The Algorithms of Life

-Book review on The Mathematics of Life by Ian Stewart


“Philosophy is written in...the language of mathematics,... without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these one is wandering in a dark labyrinth.” 
-Galileo Galilei , The Assayer           

                                

        There was one random day when I was browsing in the Web. I came across the University of Hawaii’s website and, as any student would do, looked up the available courses being offered.  I saw some interesting and some rather not so interesting course programs until I stumbled upon one that made me stop dead on my tracks-mathematical biology. Damn that M word.

        Biology is the study of life. The question is: how do we study it? One mathematician and author, Ian Stewart, pointed out the revolutions that exploded out of humankind’s ingenuity as we had painstakingly unravelled the mysteries of life over the course of time: microscopy, taxonomy or classification, evolution, genetics, and DNA structure, and his latest, mathematics. But why math? In his book, The Mathematics of Life,  Stewart expertly points out the innumerable ideas and concepts derived from mathematics that help us understand what living organisms are. Better yet, how and why they are what they are today.

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         It’s hard indeed, to imagine that life would exist in the head of a pin . Thanks to technology, and when I say technology I include the pioneer versions way back in the past, we can now have visible proof of its existence. I wanted to know how biology-a field that I had come to admire during high school-had to be associated with math-my worst nightmare yet-just to explain how these microscopic critters exist. From what Stewart wrote about the development on lenses, it was obvious that mathematics was involved. The magnifications that each lens provides need calculations in its making so that the desired result would be obtained. But that’s just the beginning of mathematics’ integration to the study of life. Viruses were being debated about whether they qualify to have the title of a living organism or not. Typical problem for a biologist. But as to how they form and organize their structures, especially their capsids,  it would give quite a headache. So it’s geometry to the rescue. I was not surprised by this, since shapes and symmetry are its main problem. Instead, the way geometry was utilized to give a purely logical and scientific explanation somehow amazed me, even though I had difficulty understanding the details in the book. 

        Speaking of microscopic stuff, mathematics had  helped explain how biological molecules make up our bodies. Rather, helped us in a way that explains the behaviour of how these molecules occurs. Mentioned on the book was the Knot Theory, which was about......knots. It was hard to digest the technical information, but one can sense the mathematics involved. Through this theory it was explained how DNA forms into loops and how proteins like hemoglobin behave during their folding and formation. It’s interesting to know that such complex process can be fully understood with the use of math concepts. Yep, it’s hard to be a biologist. Much more in being a mathematical biologist.

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        Gregor Mendel surely didn’t have much of a problem with solving the basic problems in genetics. I mean,  he was once a mathematician. He had what other geneticists lack-the familiarity on mathematics.  Having this advantage, he determined the factors that controlled heredity and traits. Though not every problem about the rules of genetics were solved or fully understood, Mendel was able find his way around this biological field. Armed only with the knowledge of mathematics.

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        It’s quite comical to imagine Darwin holding a Leithold book and a calculator. Sorry, just bored here. But in Stewarts\’s a point of view, mathematics does matter when it comes to evolution. No, not the numbers nor the shapes. But a certain concept that had me interested since it was involved with behaviour. It’s the Game theory, another one of math’s tricks up its sleeve. It’s just like the rock-paper-scissors game. This kind of concept may be used to determine how a population or species adapt to the factors that are present in its environment. How they deal with courtships and fights over mates. Amazingly the explanations are logical and quite accurate. Even Linnaeus’s concept of the binomial nomenclature classification somehow utilized logic to develop a system that worked smoothly and without fail. Somehow mathematics was able to seep into the tiny cracks of evolution and strengthened it as a science. Even more surprising to my part was that it was able to translate behaviour patterns into something understandable.

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I still have many things left unsaid in this review, so pardon my lack of ability to wholly explain in full detail. I would like instead to explain the interplay between mathematics and biology as a whole.

        What is life indeed? I mean, can’t we explain it with just a simple sentence from a dictionary and spare the hassle? Sadly, no. Just like some other abstract aspects, it’s hard to define life as a whole. Instead, the definition of life can be seen by understanding the concepts and behaviour of its elements. That way we see a pattern, an algorithm that guides these processes. Like the watch-glass in Spiderwick Chronicles, we can see the algorithms of life working in sync through our very own device: the sixth revolution, mathematics.