Hey Bioinformatics lovers,

I am in Houston with my family for a short vacation.

We visited NASA, and the kids had a lot of fun.

It is amazing to see how powerful human wisdom is (putting humans on the moon in 1969),

But at the same time, how small humans are compared to the whole universe.

Make your life a little more meaningful by learning a little more than yesterday.

Let's talk about p-values today.

You ran the stats.
The p-value came back small.
You’re excited.

But stop.

Does it mean anything?​
Or is it just statistical noise dressed up as a signal?

This is the trap many fall into.

Bioinformatics Is NOT Just Statistics

Too many believe bioinformatics is just statistics + code.
But that’s like saying music is just notes + rhythm.

True bioinformatics lives at the intersection of biology, data, and storytelling.

Biology Asks the Questions

Whether you're studying cancer, the gut microbiome, or single-cell dynamics,
​biology is what frames your hypothesis.

What matters isn’t what changed, but why it matters in the context of life itself.

Stats Are Tools, Not Truth

You can get a p-value of 1e-10.
But if it’s biologically meaningless, it's still just noise.

​

Statistical significance is not the same as biological relevance.
​Context always wins.

Code Is the Bridge

Pipelines aren’t the goal.
They’re the bridge from messy data to meaningful insights.

But even the best pipeline can’t rescue a bad question.

The Magic Is in the Connection

Great bioinformaticians don’t just write scripts or run tests.

They connect the dots:

• Biology defines the why
• Statistics define the how
• Code enables the what if

When you integrate all three?
That’s when the story emerges.

Want to Level Up?

Next time you run DESeq2 or edgeR, stop and ask:

That’s the real test.

Bioinformatics Is a Worldview

It’s not a toolbox.
It’s a way of seeing.
A way of translating between molecules and math—between raw reads and human understanding.

And no single number will ever replace that.

Want to Go Deeper?

Read this reflection on what it really means to think like a bioinformatician:
​https://divingintogeneticsandgenomics.com/post/bioinformatics-is-not-just-statistics/​

Read the blog post to understand p-value and FDR deeply:

​https://divingintogeneticsandgenomics.com/post/understanding-p-value-multiple-comparisons-fdr-and-q-value/​

Key Takeaways

• Biology defines the why
• Statistics define the how
• Code enables the what if

When you bring all three together, you don’t just analyze data.
​You tell the truth inside it.

Happy Learning!
​Tommy aka crazyhottommy

Other posts that you may find useful

1. ​Bash strict mode to make your debugging easier.​
2. How to preprocess GEO bulk RNAseq fastq file with salmon.
3. 12 years ago, I typed my first "Hello world!". It is not easy to learn bioinformatics from scratch. But it is possible if you put in effort and have a clear pathway. ​
4. Using Human Protein Atlas to Find Tissue Specific Genes in R using bioconductor ​
5. You think the biggest danger in genomics is bad data. More than that. It's the mistakes you make—without knowing.​
6. Data wrangling is an essential skill for genomics data analysis. Here is the dplyr cheatsheet from posit
7. Use xargs and GNU parallel to speed up your analysis.
8. Applying for a bioinformatics job? Your CV is just one of hundreds. Here’s how to stand out—based on what I actually look for when hiring.🧵
9. ​Bash quirks will mess up your genomics pipeline silently.
10. How to check NAs in your datasets with R.
11. In bioinformatics, your analysis is only as strong as the workflow behind it. That’s why Snakemake matters.​
12. Most students in bioinformatics skip this. But understanding raw NGS data is where everything begins. Here’s why it matters. 🧵​
13. How to correctly name your files.​
14. You’re merging gene data across tools. Suddenly nothing matches. ENSEMBL, ENTREZ, TP53, P53...Why so many gene IDs?​
15. The biomarker test could change a patient’s life. What is it? 🧵 ​
    ​​

PS:
If you want to learn Bioinformatics, there are other ways that I can help:

1. My free YouTube Chatomics channel, make sure you subscribe to it.
2. I have many resources collected on my github here.
3. I have been writing blog posts for over 10 years https://divingintogeneticsandgenomics.com/​

Stay awesome!