Talk:Biological mathematics: Difference between revisions

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imported>John R. Brews
(→‎Article should be renamed: to Anthony and Daniel)
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)
 
This search on [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22biological+mathematics%22+%22computation%22&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs= "biological mathematics"] turns up 4,310 results, while this search on [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22biological+computation%22&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs= "biological computation"] turns up 46,800 results. [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]] 17:06, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 
:Perhaps it's best to just merge it into [[mathematical biology]]. --[[User:Daniel Mietchen|Daniel Mietchen]] 17:59, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 
::Daniel, this topic is certainly a subtopic of [[mathematical biology]], but it probably deserves its own article. I've suggested that ''biological computation'' pretty much covers everything described in the references.  [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]] 18:26, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

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