Overview

Why are English Premier League football shirt patterns very similar to animal coat markings? And what do invasive species have in common with cancer cells in the body? Mathematical biology develops models which answer these questions, as they are applied to processes from the spread of a gene in a population, to predator-prey dynamics in an ecosystem, to the growth of tumors. In this Very Short Introduction Philip K. Maini describes the art of modeling, what it is, why we do it, and illustrates how the abstract way of thinking that is the essence of mathematics enables us to transfer knowledge from one area of research to another. Using numerous examples, he explains how the same fundamental ideas have been used in different fields, and shows how mathematics is the language of science. The author also points to cases in science where the traditional scientific modelling approach--verbal reasoning--is incorrect and shows how mathematics can uncover, and correct, such flawed reasoning while, at the same time, enhance our intuition. This book provides a guide to the trajectory of mathematical biology from a niche subject in the 1970s to a well-established, popular subject that is truly inter-disciplinary, and points to exciting future challenges.

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Philip K. Maini is professor of mathematical biology at Wolfson Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Oxford. He has over 300 publications in the field and has held visiting positions at a number of universities worldwide. He coauthored with Jonathan Sherratt and Paul Dale a Bellman Prize winning paper (1997), and was awarded both a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship (2001-2) and a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award (2006-11). Ray Greenley is an Oregon-born narrator living near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has many years of stage acting and narrating experience. In addition to his acting experience and training, Ray has a background in computer science. When not working in his professionally built voice-over booth, Ray enjoys spending time with his family of seven kids, several of whom he still reads to before bedtime. He also loves playing board, video, and role-playing games and being Cubmaster for his kids' Cub Scout Pack.

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