A Book Report: The Mathematics of Life

 Ian Stewart’s The Mathematics of Life, informs us that there was more to the history of science that we ought to know. The discovery of theories and principles, inventions of different kinds of both scientific apparatuses we use in this modern age, the breakthroughs that lead us to where we are right now by our forefathers; was with the help of both science and mathematics.

The author did a great job to make us acknowledge the emerging and probably one of which will be the greatest breakthrough to our human age; biomathematics. The author points out that there were five (5) revolutions that changed the scientists’ point of view towards life. These five revolutions are the microscope, classification, evolution, genetics, and lastly, the structure of DNA. But there was one thing the author said in his book and it is about the sixth revolution, and it is mathematics.

            I, too, was shocked when he stated this in his book but the author pretty much changed my way of thinking too. Since mathematics has been with the human race for hundreds of years, Babylonians was even intrigued by theoretical mathematics that they wrote an ample amount of text involving geometry and algebra to uphold their civilization. But more than that, Stewart stated that the first revolution happened 300 years ago. And it was the microscope, which surprisingly enough, was inspired by the works of the great Galileo Galilei’s telescope. This gave way to different breakthroughs in biology, genetics, etc.

The next evolution is the classification, taxonomy, for that matter. And taxonomy was not just some fancy way to classify an animal just by naming one after the other by putting some fancy Latin names, it was a systematic way to classify a domestic cat, a Siamese cat, etc. Part of which is mathematics had a role in classifying units and sets of variables with the use of diagrams and tables. Furthermore, the reason why subdivisions were made is because, over time more and more animals and organisms are discovered and then classified to the groups they are related. The amounts of animals and/or organisms are so plenty that scientists used mathematical equation to get a theoretical sum of a certain species. This operation and many others are now commonly used to get a theoretical amount of a certain species, endangered or not.

The third revolution stated by the author was evolution. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the theory of evolution. Watching informative yet theoretical television shows gave me such bliss. I often question myself if they were really true. How thousand years ago, certain fishes knew how to walk the earth with their odd fins that acted like feet. But the author said that the third revolution got off of a bad start. Since evolution was not widely acknowledged when it was first introduced solely because scientists, mostly taxonomists, encouraged that newly discovered species were not evolving – just not seen yet. Charles Darwin opposed the idea, he said that evolution was an essential key to survival. In his research he used various arithmetic operations because, theoretically he calculated the population of the evolving species.

Fourth revolution was brought to light due to the help of the microscope. Genetics was triggered by the great mind of Gregor Mendel, who was a gardener when he was young. Biologists those days did not accept Mendel’s theories, mainly because they are conflicted with prevalent belief that characters passed from parent to offspring by ‘blending’. But after his death, two scientists rediscovered his unappreciated and unread papers. Various biologists began experimenting, too. One of which, tested breeding on grasshoppers and found out that a physical factor of heredity, the chromosomes.  Stewart did not fail to miss a single string in this thread, he profoundly explained the origins of the discovery of genetics. He noted every single important details through the subject matter, using mathematics in figuring out the probability of an offspring.

            The fifth revolution, and is widely known as our genetic code that makes us different from everyone else, is the DNA. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all living organisms and viruses. Scientists used a series of mathematical experiments. They substituted these molecules into letter and began to illustrate the DNA, until they got what they were looking for, a double helix DNA structure that fits perfectly to a molecule that sustains life.

And lastly in Stewart’s book, he implied that Mathematics is the sixth revolution. He described that Mathematics has been in accord with the works of physical science for a long time. The author talks about Mathematics’ wide range of help in various discoveries in the field of the burgeoning biomathematics. I was inspired by this book because I learned more about science and how mathematics aided in its research. Many of which are surprisingly enough, I thought had nothing to do with Mathematics. The author pointed out that biomathematics aim is the selection of useful models, it wants us to take biology seriously – not missing out anything crucial, and lastly is to pay attention to the problems biologists want to solve. Ian Stewart stated in his book that his sixth revolution is not that revolutionary, though. Since no one ever used mathematics solely to solve a scientific problem. What is revolutionary about it is the paramount of methods used, and the extent of which they are starting to set the agenda of biology. The author encourages us to be eclectic to the idea that the Mathematics and Biology community has long been interconnected. We should embrace his work, and embrace the new epoch that is to come. The profundities are infinite when you use both of them to seek out neoteric theories, discoveries, and inventions that would help both humans and other organisms alike.