Bioinformatics Programming Using Python

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The animal on the cover of Bioinformatics Programming Using Python is a brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), also known as a common rat, sewer rat, Norway rat, or wharf rat. One of the largest members of the Muroidea family, the brown rat is 10 to 15 inches long with a 6- to 8-inch long tail. Its fur is coarse and mostly brown or gray. This rat has very sharp hearing and smell, but poor vision. It is omnivorous and nocturnal, and lives almost everywhere humans live, particularly in cities. Like other rodents, brown rats may carry pathogens and spread disease.

Contrary to the brown rat’s genus name—norvegicus—it did not originate in Norway. It was named by an 18th-century British naturalist who mistakenly believed that the rat had migrated to England on Norwegian ships in the early 1700s. By the end of the 19th century, scientists had established that the brown rat had most likely originated in China. Today the brown rat has spread to all continents and is the dominant rat in Europe and North America—making it the most successful mammal on earth after humans.

The cover image is from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSansMonoCondensed.