Mathematics of Life book review

Mathematics of Life discusses the possible relationships of Mathematics and Biology. Ian Stewart claims that there are six revolutions that change the perceptions of scientists about life. The first five were the invention of the microscope, a system that classifies different species, evolution, progress in the field of genetics and the discovery of the structure of DNA. The sixth one, he claims, is mathematics. He discusses all five revolutions before turning to his sixth lengthy revolution. The contributions of mathematics in some areas of science are also covered in the book like taxonomy, evolution, virology and topology.

When students think about mathematics and other science connected to it, biology usually does not come in mind. Some of the common sciences are physics, chemistry and statistics which are heavily dependent on mathematics. Ian Stewart discusses in the book how Mathematics became the sixth revolution of Biology. The book explains how mathematics somehow gives more in-depth conclusions, approximations and data. For example, Chapter 10 talks about viruses. Geometry has been a fundamental part of mathematics. Contributions of geometry helped greatly in the development and discovery of the structures of viruses.

The book is a good read for someone who likes collaboration with the sciences like math and biology. Although much of the book is more on biology, it gives good explanations on the concepts of mathematics that are greatly applied in biology. After reading the book, I came up with the conclusion that the sciences would work better if applied to each other. One science cannot fully explain some phenomenon completely but with the help of other sciences, one can understand phenomenon and events that occur in life better.