The use of mathematics in biology

In biology the use of mathematics is:

Counting of bacteria

and

calculation of energy of food.

In biology, there are several ways using

Mathematics to make we get experiment

result more easier, one of the example is

the number of bacteria.

As we know that bacteria can divide in

every period of 20 minutes under favorite

condition.

So we can get the number of bacteria by a formula:

N= 2t/20

Where N = The number of bacteria ,and t = the period of the experiment in terms of minutes.

So mathematics can enable us to get the number of bacteria without counting them under microscope.

Also in biology we want to measure the energy given out by food. It is difficult to measure the energy of food directly. So we have to measure it indirectly.

We can measure the energy by burning it in calorimeter, since the (heat) energy given out in the burning process is nearly is the same when it is digested and absorb inside body, so the energy can be easily measure.

The set up of the calorimeter have known amount of water.

Then the food is light up inside a chamber which have plenty supply of oxygen.

As the burning process is complete, we can measure the temperature change of the water. Then by mathematics formula we can calculate the energy value of food indirectly.

Example:

A calorimeter contains 1kg of water, assume there is no heat loss,a piece of 500g food rise the temperature of water 3oC, how many energy does the food contain each gram?

The total energy gain by water,apply E= mcT,

i.e. E= (1)(4200)(3)

E=12600J

By conservation of energy,

Heat given out by food = heat gain by water

Let e = energy contain by the food each gram

12600 = 500e

e=25.2 J/g

From above example, energy can be obtain by mathematics calculation easily.

A calorimeter

Although manual mathematics is very slow, we can use other tools to help us to complete complex mathematics calculation, one of the example is computer.

Recently Intel have sponsor a plan which use the personal computers in the world to assemble a 30 teraflops (computer power unit about 6 million of personal computer) supercomputer to calculate the relationship between the cancer cells and anti-cancer medicine.

(Above)A personal computer joined the plan of 30 teraflops peer to peer computing program researching cancer cells and anti-cancer medicine.