This viewpoint seems to go against the HN zeitgeist -- a lot of programmers are self-taught, especially in the sciences. Just by necessity, students in molecula

This viewpoint seems to go against the HN zeitgeist -- a lot of programmers are self-taught, especially in the sciences. Just by necessity, students in molecular biology and genetics learn some scripting and how to push data around on the command line, and from that point a fair number of them really get into it and start studying the finer points of software engineering on their own. (NB: Nearly everyone in bioinformatics has to accept some gaping holes in their education -- who has time to become an expert in each of biochemistry, medicine, computer science, and statistics?)