Made up, At Last

I remember my best friend telling me the relationships between subsets of science in progression. He started with Mathematics because it's abstract for it has no natural form and is only found in nature as something representational. He then said that the direct application of Mathematics is Physics due to its heavy reliance on the former. It deals on the relationships of phenomena in nature which are turned to equations for quantification. The application of Physics, according to him, is Chemistry. His reason was the existence and interaction of matter is due to the phenomena existing in nature. The application of Chemistry is Biology. Life forms consist of different kinds of simple and complex chemicals in order for them to function. The application of Biology branches to different fields of science such as the Social Sciences due to the fact that living things, especially humans, are beings which interact with each other and their surroundings.

After he shared those things, I contemplated on the relationships of the sciences with each other aside from those he mentioned. Almost all are related. I learned calculations of concentrations and solubility constants in chemistry. Birds use Bernoulli's Principle to fly, but how would I use Math in Biology or the other way around. Math is so objective. It follows patterns and rules. Whereas Biology is something spontaneous and variable. I never imagined Math being used in Biology. How can I relate calculations and the instinctiveness of animal organs? I can't fathom.

Ian Stewart’s Mathematics of Life discussed about the possible relationships of Mathematics and Biology. Stewart is a mathematics professor in University of Warwick, England and is a popular-science and science-fiction writer. He generally discussed that despite the far and somewhat impossible relevance between math and biology, relationship were already in them before they were discovered. He began with the established revolutions in biology, particularly microscopy, taxonomy, evolution, genetics and DNA. As how he described them, initially, little to no math was find in each revolution.

            In the succeeding chapters, however, each revolution were discussed in mathematical perspectives, may it be simple or complex. In microscopy, lens have to be carefully designed, which will be using mathematical concepts, in order to view things in desired magnifications. The magnifying capabilities attained begins the growing interest of scientists in different fields to collaborate for common interests, especially biologists and mathematicians.

            In the concept of population growth in animals, geometric progressions, in the rabbit reproduction example, were used to predict the theoretical number of rabbits at a given generation. The biological part about it, though, is that life is unpredictable, thus, certain factors would affect the true population growth of any species existing. The mathematical model, however, cannot be said wrong as it only tells a possible scenario that neglects other factors, thus, making foreseeing of the population number still possible.

            In biological processes, especially concerning with biochemistry, mathematicians are gaining interest due to the complex chemical composition of biological matters, especially DNA. Mathematical approach to this topic reduces Biology to Chemistry and Physics. Concepts like Knot Theory and Bragg’s Law are used to decipher processes, structure and nature of the said matters.

            Currently, the populace don’t see the relationship between mathematics and biology as something opaque and noticeable due to educational resources available for all, as it is not that easy to be understood by an average person. However, as Stewart foresees in the future, different fields of science shall not separate from each other like isolated villages but would work together as networking communities to attain different kinds of goals in order to satisfy the curiosity humanity expresses around him.