The Art of Data Science

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of developing new skills in data science, focusing on understanding data's rules, symbolism, and relationships to physical space and time to extract meaningful scientific knowledge.

Contribution

It introduces a systemized framework inspired by classical education to understand data's fundamental properties and their role in scientific discovery.

Findings

Understanding data's rules and symbolism is crucial for scientific insights.

Technologies and processes must evolve to handle complex data sets.

A comprehensive framework aids in extracting knowledge from data.

Abstract

To flourish in the new data-intensive environment of 21st century science, we need to evolve new skills. These can be expressed in terms of the systemized framework that formed the basis of mediaeval education - the trivium (logic, grammar, and rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). However, rather than focusing on number, data is the new keystone. We need to understand what rules it obeys, how it is symbolized and communicated and what its relationship to physical space and time is. In this paper, we will review this understanding in terms of the technologies and processes that it requires. We contend that, at least, an appreciation of all these aspects is crucial to enable us to extract scientific information and knowledge from the data sets which threaten to engulf and overwhelm us.