Biology and Mathematics

Authors

  • Jordi Bascompte Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2007.i725.107

Keywords:

Pattern formation, non-linear dynamics, complex networks, population dynamics, population genetics, community structure, development, epidemiology, theoretical biology

Abstract


Biology has become the new “physics” of mathematics, one of the areas of greatest mathematical applications. In turn, mathematics has provided powerful tools and metaphors to approach the astonishing complexity of biological systems. This has allowed the development of sound theoretical frameworks. Here, I summarize some of the most significant contributions of mathematics to biology, ranging from population genetics, to developmental biology, and to networks of species interactions.

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Author Biography

Jordi Bascompte, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC

Jordi BASCOMPTE. He is an Associate Professor of Research at the Estación Biológica de Doñana, a center of the Spanish Research Council. He is an interdisciplinary ecologist interested in the organization of Biodiversity. After obtaining his PhD by the University of Barcelona in 1994, he became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Irvine, and later on at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at Santa Barbara. In 2004 he was awarded with a European Young Investigator Award (EURYI). He is in the Board of Editors of several top journals in ecology and conservation biology, and is a Faculty Member of Faculty of 1000 Biology. He is coauthor of “Modeling Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Ecology” and “Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems.”

References

Cohen, J. E. (2004): “Mathematics is biology’s next microscope, only better; biology is mathematics’ next physics, only better”, PloS Biol, 2 (12): e439. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020439 PMid:15597117    PMCid:535574

Goodwin, B. C. (1994): How the Leopard Changed Its Spots; The Evolution of Complexity, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.

Gillespie, J. H. (1998): Population Genetics: A Concise Guide, The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

May, R. M. (2004): “Uses and abuses of mathematics in biology”, Science 303: 790-793. doi:10.1126/science.1094442 PMid:14764866

Murray, J. D. (1989): Mathematical Biology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

Solé, R. V. and Bascompte, J. (2006): Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems; Princeton University Press.

Stewart, I. (1989). Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

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Published

2007-06-30

How to Cite

Bascompte, J. (2007). Biology and Mathematics. Arbor, 183(725), 347–351. https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2007.i725.107

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Section

Articles