Data is everywhere: in our natural and our built environments, in our bodies and our actions, and in all of our stunning creations. Inundated by this sea of data, our challenge is to interpret, learn from, and utilize it. Informatics is the science of turning data into information.
Through my colleagues at the Carnegie Institution for Science, I'm lucky to be involved in several data science projects revealing new truths about our natural world. In one recent paper, we introduce the exciting new field of "mineral informatics." In another, we survey systematic trends in the different ways that minerals form—their so-called "paragenetic modes."
Thanks to my recent exposure to the field of informatics, I've come to see that there are striking parallels between the principles of data science and the fundamental activities of life. Not only do we live in the age of information, we wouldn't be possible without it.
Figure 2 from "What is mineral informatics?"
