Life's Other Secret

by Ian Stewart

"Stewart writes with such compelling clarity that general readers can share in the intellectual daring of his perspective."—Booklist An invitation to a hidden world In Life’s Other Secret, mathematician and award-winning science writer Ian Stewart reveals the way mathematics describes the origin, structure, and evolution of life. Featuring a sumptuous gallery of color illustrations demonstrating nature’s intricate wonders, here is an intriguing invitation to enter a world deeper than DNA, a world where number series bloom in springtime and equations gallop across the plains. From the latest theory of how life started to the rules governing the shapes into which animals grow to the ancient patterns of evolution, Stewart illuminates the fundamental forces that shape our world.

Genres: Science, Mathematics, Nonfiction, Popular Science

Hardcover

First published January 5, 1998

About the author

Ian Nicholas Stewart is an Emeritus Professor and Digital Media Fellow in the Mathematics Department at Warwick University, with special responsibility for public awareness of mathematics and science. He is best known for his popular science writing on mathematical themes.
--from the author's website

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.

Reviews

[Remo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buena colección sobre aplicaciones de la matemática al mundo biológico, desde las estructuras moleculares de los virus
hasta el movimiento de los peces cuando van en un banco.

Ian Stewart escribe muy bien, y lo sabe, y tiene mil cosas que contar. Este libro es un viaje entretenidísimo por muchas de las partes de la biología que pueden ser modeladas/descritas mediante matemáticas. El autor se mete en harina a veces, pero la mayor parte del rato se queda en un nivel bastante introductorio. Me encantó.

[Karel Baloun · Rating 5 out of 5]

A broad introduction to mathematical approaches in biology, including complexity theory nonlinear dynamics cellular automaton and neural networks.

"When finally the human race manages to develop a unified theory of the deep mathematical laws behind growth and form. Life's other secret."

[Ravsta P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began reading this dense hardcover straight after a similar paperback work by John Gribbin on DNA and the double helix structure.

That was also very dense, but what did I expect from an author who specialises in quantum mechanics? Thankfully that previous work set me up to better comprehend this one.

We are taken on a journey by Stewart through history and form. Is DNA the secret to life? Or perhaps it is only one of them, the outer perspective we have of it showing only that it is a part of many interlocking systems. The structure and form of the double helical system utilises already present physical laws in order to do it's work.

Can clay on the seabed be classed as a self-replicating system? Yes, in many ways it can. This is a similar question to "is fire alive? What about viruses?", and carries many startling implications.

Turing's work on morphogenetic processes, like the spiral of a Nautilus shell or the formation of fish stripes, is expounded further here, too.

If you're curious about this subject area, then this book of Stewart's is a great introduction. Maybe read it before Gribbin's similar work, as I actually found this a slightly less dense overview that was wrapped up neatly with philosophical considerations.

Rav.

[Whoof]

Above all a very good literature review, wish he would have gone into more formal detail.

I came away with a huge list of papers to read, but with little notion of the actual *mathematics* behind them--Stewart just gives a high-level summary of everything, saying "so and so did showed or modeled this mathematically, using some kind of mathematics called such and such." Obviously it is difficult to give popular exposition to such topics, but the word "mathematics" just becomes a stand-in for "something explained in depth in another source." I think including more actual math would have helped bolster his thesis, which is that genes are not all there is to explaining life--physical laws are important too.

Actually this brings me to another thing about the book: "mathematics" is sometimes used interchangeably with "physics/physical law", or in other places "mathematics" is implicitly posited as a kind of *cause* of some phenomena where in other sections Stewart is clear in explaining that mathematics is just a language of our conceptual models...just inconsistent philosophy, I guess. But it really is utterly confusing anyway, so I don't blame him too much)

But it was quite engaging and had lots of nice images. Covers a wide variety of topics. Now to take a crack at some of the cited literature!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant as an introduction of how mathematics underpins biology. It challenges the idea that genes & DNA are the be-all and end-all of life, showing how influential maths is in a variety of areas. Stewart, as ever, writes in a way that is accessible to all regardless of mathematical ability.

[Jrobertus]

like the classic d'arcy thompson book, this tries to give a mathematical basis to many biological phenomena. his discussion of 'emergent' properties is very thought provoking and important.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently re-reading this book for my book club. Loved it the first time.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was hard going, but worthwhile