Marriage of Mathematics and Biology

      I really had a problem the whole break because of the very weak internet connection in Surigao. I planned not to post this blog anymore because I know it’s late but I think it’s better late than never. I am also aware that there is a possibility that this will not be graded anymore but I hope Ma'am will consider my situation. So, here it is.

      The book for me was much better than the first one. It is more appreciable by a biology student and is more interesting for me. The words also seem to be friendlier. "I took BS Biology to avoid Math", that was contradicted by Stewart. Mathematics is married to science, thus if we want to avoid Math, Science is not the best option. 

      Ian Stewart mainly tried to explore the Mathematics of Life. He started with the five revolutions that changed how we view life, namely; invention of microscope, the systematic classification, theory of evolution, genetics and structure of DNA. 

     The invention of microscope allowed us to see things that are not seen by our naked eye. It introduced us to things that live and thrive with us all this time without us even knowing that they exist. It was followed by the second revolution which was introduced by the father of taxonomy, Carolus Linnaeus, the systematic classification. This allowed humans to categorize and classify organisms for better organization. Next was evolution which is known to be the process by which different kinds of living organisms are believed to have developed from earlier forms, especially by natural selection. The Father of Genetics, Gregor Mendel, then gave rise to the fourth revolution which was genetics. Lastly and the most recent one is the discovery of the structure of DNA which is very much significant and helped give rise to a lot of innovations nowadays. 

     Mathematics has been very useful to us, we avoid it, but involuntarily uses it, and we hate it, but unconsciously needs it. Math has always been with us, it became the stairway to us to be where we are now. Ian Stewart tries to help us appreciate how much important Math is not only in Biology but all other sciences that Math is related to, which is almost all. This made him say that Mathematics is the sixth revolution. Mathematics made Biology complete. There are few questions that Biology cannot answer, this is where Math enters, because Math fills those spaces. See, perfect combination.

     All in all, reading the book was fun and interesting. A lot of trivias are given, and they really caught my attention. The author also did well in stating its point. His work amazed me a lot of times (I really mean a lot). I also appreciate the fact that he uses pictures, it helped me understand what he’s trying to explain. I also think that the book was understandable enough even for non-biology student since I really see his effort in explaining everything. I was convinced when he said that Mathematics is a good combination with Math. He also mentioned Biology needs Mathematics and I think it really does. So for me, he really did a brilliant work. Two thumbs up to Ian Stewart!