Seminar · Mathematical Biology
Biology is “messy”. So how can we take theory in biology seriously and plot predictions and experiments on the same axes?
Workshop, Multiple Speakers · Emory University
Thu, Sep 24, 2020 · 04:00 UTC
Many of us came to biology from physics. There we have been trained on such classic examples as muon g-2, where experimental data and theoretical predictions agree to many significant digits. Now, working in biology, we routinely hear that it is messy, most details matter, and that the best hope for theory in biology is to be semi-qualitative, predict general trends, and to forgo the hope of ever making quantitative predictions with the precision that we are used to in physics. Colloquially, we should be satisfied even if data and models differ so much that plotting them on the same plot makes