Pitfalls in Information Theory
and
Molecular Information Theory

Thomas D. Schneider

The first thing needed is the rectification of names.
-- Confucius, Analects 13:3
Nature Chemical Biology 5, 521 - 525 (2009); The Rectification of Names

I might note also that some of the literature is confused and some of it is just plain wrong.
--- John Pierce, Symbols, Signals and Noise: The Nature and Process of Communication, 1961, preface, x.

Small icon for Theory of Molecular Machines: physics,
chemistry, biology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory,
genetic engineering, sequence logos, information theory,
electrical engineering, thermodynamics, statistical
mechanics, hypersphere packing, gumball machines, Maxwell's
Daemon, limits of computers

Information theory and molecular biology touch on a huge number of topics, as shown by the icon to the right. (Click on it to see the detail.) As a result there are many ways that one can get into intellectual trouble and many of these are widely repeated in the literature. This page is devoted to listing the pitfalls that I have come across and needed to solve to create a consistent theory. Not everything that is in the literature is correct!




Reviews of Books and Papers containing Pitfalls

color bar Small icon for Theory of Molecular Machines: physics,
chemistry, biology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory,
genetic engineering, sequence logos, information theory,
electrical engineering, thermodynamics, statistical
mechanics, hypersphere packing, gumball machines, Maxwell's
Daemon, limits of computers


Schneider Lab

origin: 2002 March 13
updated: version = 1.67 of pitfalls.html 2023 May 28
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