Discover How Pure Math Shapes Evolutionary Genetics 🧬

Scientists Find 'Pure Math' , At Work in Evolutionary Genetics.<br />ScienceAlert reports that researchers have uncovered <br />one of the purest forms of math, number theory, at <br />work in the mechanisms governing molecular evolution.<br />Number theory includes multiplication, <br />subtraction, division and addition of <br />integers and their negative counterparts. .<br />One example would be the Fibonacci sequence, <br />found throughout nature, where each number in the <br />sequence is the sum of the two numbers preceeding it.<br />The beauty of number theory lies not <br />only in the abstract relationships it <br />uncovers between integers, but also <br />in the deep mathematical structures <br />it illuminates in our natural world, Ard Louis, Senior author and mathematician <br />at Oxford University, via ScienceAlert.<br />The beauty of number theory lies not <br />only in the abstract relationships it <br />uncovers between integers, but also <br />in the deep mathematical structures <br />it illuminates in our natural world, Ard Louis, Senior author and mathematician <br />at Oxford University, via ScienceAlert.<br />The beauty of number theory lies not <br />only in the abstract relationships it <br />uncovers between integers, but also <br />in the deep mathematical structures <br />it illuminates in our natural world, Ard Louis, Senior author and mathematician <br />at Oxford University, via ScienceAlert.<br />The team ran numerical simulations to determine <br />the upper bounds of mutational robustness, <br />a process which generates genetic diversity. .<br />We have known for some time that many <br />biological systems exhibit remarkably <br />high phenotype robustness, without <br />which evolution would not be possible. <br />But we didn't know what the absolute <br />maximal robustness possible would <br />be, or if there even was a maximum, Ard Louis, Senior author and mathematician <br />at Oxford University, via ScienceAlert.<br />ScienceAlert reports that the team found that <br />maximum robustness follows a self-repeating <br />fractal pattern called a Blancmange curve.<br />The maximum was proportional <br />to the sum-of-digits fraction, <br />a basic concept of number theory.<br />We found clear evidence in the mapping <br />from sequences to RNA secondary <br />structures that nature in some cases<br />achieves the exact maximum robustness <br />bound. It's as if biology knows about <br />the fractal sums-of-digits function, Vaibhav Mohanty, Harvard Medical School, via ScienceAlert.<br />We found clear evidence in the mapping <br />from sequences to RNA secondary <br />structures that nature in some cases<br />achieves the exact maximum robustness <br />bound. It's as if biology knows about <br />the fractal sums-of-digits function, Vaibhav Mohanty, Harvard Medical School, via ScienceAlert.<br />The team's findings were published in the <br />'Journal of The Royal Society Interface.'