Mathematical and theoretical biology

"Biological theory" redirects here. For the scientific journal, see Biological Theory (journal).

Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical modeling, and abstractions about living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development, and behavior of biological systems. It can be understood in contrast to experimental biology, which involves the conduction of experiments to obtain evidence in order to construct and test theories. The field is sometimes called mathematical biology or biomathematics to emphasize the mathematical aspect, or as theoretical biology to highlight the theoretical aspect. Theoretical biology focuses more on the development of theoretical principles for biology, while mathematical biology focuses on the application of mathematical tools to study biological systems. These terms often converge, for instance in the topics of Artificial Immune Systems or Amorphous Computation.

Mathematical biology aims at developing mathematical representations and models of biological processes, using the techniques and tools of applied mathematics. It can be useful in both theoretical and practical research. Describing systems quantitatively allows for more precise predictions about those systems and the isolation and consistent analysis of features which might not be immediately obvious to an observer noting down qualitative features.

Because of the complexity of living systems, theoretical biology employs several fields of mathematics, and has contributed to the development of new techniques.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.