James P. Keener talk : “The Mathematics of Life”
Decisions, decisions
James P. Keener, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Utah, will talk about the “Mathematics of Life” on Friday, November 30.
In order to survive, living organisms must constantly make decisions, about what to eat, when and where to move, when to reproduce, when to build, when to destroy, etc. In this talk, Keener will give an overview of the mathematics of decision-making, namely the mathematical principles that underlie biological processes of measurements, switches, and signals. The short answer to how decisions are made is that the rate of molecular diffusion contains information that can be transduced by biochemical reactions to give control over behavior. These processes can be given quantitative descriptions using diffusion-reaction equations, and the study of these equations gives valuable insights into how organisms work as well as an opportunity to learn and develop new mathematics. Keener will illustrate this dual role of quantitative reasoning by way of several specific examples from cell biology.
This talk will be given as a part of the National Science Foundation Award in Undergraduate training in Biology and Mathematics (UBM).