Why is mathematics - a language developed through reasoning - so effective when it comes to describing the empirical world? Could either of the following have anything to do with this phenomenon:
- the brains that conduct and observe the empirical experiments are naturally the same type of...
I recently finished reading the book "The singularity is near" by Ray Kurzweil, in which he tries to predict the development of technology over the next decades and the impact this development will have on society. Based on the accelerating nature of technological evolution, Kurzwail claims that...
Hello,
I have been interested in the relationship between Mathematics and Biology for a while. I recently read Richard Feynman's "The character of physical law", which features a segment about this relationship:
"In biology, for example, the action of a virus on a bacterium is...
Vanesch:
I kind of like Feynman's metaphor about how we find ourselves in a game of chess that is played by mother nature. We see how the pieces move, and from these observations we make up rules that are more or less successful at predicting what will happen next. However, the game of chess...
Crosson:
Thanks for a great post! Now I understand why computer simulations of the workings of drugs are so expensive and time demanding; drugs taken orally will affect the whole organism which is one giant system, and immensely complex to make calculations on following your logic.
I guess...
I am sure you know about the Ernest Rutherford quote "All science is either physics or stamp collecting", which was mentioned in a response to one of my other threads over at the physics forum. I would like to know what biologists think about this; what future developments will bring biology...
Crosson:
1. Could you please elaborate on why current methods of computing will ultimately fail to reduce chemistry to physics? Is this something that is possible to explain to a layman like me, who only knows about the very fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics?
2. Would you care to...
vanesch:
If I understand you correctly you are saying that even reductionists acknowledge macrophysical laws that might not be possible to derive from the microphysical ones, but the macrophysical laws can be understood in mathematical terms? Or am I missing something here? (I have a feeling...
I have some quotes from various books I have read recently, that I would love to hear your thoughts on:
Richard Feynman:
"All these [chemical] rules were ultimately explained in principle by quantum mechanics, so that theoretical chemistry is in fact physics. On the other hand, it must be...
As some of you might have read in my other threads I am thinking about studying physics at the university, but I have not made up my mind yet. One of the things that worries me is that the math and the general abstractness of the subject will be too hard for me to grasp. Math was definitely my...
Thank you for your replies!
ZapperZ:
If I understand you correctly, you are saying that emergent properties such as superconductivity might very well be understood in terms of quantum mechanics. However, what do you have to say about biological phenomena such as protein folding, DNA...
I recently read a couple of books by Paul Davies, in which one of the main themes was that biology is characterized by emergent properties that can not be reduced to mere physics (self organization, consciousness and so on). I would like to hear what physicists have to say about this important...
Thank you for all the replies!
I wrote this post because I can not make up my mind about whether to go into university studying traditional life sciences and become a medical doctor, or study physics and specializing in biophysics or medical physics, and maybe get involved in research instead...
1. Is it likely that traditional doctors (having been schooled in biology and chemistry) will be replaced my medical physicists in the future? Will the life sciences of today move more and more into physics, meaning that any healthcare professional will need to have fundamental training in...