On 2011-04-06, at 3:24 PM, Robin Kramer wrote: > Not quite blast for dummies, but there is a chapter in "Bioinformatics for > Dummies" on BLAST. > > http://books.google.com/books?id=4Tw0aZBnBLEC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=blast+for+dummies&source=bl&ots=uKqjK6w6wu&sig=Q4SQ7XvjLsILgwC0WmpWFdUJw70&hl=en&ei=wLycTfbmI4r0tgO54_CLBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=blast%20for%20dummies&f=false > > I love that "The parameters for blast are quite optimal, there is little > reason to change these, unless of course...". I remember going to my first bioinformatics conference in the early 90s. I remember that the first speaker introduced the domain, including some of the early tools, e.g. Blast, etc. He said, "If you don't understand what each parameter in BLAST means, you should not be using BLAST." But then, I also remember getting a tape copy of the Staden package in FORTRAN, and running it down to the CS department so that they could load it on the VAX. I was in grad school then.