233

Interestingly, there are also labs for Computational Population Biology (e.g., https://

compbio.cs.uic.edu/). There is also a metasite for this, the Biology WebDirectory (https://

www.biologydir.com/over-­population/p1.html), which offers many more other terms.

Pandemic

Global epidemics that cover almost all countries with infections are called pandemics.

These occur about every 60 years. Since November 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the

disease it causes, COVID-19, initially in China, have come to the attention of the global

public, now a pandemic. Bioinformatics is critically important (Zimmerman et al. 2020) to

rapidly decipher the genome sequence for such a new pathogen, to model the spread of

infection and frequency of infection, but also to describe protein interactions as quickly as

possible (especially with the human host, such as the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, Shang

et al. 2020). Bioinformatics also helps to develop therapies (e.g., antivirals, Bojkova et al.

2020), vaccines and neutralizing antibodies (Pinto et al. 2020).

Pivot Point Limited Carrying Capacity

The global problems of mankind are each partial aspects of a biological system (man,

other animal and plant species and the whole environment). They are all naturally inter­

connected and can therefore be modelled using systems biology methods. They are a typi­

cal problem that every species faces when the carrying capacity of its ecosystem is

exceeded, if no adaptation to this situation takes place (“Plan A”: do nothing or change

nothing, but economic growth at any price). The important thing now, then, is to adapt

decisively to carrying capacity through sustained system adjustments (“Plan B”; Brown

2009). If this happens too slowly, very robust, sustainable technologies are crucial (“Plan

C”, what to do if the system buckles?) to avoid serious damage. Here bioinformatics,

together with molecular biology, computational technology, synthetic biology, and nano­

technology, can point to important approaches (see Chap. 13). We must adapt now, but it

is not too late. Our generation and our children will have to do this to get ahead of natural

processes (Barnosky et al. 2011; Lehman et al. 2021). As humans, we have a good chance

of doing this in an intelligent and social way, rather than solving this naturally through a

hard degradation and decay phase, following our bacterial example.

16.3

Global Digitalisation and Personal Space

Sample Task for this: The Growth of the Internet and Social Media, how Better to

Predict It?

2015

16.3  Global Digitalisation and Personal Space