The blog Blind.Scientist has posted an interview with Alexei Drummond, head scientist of Biomatters (developer of bioinformatics software Geneious), on the question of how much programming skills a biologist should have. At his blog, Neil Saunders brings up the point that learning to program will, in the end, save researchers time and effort. "Since we live in an age where the ability to acquire, process, and interpret large amounts of data is an important research skill," he posts, "I'd assume that any biologist with any common sense is thinking about improving their computer skills."
But you know, Neil, what they say about people who assume.