Mathematics

ince the beginnings of humanity, the task of counting was always very important. The development of human society had always been based on counts.  In the beginning, the simple Arithmetic was enough: counts of people, food, game, stones, days...  There were many symbols to represent the counts. The Roman Numerical System was one of them, but it wasn't practical. The set of mathematical symbols that we use today was originated with the Hindus, was improved by Arabs, and it's a Decimal System just because we have 10 fingers!  While we survived only with the counting of whole…

You may recognize the title most recently as a humorous jab at people who want to teach religion in science classes and, failing that, at least teach why they think there is a controversy.    Of course there isn't any controversy at all.    Biology is as imperfect as every science in existence and explaining the world we live in according to natural laws is tough because there are always new things to learn. The only place where rock solid 'proof' exists is in mathematics, which some people think is science.    Yet even in mathematics there are disputes and one…

It's March 14 - happy Pi day! (And now it's official - Congress just recognized March 14 as Pi Day!) For those not mathematically inclined, 3.14 is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter (Circum. = 3.14 x d). Pi is also the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius (Area = 3.14 x r2). Pi, represented by the Greek letter to the right, is one of the most important mathematical constants out there. People have been able to memorize more and more digits of pi - while 3.14 suffices for the casual user, and 3.14159 works for more technical applications, some have memorized…

Researchers in Japan have turned to mathematics to build a computerized 3D model of the female trunk that could help lingerie and other clothes designers make more sensuous, comfortable, and better fitting product ranges. According to Kensuke Nakamura of Kyoto Institute of Technology and Takao Kurokawa of Osaka University, identifying body shape components is critical for designing close-fitting products, whether underwear, everyday clothes, or safety garments. However, conventional body measurements, photographic images, and silhouette do not provide complete three-dimensional data with…

A team of scientists has used game theory to explain the bizarre behavior of a group of ravens.   Juvenile birds from a roost in North Wales have been observed adopting the unusual strategy of foraging for food in 'gangs.'   New research published in PLoS One explains how this curious behavior can be predicted by adapting models more commonly used by economists to analyse financial trends. This is the first time game theory has been used to successfully predict novel animal behavior in the real world. The researchers believe this analysis could also shed light on the variation in…

It's always satisfying to see concepts in the sciences, which reappear with varied nomenclature across fields and disciplines.  There are countless examples but one that always stood out for me is the concept of Green's functions.This is such an interesting an important concept in all of pure and applied science.  And to explain it will require some exploration of another interesting idea called a delta function and another important concept, linearity.  What is a Green's function?  Scientists and engineers often work with differential equations or difference equations. to…

Recently (February/05/2009) the BBC released new numbers for the Drake Equation, demonstrating that there may be hundreds of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy. These numbers are very volatile and the evidences tend to increase with discoveries of new chemical combinations, new extra-solar planets and new forms of life that survive in the most inhospitable environments right here, in our planet. Meanwhile, the people of the SITI Project continues promoting a great effort to read meticulously each signal obtained from radio telescopes in the hope of finding evidence of some other…

Cooperation, despite being now considered the third force of evolution, just behind mutation and natural selection, is difficult to explain in the context of an evolutionary process based on competition between individuals and selfish behaviour. But this puzzle, that has haunted scientists for decades, is now a little closer to be solved by research about to be published on the journal Physical Review Letters. The work, by scientists in Portugal and Belgium, reveals that an increasing range of behaviours among the individuals of a population leads to cooperation, supporting the idea that…

Molecular and cellular biologists have made tremendous scientific advances by dissecting apart the functions of individual genes, proteins, and pathways. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering are looking to expand that understanding by putting the pieces back together, mathematically. John Yin, a professor of chemical and biological engineering, developed computer models of a relatively simple virus to show that genes alone do not make an organism. With mathematical representations of the virus's known biology, he and former graduate student Kwang-il Lim…

It would seem that in a bad economy, tax cuts make the most sense.    Letting people keep their money instead of letting the government spend money to collect taxes, spend money to institute government programs and then pay government employees to write checks is believed to lead to a great deal of waste. Not so, says UC San Diego macroeconomist Valerie A. Ramey, who instead says government spending is the best way to get the economy moving again. Her estimates say that a $1 increase in government spending raises GDP by about $1.40, are based on historical patterns during…