March 29, 2024

Cover Die Vermessung des Lebens, von Peter Spork

Data collection for health – Wissenschaft.de

Count your steps, feel your pulse, and measure your breathing rate. For more and more people as well as for science journalist and neurobiologist Peter Spork, data collection has long been a part of everyday life. But this is just the beginning. New medicine takes into account all kinds of biomarkers, uses information from metabolism or decodes a personal genome.

Systems biology is transforming the growing mountain of data into science. With the help of a computer, it is increasingly possible to integrate a variety of information into a comprehensive picture. According to Peter Spork, this creates a new holistic approach. It’s not about more performance or personal improvement. Systems biology wants to understand networks in order to use these findings to provide useful advice for healthy living. Health is not just the absence of disease, but rather the continuous process of an individual’s adaptation to life’s challenges.

Soon many of us will be using some form of healthy navigation. When driving, we have long been accustomed to the fact that a well-intentioned computer tells us where to go. In the case of health, this type of external identification is still in its infancy. But she will win. Peter Spork can’t wait. Many of his health tips can of course be implemented today: more exercise, a healthy diet, and enough sleep. Michael Lang

Peter Spork
life measurement
Two, 336 h, 24 euros. –
ISBN 978–3–421–04850–9