Mathematical and Theoretical Biology

Mathematical and theoretical biology is an interdisciplinary scientific research field with a range of applications in biology, biotechnology, and medicine. The field may be referred to as mathematical biology or biomathematics to stress the mathematical side, or as theoretical biology to stress the biological side. It includes at least four major subfields: biological mathematical modeling, relational biology/complex systems biology (CSB), bioinformatics and computational biomodeling/biocomputing. Mathematical biology aims at the mathematical representation, treatment and modeling of biological processes, using a variety of applied mathematical techniques and tools. It has both theoretical and practical applications in biological, biomedical and biotechnology research. For example, in cell biology, protein interactions are often represented as "cartoon" models, which, although easy to visualize, do not accurately describe the systems studied. In order to do this, precise mathematical models are required. By describing the systems in a quantitative manner, their behavior can be better simulated, and hence properties can be predicted that might not be evident to the experimenter.

Such mathematical areas as calculus, probability theory, statistics, linear algebra, abstract algebra, graph theory, combinatorics, algebraic geometry, topology, dynamical systems, differential equations and coding theory are now being applied in biology. Some mathematical areas, such as statistics, were developed as tools during the conduct of research into mathematical biology.

Read more about Mathematical And Theoretical Biology:  Importance, Areas of Research, Model Example: The Cell Cycle

Famous quotes containing the words mathematical, theoretical and/or biology:

    All science requires mathematics. The knowledge of mathematical things is almost innate in us.... This is the easiest of sciences, a fact which is obvious in that no one’s brain rejects it; for laymen and people who are utterly illiterate know how to count and reckon.
    Roger Bacon (c. 1214–c. 1294)

    The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.
    Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)

    The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.
    Rachel Carson (1907–1964)