The climate is changing, and we need to know what changes to expect and how soon to expect them. Earth system models, which simulate all relevant components of the Earth system, are the primary means of anticipating future changes of our climate [TM219 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com]. A Holistic View Over the past century, our … Continue reading Earth System Models simulate the changing climate
Tag: biology
The Geography of Europe is Mapped in our Genes
It may seem too much to expect that a person's geographic origin can be determined from a DNA sample. But, thanks to a mathematical technique called principal component analysis, this can be done with remarkable accuracy. It works by reducing multi-dimensional data sets to just a few variables [TM189; or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com ]. … Continue reading The Geography of Europe is Mapped in our Genes
The knotty problem of packing DNA
Soon it will be time to pack away the fairy lights. If you wish to avoid the knotty task of disentangling them next December, don't just throw them in a box; roll them carefully around a stout stick or a paper tube. Any long and flexible string or cable, squeezed into a confined volume, is … Continue reading The knotty problem of packing DNA
Emergence of Complex Behaviour from Simple Roots
It is exhilarating to watch a large flock of birds swarming in ever-changing patterns. Swarming is an emergent behaviour, resulting from a set of simple rules followed by each individual animal, bird or fish, without any centralized control or leadership. A murmuration of starlings is a breathtaking sight, with thousands of birds moving in harmony, … Continue reading Emergence of Complex Behaviour from Simple Roots
The Miraculous Spiral on Booterstown Strand
We all know what a spiral looks like. Or do we? Ask your friends to describe one and they will probably trace out the form of a winding staircase. But that is actually a helix, a curve in three-dimensional space. A spiral is confined to a plane – it is a flat curve. In general … Continue reading The Miraculous Spiral on Booterstown Strand
The Heart of Mathematics
At five litres per minute the average human heart pumps nearly 200 megalitres of blood through the body in a lifetime. Heart disease causes 40 percent of deaths in the EU and costs hundreds of billions of Euros every year. Mathematics can help to improve our knowledge of heart disease and our understanding of cardiac … Continue reading The Heart of Mathematics
The Inexorable Rise in Life Expectancy
Life expectancy has increased in a spectacular fashion over the past 150 years. There has been a four-decade increase in average length of life over the period since 1850. World life expectancy has more than doubled, from about 25 years to around 65 years for men and 70 years for women. [TM089, or search for … Continue reading The Inexorable Rise in Life Expectancy
Biomathematics: the New Frontier
Mathematics is coming to Life in a Big Way. This week's That’s Maths in The Irish Times (TM051, or Search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com) is about the increasing importance of mathematics in the biological sciences. Once upon a time biology meant zoology and botany, the study of animals and plants. The invention of the microscope … Continue reading Biomathematics: the New Frontier
Sunflowers and Fibonacci: Models of Efficiency
The article in this week’s That’s Maths column in The Irish Times ( TM046 ) is about the maths behind the efficient packing of sunflowers and many other plants Strolling along Baggot Street in Dublin recently, I noticed a plaque at the entrance to the Ibec head office. It showed a circular pattern of dots, … Continue reading Sunflowers and Fibonacci: Models of Efficiency
Predator-Prey Models
Next week's post will be about a model of the future of civilization! It is based on the classical predator-prey model, which is reviewed here. The Lotka-Volterra Model Many ecological process can be modelled by simple systems of equations. An early example of this is the predator-prey model, developed independently by American mathematician Alfred Lotka … Continue reading Predator-Prey Models
Spots and Stripes
How do leopards get their spots? Mathematics gives us a better answer than the one offered by Rudyard Kipling in Just So Stories. This is the topic of That's Maths this week ( TM019 ). Turing's Morphogenesis paper The information to form a fully-grown animal is encoded in its DNA, so there is a lot … Continue reading Spots and Stripes
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