Talk:Biological computation

Import from "biological mathematics"

This article is a copy of the previous article biological mathematics. The new title is chosen as being more specific to the actual content of this article.

• →→→Imported from Talk:Biological mathematics

Biological mathematics is a misnomer

Mathematics has application to biology, and machines for computation based upon biology may exist, but to state that the "exploration and exploitation" of biological systems is itself mathematics is an error. Mathematics is a conceptual construct independent of its applications in principle, although of course, applications can stimulate mathematical creativity. John R. Brews 15:56, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

GH Hardy paraphrases Gauss: "if mathematics is the queen of the sciences, then the theory of numbers is, because of its extreme uselessness, the queen of mathematics" A Mathematician's Apology, p. 120 John R. Brews 16:11, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

I have reworded this article to avoid using mathematics as a sub-discipline of biology on the basis that any application of mathematics to a physical system is established by the study of that system, and is not a branch of mathematics per se. Likewise, the performance of mathematical algorithms using an organism or a computer is not mathematics per se, although the formal devising of the algorithm is such. John R. Brews 16:47, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Article should be renamed

I am still unhappy with the term "biological mathematics" which in itself uses "mathematics" as the noun being limited by "biological". In fact, I do not find that the term "biological mathematics" has much currency. The title should be changed to "biological computation". John R. Brews 16:55, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

This search on "biological mathematics" turns up 4,310 results, while this search on "biological computation" turns up 46,800 results. John R. Brews 17:06, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps it's best to just merge it into mathematical biology. --Daniel Mietchen 17:59, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Daniel, this topic is certainly a subtopic of mathematical biology, but it probably deserves its own article. I've suggested that biological computation pretty much covers everything described in the references. John R. Brews 18:26, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

• ←←←←←End of imported Talk.