why should i need maths if my major is biology?

Question

in other words, is it compulsory for someone to study maths,chemistry(all types) and physical science if he/she is majoring in biology? i am confused now cos when i moved to this country to study biology, i am now having all types of science subjects and i didn't even do advanced maths in high school. all i wanted is to study at least all types of biology for my bachelor if possible and then go for human biology at master's level. now i am confused and don't know what is this i am studying. my main ambition is to become a researcher in human biology. can someone please give me some advices here, i am lost. thanks

Answer 1

If you take a look in some formal biology papers, you'll find they can contain considerable amounts of maths. Whether studying it is compulsory -in which ever country you might happen to be in- is unknown to me. Nevertheless, some degree of maths literacy is definitely useful. Making sense of, for example, molecular studies certainly requires it.



Update

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Because it's apparently a requirement of your course is the short answer. Nevertheless, as it says in a convenient paper on proposed divergence times for existing orders of placental mammals:



"Notably, our data set shows consistency of ampli®cation and phylogenetic signal associated with the four non-coding nuclear segments (APP, BMI1, CREM and PLCB4) all of which were derived from 39 untranslated regions (39 UTRs). Whereas the average percentage of variable sites was expectedly higher for the 39 UTRs (68% of 1,789 bp, n = 4) versus coding regions (51% of 6,573 bp, n = 11), the average consistency index was also higher for the

39 UTRs (0.51) compared with the coding regions (0.33)."



If you want to assess whether the presented data justifies those sentences, and actually understand what the authors are talking about, maths is required.

Answer 2

Biologists who do research at the post graduate level (those who design projects and write papers for journals) often must use semi-advanced math. By semi-advanced math I mean calculus and differential equations. For example, when I studied anti-retroviral drugs, we used several differential equations to model drug absorption, availability, toxicity, and elimination.



You may not need to use calculus in whatever specific field you enter, but the fact is that a lot of biologists do. The bachelors curriculum is designed to encompass general biology. You may take more classes geared towards human biology, but the school still has to give you a basic biological education. You specialize after your bachelors program.

Answer 3

every student must complete a requirements course no matter what. That's how the school system works. You cant just take only the major course and get a degree, the system doesn't work that way. Biology is part of science and science does contain mathematics. Math and english is the most important course that every student must take because its everywhere. And every school system has there own different requirements.

Answer 4

Because biology is the study of living things you also need to fully understand the world they interact with. Organisims do not live in a vaccum.



You also need to understand basic chemistry and physics before you can study bio-chemistry and bio-physics etc.



As far as the maths, not only do you need them to support your understanding of the sciences but also for analyzing any data involved.



I hope that makes sense. I'm going to go have my morning coffee now. :-)

Answer 5

Math makes it possible to make sense of all the things you'll see in the field or in the lab. It is the language of science.

Answer 6

Math and science go together hand in hand. In biology, you'll be needing math for calculations and quantitve observations.

Answer 7

Math invades just about every part of our everyday lives, so it would be more important in research--ratios, proportions, etc.

But, most colleges make you take a variety of courses "to make you think" [that's what a math professor told me].

Answer 8

advanced math helps you with advanced chemistry, which helps you with biology, it all overlaps but i must say that the system could be better

Answer 9

How can you be a scientist without the basic maths skills to quantify an organism?

Answer 10

u shd have good knowledge of limits,differentiation,integration,trigo... think its enough