Talk:Biological mathematics: Difference between revisions

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imported>John R. Brews
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imported>Daniel Mietchen
 
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#REDIRECT [[Talk:Mathematical biology]]
 
== Biological mathematics is a misnomer ==
 
Mathematics has application to biology, and machines for computation based upon biology may exist, but to state that the "exploration and exploitation" of biological systems is itself ''mathematics'' is an error. Mathematics is a conceptual construct independent of its applications in principle, although of course, applications can stimulate mathematical creativity. [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]] 15:56, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 
GH Hardy paraphrases Gauss: "if mathematics is the queen of the sciences, then the theory of numbers is, because of its extreme uselessness, the queen of mathematics" ''A Mathematician's Apology'', p. 120 [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]] 16:11, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 
:I have reworded this article to avoid using mathematics as a sub-discipline of biology on the basis that any ''application'' of mathematics to a physical system is established by the study of that system, and is not a branch of mathematics ''per se''. Likewise, the ''performance'' of mathematical algorithms using an organism or a computer is not mathematics ''per se'', although the formal devising of the algorithm is such. [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]] 16:47, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 
== Article should be renamed ==
 
I am still unhappy with the term "biological mathematics" which in itself uses "mathematics" as the noun being limited by "biological". In fact, I do not find that the term "biological mathematics" has much currency. The title should be changed to "biological computation". [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]] 16:55, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 17:02, 5 August 2011

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