What's that got to do with Math?

Mathematics has been dealing with almost all sciences. It has manipulated all the laws and theories of physics, stoicheometry to the subatomic numbers of chemistry, and the like. Yet math was at the least importance to Biology. We cannot describe the morphological changes of a butterfly or the evolution of a species through math. We may study minute organisms, but what’s that got to do with math?

            Somehow, that was a traditional interaction of Biology and Mathematics. As our world innovates, our mathematical thinking slowly intertwines with the science of Life. As a Biology student, I have noticed that there is not one Biology thesis without ANOVA tables or a chi-square test or any statistics involved. I have realized massive statistics while doing an activity in Genetics. Statistics is most common and used in Biology nowadays. To tell you, we were never noticing how math is involved in making instruments to see the micros, in classifying all living domains, in showing the patterns of evolution, in gene distributions especially in our central dogma. The preceding shows the five great revolutions of Biology. The revolutions of Biology provided its greatness and importance. And the small subjects that had contributed are what made it happen.

            Traditional knowledge and history is the network starting point. The origin of all species became a worldly inquiry since the early times. The Creation was widely accepted way before some people began their doubts and scientific inquiries. Later, a variation of species from one another and between them was a big question. “Creation of species, one by one, seemed absurd. So much neater to create just one and then let it change”(Stewart,2011). Then evolution came to Darwin’s mind. The process of adaptation and natural selection clearly does sip in to the inquiring minds of some. Yes, evolution clearly provided us significant proofs. Creation does not state any evidences as evolution shows, yet it serves possible in a different perspective. Now here is the apparent use of Mathematics in Biology history. In a Monastery garden, Mendel noticed a pattern on how a plant passes on its genes. The pattern was based on the distribution of the dominant and the recessive alleles. The ratio of certain types of genotypes and phenotypes are independent of the type of organism. This time, it requires a lot of numbers and distributions to predict the genotype or the phenotype of the next generation.

            Designing an instrument requires precision and accuracy. Something goes wrong when a measurement gets even a bit out. That’s why the accuracy of mathematics is needed. To see small things, specific ranges of magnifications should be considered otherwise, the picture would be a blur. You need to adjust the focal points to acquire a clear view of the specimen. The microscope is a proud innovation of Antoine van Leewenhoek. Taking it next level, the DNA-the molecule of life. The DNA sequence grants access to our information and the information provides knowledge on cures of certain diseases or how we can prevent any formation of abnormalities. There is also the Human Genome project which is a very big project that takes 15 years to complete. I don’t know how math is used in DNA sequencing but I’m sure it counts.

            Aside from having numbers flying around through computations of the magnifications, genetics, years an organism dated back, we must see math as a broader subject in biology. Its fun thinking that math involves shapes, sequences, and patterns. It’s like having our kindergarten activity books again. In plants, we see patterns in leaf or node arrangement, number of petals and the weird spirals we see in a sunflower. It is odd that the same number and patterns appear elsewhere in plants. The Fibonacci principle explains all. The series of numbers are quite exact as it provided the correct form of a plant. The Golden angle  (137.5)was new to me. Astonishing it is that it distributed the seeds of the sunflower spirally (clockwise and counterclockwise) without spaces and initiated stem growth.

            Not only do plants have patterns, animals do too. The stripes on a tiger are biochemically formed. On its embryonic stage, there is a pre-pattern formed by a pattern of protein pigments. And this laid the distinct pattern of these animals. I never knew that and I never thought of knowing why patterns on animals occur too. Again, it was astonishing. That is math in action.

            I also had some things I did not quite completely understand. Stewart considered viruses as fourth dimensional. Based on a script from the book “The Time Machine”, the first dimensions are the 3 dimensions of space (x, y, z) and the fourth would be time. So, as I have understood, there is a form of the virus capsid in space and it is relative through time. Another absurd fact is the Icosahedral shape of the virus capsid. In math, icosahedral is said to solve mathematical equations to a higher degree. Biology states icosahedral as the shape of the capsid due to a extraordinary arrangement of proteins. Nature also occurs beautifully through the patterns and forms it creates.

            It is nice to see how Biology is intertwined with Mathematics. Mathematics does explain almost all biological phenomena. Biology now isn’t a science of observing and theorizing life. It is also a subject of analysis, computations, patterns, and the like. So, if a highschool graduate says he’s going to take up Biology in college to get away from Math, well, he should’ve thought again. It is the sixth revolution, Mathematics has invaded Biology.