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Theoretical biology
Theoretical biology is an interdisciplinary field of academic study and research that involves the use of quantitative tools in 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: animal behaviour, biorhythms, cell biology, complexity of biological systems, ecology, enzyme kinetics, evolutionary biology, genetics, immunology, membrane transport, microbiology, molecular structures, morphogenesis, physiological mechanisms, systems biology and the origin of life. Neurobiology is an example of a subdiscipline of biology which already has a theoretical version of its own, theoretical or computational neuroscience.
The ultimate goal of the theoretical biologist is to explain the biological world using mainly mathematical and 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.
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See also
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
Related societies
- American Mathematical Society
- British Society of Developmental Biology
- European Mathematical Society
- ESMTB: European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology
- The International Biometric Society
- International Society for Ecological Modelling
- The Israeli Society for Theoretical and Mathematical Biology
- London Mathematical Society
- Société Francophone de Biologie Théorique
- Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
- Society for Mathematical Biology
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