learn more and more with each passing day, because living means learning about life.
About me
My name is Simona Cristea and I am the author of Life, explained. I am a genomics researcher specialized in computational and mathematical models of cancer evolution. As Faculty and Group Leader at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, I am heading the Data Science and Computational Biology across the Hale Center for Pancreatic Cancer. I am also doing research at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Find me on Twitter @simocristea and get in touch.
Thanks for visiting my website, it’s great to have you here!
