Understandin 1 . Understanding Nature Through the Symbiosisof Information Science , Bioinformatics , and Neuroinformatics

This chapter presents some background information, methods, and techniques of information science, bioand neuroinformatics in their symbiosis. It explains the rationale, motivation, and structure of the Handbook that reflects on this symbiosis. For this chapter, some text and figures from [1.1] have been used. As the introductory chapter, it gives a brief overview of the topics covered in this Springer Handbook of Bio-/Neuroinformatics with emphasis on the symbiosis of the three areas of science concerned: information science (informatics) (IS), bioinformatics (BI), and neuroinformatics (NI). The topics presented and included in this Handbook provide a far from exhaustive coverage of these three areas, but they clearly show that we can better understand nature only if we utilize the methods of IS, BI, and NI, considering their integration and interaction.