As a young researcher pursuing a career in biology, I face a pretty daunting challenge: surviving a new world order in a science that is increasingly using computational methods to get results. Don't get me wrong: it's exhilarating to witness what may be the next paradigm shift in biology. But it is a little intimidating too. The future may depend on the use of sophisticated statistical, modelling and computational tools to integrate vast amounts of data from varying levels of biological observation. Can I even dream of a career in biological research if I don't become at once a biologist, a computer scientist and a mathematician with a flair for nonlinear systems?

I think I can. The trick is not aspiring to become an expert in all these fields, but being able to effectively communicate with such experts and to speak their language. My dilemma brings to mind a scene at the end of the movie Love Actually, when Englishman Jamie proposes marriage to Aurelia in broken Portuguese, and she replies, “Yes is being my answer.” Neither speaks each other's language perfectly, but they come together at the end. Researchers don't need to become fluent, but we should definitely strive to speak as many scientific languages as possible. Engineers, programmers and mathematicians will need to get by in the various dialects of biology if they want to partake in this revolution.

I think the key is to start small. If you can afford the time, take some formal classes or try to educate yourself informally. Keep handy some textbooks from fields of expertise outside your own, and consult them when you come across concepts that you've forgotten or never learned. I taught myself some Perl, a programming language that allows users to work with diverse bioinformatics tools — I now know enough to reorder my data columns or add any missing headers in my data files. More importantly, I find it much easier to talk to programmers now that I've picked up some of the lingo. And I've been contemplating algebra and statistics classes to freshen up on forgotten concepts with my new, added mathematics perspective. It will take time and discipline, but it's a worthwhile investment. I'm sure Jamie and Aurelia don't regret it one bit.