Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Mathematical and theoretical biology
open-in-new
<p>Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of <a href="/facts/Biology/1M1ee3pB">biology</a> which employs theoretical analysis, <a href="/facts/Mathematical_models/CGhyuxgz">mathematical models</a> and abstractions of living <a href="/facts/Organisms/j8JkL09u">organisms</a> to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development and behavior of the systems, as opposed to <a href="/facts/Experimental_biology/XEcqQhFN">experimental biology</a> which deals with the conduction of experiments to test scientific theories. The field is sometimes called mathematical biology or biomathematics to stress the mathematical side, or theoretical biology to stress the biological side. Theoretical biology focuses more on the development of theoretical principles for biology while mathematical biology focuses on the use of mathematical tools to study biological systems, even though the two terms interchange; overlapping as <a href="/facts/Artificial_immune_system/SxB3gsaB">Artificial Immune Systems</a> of <a href="/facts/Amorphous_computing/Jv2v1vIm">Amorphous Computation</a>. </p><p>Mathematical biology aims at the mathematical representation and modeling of <a href="/facts/Biological_process/jpHldXz2">biological processes</a>, using techniques and tools of <a href="/facts/Applied_mathematics/qyqklXXm">applied mathematics</a>. It can be useful in both <a href="/facts/Basic_science/QvrBkrRb">theoretical</a> and <a href="/facts/Applied_science/13h5uYCH">practical</a> research. Describing systems in a quantitative manner means their behavior can be better simulated, and hence properties can be predicted that might not be evident to the experimenter. This requires precise <a href="/facts/Mathematical_model/CGhyuxgz">mathematical models</a>, which in the future, will lead to fields such as <a href="/facts/ModelOps/MCB1vGWy">Model Operations</a>, <a href="/facts/Morphogenetic_robotics/KkpFh7Cf">Morphogenetic Engineering,</a> and ultimately the research of <a href="/facts/Amorphous_computing/Jv2v1vIm">Amorphous Computation</a>. </p><p>Because of the complexity of the <a href="/facts/Organism/j8JkL09u">living systems</a>, theoretical biology employs several fields of mathematics, and has contributed to the development of new techniques. </p>