THE LOVE TEAM OF AN ETERNITY

Who knew mathematics and biology would hit it off and make a beautiful couple? 

            Well, I didn’t. Mathematics as a whole, for me, looked too great to actually be combined with something else. However at the beginning, it did find a lover in physics. But biology? Biology, for me, was the science of life. For over centuries ago, biology and mathematics were two separate entities if you would call it. Biology was what you take to avoid the calculations of mathematics and mathematics was what you take to avoid all the long concepts of life and everything under it. 

            But Ian Stewart, in his book “The Mathematics of Life”, says that the relationship of mathematics and biology is changing and evolving into a mutually enriching relationship. He claims that biology is the motivation of mathematics and it is what drives mathematics to grow. The discoveries in biology gave way to a whole lot of questions which mostly needs the brilliant deduction of mathematics to answer it. This book commemorates the connections that mathematics and biology have made between themselves. 

            The first part of the book talks about biology and the first five revolutions that changed the way people think about life. Stewart depicted his sixth biological revolution, mathematics, later on. He takes note of how the question of life’s true nature was not only a question for biochemistry but for all branches of science as each branch contributes to the explanation of what makes living creatures live. Ian Stewart talks about how the mathematical way of thinking can be used as a tool in biology to analyze and understand data. He then says that the usefulness of mathematics is underestimated even though it changes how we think of biology. Stewart then discusses about the invention of the lenses, telescope and microscope and the role of mathematics in its discovery. Then he elaborates on how life’s diversity is too large to grasp so it needs to be organized and classified in order to understand them. Stewart then talks about the strange numerology of the plant kingdom and how there is numerical patterns in the geometry and arrangement of petals, leaves and seed heads. He then discusses about the origin of species and Mendel’s research. Here he depicts the role of mathematics by presenting simple mathematical patterns in the number of plants with specific characteristics. There are also  combinations, probability, division and multiplication present here. He also talks about the structure of DNA and the unexplained numerical relationship there. And the usefulness of mathematics to simplify the chemistry in DNA was also explained in the next chapter. Stewart then elaborates on the importance and significance of mathematical trees, quantification and cladistics in taxonomy. In the next chapter, he explains the abstract concept of dimensions. Then there is a discussion on how the size of one’s brain doesn’t matter but what matters is what that person can do and how that person uses his/her brain. He then gives a short discussion about neuroscience as one of the most promising branches of mathematical biology and about patterns and sequences in gait cycles. The next chapter talks about genetic code and proteins. It also tells us how topology, a branch of mathematics, is used to describe and understand the shape of DNA. There are more discussions afterwards on the mathematics of protein folding and its significance to the protein’s function. Stewart then talks about the beauty, power, elegance and pose of the animals in the next chapter and how it is connected to mathematics by symmetry and pattern formation. Then he elaborates on how each animal begins life as single cell and how math plays a part in explaining the various stages of the process of an egg becoming a matured animal through mathematical models. Then in the next chapter, the author discusses about the mating strategies of animals, game theory, minimax theorem and how science is not based on direct observation but indirect inference. Stewart then talks about how simulations, which are created through computer programs, can predict future outcomes and portray interpretations of data. He also elaborates on the importance of networks in biology, mathematics and even in social interaction. In the next chapter, the author discusses how the complexity of biological systems becomes simpler and even easier to understand with the proper use of mathematics. The next chapter talks about how mathematics, like the definition of life, evolves when new research reveals new aspects or discoveries. Here, Stewart also creates a list of the main features of life. In the next chapter, he discusses about the possibility of the existence of life outside Earth. And the last chapter elaborates on mathematics being the driving force behind the greatest advances in science. He also explains that mathematical models shouldn’t be as complex as the object it represents because it will become less useful. 

                 The title of this book, “The Mathematics of Life” gave me the impression that this book will be using mathematics to describe life. I expected a somehow deeper discussion on what life is from the view point of mathematics but that wasn’t entirely the case. This book was about the connection between mathematics and biology, the study of life, and their working relationship with each other. This book was very informative. Overall, it was a pleasant reading experience. It was also not that hard to read and, at some parts, relates to the present day readers. As Stewart discusses the different advances of biology, he also points out the role mathematics played in each of them and how this role became essential to the face of both mathematics and biology. Just like in couples, the two people in the relationship will affect each other and will change each other in ways good or bad. This relationship between mathematics and biology has affected each of them and this caused them to promote each other to great leaps of discovery, greater than one can accomplish on their own. There are some gaps that can be filled through the knowledge of the other. They are not isolated on their own anymore; they are now inseparable. And if you are what they call bitter in relationships and say that all relationships have an end, this relationship between mathematics and biology has only just begun and will continue to flourish greater than the bounds of those of their isolated selves.