Math, Biology and Beyond

Math, Biology and Beyond

(A book review on The Mathematics of Life by Ian Stewart)

“Traditionally, biology as the branch of science recommended to students who preferred to avoid mathematics if at all possible. You can study the life cycle of a butterfly without doing any sums… We don’t calculate the evolutionary trajectory of a fish…” –Ian Stewart, The Mathematics of Life (2011)

Man, there was a reason why I choose to study biology and that was because (and yeah you guessed it) I was hoping to avoid math at the most efficient and beneficial way possible. So I was scared of the fact that mathematics is now, slowly becoming a big, and I mean big, part of biology.

“There is mathematics aplenty in today’s biology, and it is becoming ever harder to avoid it… And increasingly, much of it is motivated by the needs of biologist, which are no longer cozy as watching butterflies.” continues Stewart.

Dude, I was wrong for thinking that I can avoid math, because as what the book has taught me, mathematics is apparently, the sixth revolution that mankind has to live with.

The book, The Mathematics of Life (2011) by Ian Stewart is, personally, way better that the first book that we have read. It is written simply, the kind that keeps you reading through smoothly without a frequent visit to a dictionary. Generally, it was a good read.

But honest to goodness, the book scared me at first, which would explain my introductory part of this piece. Not the scary vibes that horror movies sent off but the kind of threat that great and challenging things radiate; because these kinds of things require a different level of attitude, thinking and effort all together.

And I’m not usually up for changes like this. Especially with math invading almost everything. Geez.

Going back to what I’m trying to communicate, the book lived up to its name, The Mathematics of Life, for almost three fourths of the book discussed about the so called five revolutions that apparently ‘changed the way scientist think about life’. Life and the branch of the science which deals with it –biology.

The first revolution that he discussed was about the invention of the microscope that became the door to ‘life on the smallest scales’. The second was the orderly classification of all living organism in the planet –we have to thank Carl Linnaeus for that. The third was about the ‘evolution’ which Charles Darwin endorsed in his time as the theory of natural selection. Fourth of the five revolutions was the discovery of genes by the study of Gregor Mendel and the fifth which is closely related to the fourth is the discovery of the structure of DNA by the duo Francis Crick and James Watson through their introduction of the double-helix structure.

The historical facts and the scientific impartations in the book were stated with simplicity and in the most detailed way that I can tell, anyone who want to know the stuff biology students study can start by reading the book.  I highly commend it to people who like biology and history…and yeah, math.

Another cool thing about this book, is that it is written in a way that a gazillion of facts –names, definitions, events, places etc. –can be run through without your head choking due to full blast information.

The author wrapped up the book by stressing on the importance that math has in all of the five revolutions and stating his sixth revolution:

 “…If the story of mathematical biology shows anything, it is that interconnected communities can achieve things that are impossible for their individual members.” (Stewart, 2011)

The first five revolutions were straightforward discoveries that greatly shaped what we have come to know as biology today. But this sixth major change is about the change of the way we study life. Instead of looking for answers in the place where the lamppost stood, we are encouraged to go beyond that area of enlightenment, get a torch from a different branch of science and make up the best of what both can give you.

This upheaval is trending. And there is no way of denying that this is where the future is heading. And man, it’s scary.