Biology is a science of details. For the researcher coming to biology from another field, the sheer volume of facts can seem daunting, making it difficult to know where to begin. In this tutorial, Nathan Torkington and Per Jambeck give budding biologists a foothold with a factually sound, entertaining, and informal, overview of the science and experiments behind bioinformatics. The presentation is aimed specifically at people with a computational background, paying special attention to biological terminology, what it means, where the data comes from, and what sort of cultural differences exist between biology and the computer sciences.