Biomaths According to Mr. Stewart

To be honest, (growing up) I was told this: 1. There are two kinds of people according to skill (words or numbers); 2. I am a ‘word’ person and; 3. ‘Word’ people usually do not excel in numbers.

            I believed what I was told. I deluded myself in that belief.

This has always consoled me whenever I had to slave myself in order to obtain good grades in math exams when I would only put minimal efforts in language ones and still manage to sail on.

Then, lightning struck, college came and my bubble shattered like glass. Every now and then I would find myself picking up after my lost esteem each time I have to enter math class.

If only I had known what I was getting into, choosing Biology over others, thinking I would escape its (Math’s) wrath. Alas! I could’ve never been more wrong.

Far from my previous sentiments, the book acknowledges how mathematics takes the spotlight in the study of life (Biology) by playing a big role in gaining and explaining knowledge in the science.

Here the author addresses the five revolutions of Biology wherein names that are familiar to us are once again introduced: Leeuwenhoek (Microscopy), Linnaeus (Classification), Darwin (Evolution), Mendel (Genetics), and Crick and Watson (DNA). In the said revolutions, math can be encountered from the number of microorganisms which we can now observe with the discovery of the microscope to the sequencing of base pairs in the DNA.

Much like how we learned mathematics, Mr. Stewart approaches his readers rather simply at first, and then becoming more complex as he delves deeper into the relationship between math and bio.

An analogous thought which can be formulated from these is that just like the microscope, although math can be painful due to the complexity it brings, this complexity is also beneficial such that without the discovery of the microscope, leaps in medicine would not be possible today.

However, just like the question “Is anybody out there?” there is still a lot we have yet to learn about mathematics. Much like our fear of the unknown in the world outside of ours including the otherworldly terrestrial beings (excuse my unwanted humor haha), the root of hatred towards mathematics is most probably ignorance of what’s in it (guilty party in here). My guess is that there is an inverse relationship between the lack of knowledge and the bliss we find in math. Sorry Paramore! (unwanted humor (?) mehe)

Like Dany Goky once said, “Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity”.

Who knows? We might make it to the list and create a new revolution.