Biology, solving problems with Mathematics!

              What is your first reaction when you are asked to read a book entitled “Mathematics of Life”? Well, I almost burst into tears because of the word “mathematics” there. I thought this would be another book containing mathematical equations and formulas but when I started reading it, it’s not what I thought it would be. I can really conclude that this book is way better than the previous book I’ve read about mathematics which was the “What is Mathematics, Really”. I’m not saying that the previous book was not good but it just seemed so deep to me unlike this book now, the Mathematics of Life by Ian Stewart, it gave me lots and lots of colorful thoughts about the application of mathematics to biology. This book talks about the history of biology with examples of how mathematics can help solve the tricky and unanswered questions that were made along the way.

                The Mathematics of Life has 19 chapters in it. Ian Stewart starts the book by introducing the first five great revolutions that have changed the way scientists think about life; the invention of the microscope, systematic classification of living things, development and theory of evolution, discovery of the gene (genetics) and the discovery of the DNA structure. The sixth revolution, according to Stewart, is mathematics and it is well on its way.

Chapters 2 and 3 of the book discuss the first two revolutions in biology that set the pattern of subsequent research for over a century. In the second chapter, Stewart talks about the great contributions of the microscope which opened up the internal world of very small things, particularly, the living creatures. So many small species were discovered and these species were examined through the use of microscopes. Scientists have found out what cells are and they also discovered the features of these species, how they move, live, grow and develop, replicate and evolve. In the third chapter, he introduces the classification of the organisms. It is the standard system for naming organisms in terms of species, genus and more extensive groupings. Classification is important because it pins down the area of discourse and the characters and features of each organism are carefully identified to distinguish one species from another. 

When chapter 4 came, some applications of math have been discussed already. I started to read some complicated explanations about the numerology and geometry of plants. Stewart points out the connection of mathematics in the arrangement of plant organs such as leaves, petals, branches, and florets which is called the phyllotaxis. He also discusses the pattern of spiral in pineapples and the heads of sunflowers in mathematical terms. His explanations actually amazed me. The plant patterns have a connection with the golden ratio, golden angle and the Fibonacci sequence. I think, the connection of such patterns is the best-known occurrence of a mathematical pattern in nature.

In the next three chapters, Stewart continues to discuss the 3 remaining revolutions. He talks about how and why the species evolved in mathematical terms also. The deduction is that species can gradually change; and given enough time, small changes can combine into large ones. The natural selection and competition are also introduced. These are all in chapter 5. In chapter 6, the fourth revolution is discussed which is the genetics.  He introduces how Gregor Mendel used the pea plants for his experiments and found out the reason why and how traits from parents are passed to their offspring and what would be the ratios for each offspring. Chromosomes, mitosis and meiosis are also introduced in this chapter and prokaryotic reproduction is differentiated from eukaryotic reproduction. In chapter 7, the role of DNA is introduced. DNA is hailed as the molecule of life and the information needed to make an organism. The structure and the composition of the DNA are discussed. DNA mutation, genetic modification and RNA interference are also explained in chapter 7 but I won’t give further details about them in this review.

Chapter 8 focuses on the Human Genome Project and algorithmic challenges of DNA sequencing. In the next chapters of the book, Stewart discusses the importance of mathematics in many other topics in biology. This includes how symmetry plays a role in the structure of virus, the splitting into two of a single species and also the animal coat patterns. Also, Stewart tells about calculations needed to determine if DNA forms knots. He looks at the pattern of the spots and also the stripes in some species. Furthermore, topics such as the molecular biology, taxonomy, virology, neurobiology, further discussions about DNA, proteins and evolution, knot theory and population dynamics are explained with mathematics. The game theory to model biological evolution is also introduced in the book which can help out which evolutionary strategies are best, and what problems in genetics can be understood using probability.

In chapter 18, Stewart talks about the life that exists outside our planet. He shows how people are not able to prove that life exists on other planets aside from Earth, but he suggests that we can really use some mathematical modeling to search for possibilities that there is anybody out there!

Stewart says that the sixth revolution, which is mathematics, is not revolutionary because no one ever used mathematics to solve a biological problem before. What is revolutionary is the breadth of the methods used, and the extent to which they are starting to set the agenda in some areas of biology.

I like the book because it doesn’t contain a lot of mathematics in the form of formulas and calculations. The author is very good in writing and translating the complex concepts into simple and understandable forms so that the readers will understand. The book contains many pictures which can really help me comprehend the things the author discusses. I somehow enjoyed reading the book because as a biology student, I can relate to some of the topics which were discussed in the book and it is really informative. You should read it!