Theoretical biology is an Interdisciplinary work is that which integrates concepts across different disciplines. New disciplines have arisen as a result of such syntheses. For instance, quantum information processing amalgamates elements of quantum physics and computer science. Bioinformatics combines molecular biology with computer science. An interdisciplinary team is a team of people with training... interdisciplinary field of academic study and research that involves the use of A quantitative property can be meaningfully measured using numbers; properties which arent quantitative are called qualitative. Examples of quantitative properties include: the number of grains of sand on a beach, the width of a hair, and the time for a hammer to fall a certain distance. An observation isn... quantitative tools in Biology studies the variety of life (clockwise from top-left) E. coli, tree fern, gazelle, Goliath beetle Biology is the science of life (from the Greek words bios = life and logos = word). It is concerned with the characteristics and behaviors of organisms, how species and individuals come into existence, and... biology. Many separate areas of biology fall under the concept of theoretical biology, according to the way they are studied. Some of these areas include: Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour (particularly of social animals such as primates and canids), and is a branch of zoology. A scientist who practises ethology is called an ethologist. Origins of the name The term “ethology” derives from the Greek language, as ethos (ήθ... animal behaviour, A biorhythm (or biological rhythm) is a cyclic pattern of alterations in physiology, emotions, and/or intellect. Bio pertains to life and rhythm pertains to the flow with regular movement. The basic theory The theory of biorhythms claims ones lifecycle is affected by rhythmic cycles and makes approximate predictions... biorhythms, Cell biology (cellular biology) is an academic discipline which studies the physiological properties of cells, as well as their behaviours, interactions, and environment; this is done both on a microscopic and molecular level. Cell biology researches both single-celled organisms like bacteria and specialized cells in multicellular organisms like humans... cell biology, There are different senses of complexity: In information processing, complexity is a measure of the total number of properties transmitted by an object and detected by an observer. Such a collection of properties is often referred to as a state. In physical systems, complexity is a measure of the probability... complexity of biological systems, Ecology is the branch of science that studies the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both its physical habitat, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors like climate and geology, as well... ecology, Figure 1: Diagram of a catalytic reaction, showing the energy needed at each stage of the reaction. The substrates (A and B) normally need a large amount of energy to reach the transition state, which then reacts to form the end product (AB). The enzyme creates a microenvironment in which... enzyme kinetics, This article is about biological evolution. For other possible meanings, see Evolution (disambiguation). Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory Evolution generally refers to any process of change over time. In the context of life science, evolution is a change in the genetic makeup of a population of interbreeding individuals... evolutionary biology, Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. Humans began applying knowledge of genetics in prehistory with the domestication and breeding of plants and animals. In modern research, genetics provides important tools in the investigation... genetics, Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with, among other things, the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and disease; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders (autoimmune... immunology, Drawing of a cell membrane A component of every biological cell, the cell membrane (or plasma membrane) is a thin and structured bilayer of phospholipid and protein molecules that envelopes the cell. It separates a cells interior from its surroundings and controls what moves in and out. Cell surface... membrane transport, Microbiology (in Greek micron = small and biologia = studying life) is the study of microorganisms, including unicellular (single-celled) eukaryotes and prokaryotes, fungi, and viruses. Today, most of the work in microbiology is done using methods from biochemistry and genetics. It is also related to pathology, immunology, and epidemiology as many... microbiology, Geometry of the water molecule Molecules have fixed equilibrium geometries--bond lengths and angles--that are dictated by the laws of quantum mechanics. The chemical formula and the structure of a molecule are the two most important factors that determine its properties, particularly its reactivity. Molecules are most often held... molecular structures, Morphogenesis (from the Greek morphê shape and genesis creation) is one of three fundamental aspects of developmental biology along with the control of cell growth and cellular differentiation. Morphogenesis is concerned with the shapes of tissues, organs and entire organisms and the positions of the various specialized cell types. Cell... morphogenesis, Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided into plant physiology and animal physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied. For example, what... physiological mechanisms, Systems biology is an academic field that seeks to integrate biological data as an attempt to understand how biological systems function. By studying the relationships and interactions between various parts of a biological system (e.g. organelles, cells, physiological systems, organisms etc.) it is hoped that an understandable model of... systems biology and the This article focuses on modern scientific research on the origin of life. For alternate uses, see origin of life (disambiguation). Pre-Cambrian stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park. In 2002, William Schopf of UCLA published a controversial paper in Nature Magazine arguing that formations such as this possess... origin of life. Neuroscience is a field of study which deals with the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology and pathology of the nervous system. The study of behavior and learning is also a division of neuroscience. The biological study of the human brain is an interdisciplinary field which involves many levels... Neurobiology is an example of a subdiscipline of biology which already has a theoretical version of its own, theoretical or This article or section should include material from neuro cybernetics Computational neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field which draws on neuroscience, computer science and applied mathematics. It most often uses mathematical and computational techniques such as computer simulations and mathematical models to understand the function of the nervous system. The field... computational neuroscience.

The ultimate goal of the theoretical biologist is to explain the biological world using mainly Mathematics is commonly defined as the study of patterns of structure, change, and space; more informally, one might say it is the study of figures and numbers. Mathematical knowledge is constantly growing, through research and application, but mathematics itself is not usually considered a natural science. One reason is that... mathematical and The tower of a personal computer. A computer is a device or machine for making calculations or controlling operations that are expressible in numerical or logical terms. Computers are constructed from components that perform simple well-defined functions. The complex interactions of these components endow computers with the ability to... computational tools, though not necessarily. Though it is ultimately based on observations and experimental results, the theoretical biologist's product is a model or theory, and it is this that chiefly distinguishes the theoretical biologist from other biologists.

See also

• Bioinformatics or computational biology is the use of techniques from applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, and computer science to solve biological problems. Research in computational biology often overlaps with systems biology. Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction, prediction of gene expression and... Bioinformatics
• Mathematical biology or biomathematics is an interdisciplinary field of academic study which models natural, biological processes using mathematical techniques. It has both practical and theoretical applications in biological research. Some areas of research in mathematical biology are population dynamics and excitable media. See also mathematical model biologically-inspired computing cellular... Mathematical biology
• Theoretical ecology refers to several intellectual traditions. The tradition pursued in universities and scientific journals under the rubric of theoretical ecology addresses the probability distributions that govern the demography and biogeography of species; and, for example, the mathematics of competition. To a large extent theoretical ecology draws on the genius... Theoretical ecology

Bibliographical references

• Bonner, J. T. 1988. The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Hertel, H. 1963. Structure, Form, Movement. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp.
• Mangel, M. 1990. Special Issue, Classics of Theoretical Biology (part 1). Bull. Math. Biol. 52(1/2): 1-318.
• Prusinkiewicz, P. & Lindenmeyer, A. 1990. The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
• Thompson, D.W. 1942. On Growth and Form. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2. vols.
• Vogel, S. 1988. Life's Devices: The Physical World of Animals and Plants. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

External links

Journals

• Bioinformatics  (http://bioinformatics.oupjournals.org/)
• Journal of Theoretical Biology (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/0022-5193)
• Medical Hypotheses (http://www.harcourt-international.com/journals/mehy/)

Related societies

• American Mathematical Society (http://www.ams.org/)
• British Society of Developmental Biology (http://www.dundee.ac.uk/lifesciences/BSDB/)
• European Mathematical Society (http://www.maths.soton.ac.uk/EMIS)
• ESMTB: European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (http://www.esmtb.org/)
• The International Biometric Society (http://www.tibs.org/)
• International Society for Ecological Modelling (http://www.isemna.org/)
• The Israeli Society for Theoretical and Mathematical Biology (http://bioinformatics.weizmann.ac.il/istmb/)
• London Mathematical Society (http://www.lms.ac.uk/)
• Société Francophone de Biologie Théorique (http://www.necker.fr/sfbt/)
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (http://www.siam.org/)
• Society for Mathematical Biology (http://www.smb.org/)