Decoded

Honestly speaking I have planned not to read the book and pass a book review at all.  Its Christmas break and I have been planning to spend it sleeping, watching movies and reading fantasy books and not reading another boring math book. I was having a success with my plan when the good side of me reminded me how important a book review is. And so I hesitantly went to my room and read the book. I thought it will be like reading the first book. Yes, I did learned a lot in that book but I had a hard time reading and understanding it. Like I said in the review, I had to read it twice. So it was shocking and amazing how the second book, Mathematics of Life, is easy to read and so interesting that the reader will be hooked from the very first page.  

Ian Stewart started his exploration of mathematics of life with the five revolutions that changes biology or simply life. These are the invention of microscope, the systematic classification, the theory of evolution, genetics and the structure of the DNA.  He then said that it didn’t merely end in the fifth revolution because there is a sixth revolution and its coming on its way.

He first discussed the first evolution. He interestingly told how a simple invention led humans to the first biological revolution, how it opened the eyes of the people in the wonderful and complex life and opened new ideas and knowledge that was never thought before. He gave an excellent history of the long list that gave order and organization to the diverse organisms living in our world which is the classification. He started it with the tale of Noah’s Ark to how Carl Linnaeus classified organisms and how mathematics is applied. His explanation of the plants patterns connection with the Fibonacci sequence gave me idea that through math, we can discover and explain clues and secrets about the patterns we can see in living organisms like plants just like a detective decoding clues in a case.

He continued his discussion on how mathematics tries to decode the concepts and ideas that forms and creates life. He started with the third revolution which is evolution. In this revolution, Stewart told Darwin’s quest in discovering evolution. In the fourth revolution which is Genetics, he introduced and discussed Gregor Mendel’s experiment and how he discovered genes. I find it amazing that I don’t need to review those painful algebra equations but through simple arithmetic some ideas of evolution and Mendel’s heredity can be explained.

With the growing understanding of genes, people searched for more knowledge about it. This gave rise to the fifth revolution, the structure of DNA. In this chapter he explored the discovery and journey of DNA and how Watson and Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. He also discussed the most ambitious Human Genome Project which is the sequencing of the human genome or creating a book of like. He also captivatingly discuss how math can answer one of the greatest question asked, does life exist on other planets?

In the last chapter, Stewart discussed the sixth revolution which is mathematics. He started with Galileo’s great prophecy of the universe being written in the language of mathematics. We need it to understand the world and without it, we are like wandering a dark labyrinth. He then said that mathematics played a central role for physical science. It is the driving force for dramatic advances. Mathematics becomes inseparable with science. Until recently, mathematics played a smaller role. He discussed the reason behind this. He also said that mathematics played a significant role since of Mendel’s heredity and people just didn’t see it. Moreover, he said that before it was thought biology was the science you took to avoid mathematics. Now this is changing. Mathematics is becoming more essential to biology and this interrelation will be the hottest area today and in the future.

Mathematics of Life is an excellent book. I praised the author’s work of translating the complex concepts of biology to be understandable for the readers and for being an engaging writer. It’s also an interesting book of the history of biology with simple mathematics explaining it.  Biology majors, mathematics majors and majors of different fields will surely enjoy reading this. I agree with his book that mathematics is essential and needed by biology. 

The book reminded me of a quote I come across with while searching the internet. Charles Colton said that "the study of mathematics, like the Nile, begin in minuteness but ends with magnificence." Before all these book reviews and documentaries, the study of math is a bit insignificant for me. There were a lot of lessons that I feel is not important and necessary to my existence here on earth. After reading the first book and now Ian Stewart's book, I feel my eyes and mind were opened in a new understanding and value of mathematics. It is not only about helping us count our money, solving math problems but it is now greater than that. Mathematics is essential to biology or the study of life. Biology didn't exist to stand alone but it needs mathematics to discover secrets, patterns and truths of life and decode it. Reading the book put me to the middle of the river of math. I can now see some of the magnificence and   greatness that mathematics has to offer.