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The Beginning of Life as described by Math

A mathematical model has predicted the beginnings of life on earth. Heather Wax reported in Using Math to Explain How Life on Earth Began at sciam.com that Martin A. Nowak produced a computer simulation founded on a mathematical algorithm. Martin A. Nowak is the first person to have a joint professorship in Mathematics and Biology at Harvard University.
This algorithm uses binary to model the fundamental building blocks of life, nucleic acids (adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine or uracil). Nowak composes these “building blocks” into “random and spontaneous” strings of binary coding that he calls monomers. He then uses his binary strings to make a model of the evolution of the nucleic acids. Nowak claims that the nucleic acids will perform the same way that his model suggests; however, this is not without problems. David W. Deamer, a biomolecular engineer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, explains: “It’s hard to imagine an easy way to make nucleic acids.” This is because the model does not allow for enzymes that would process and build the nucleic acid molecules.
Though it may not seem important, using math in biology is imperative, according to Nowak. This is because math is capable of solving previously unsolvable problems such as decoding gene sequences. These could be used in a wide variety of topics; from curing diseases to building AIs, to improving education. Moreover, the exploration of the beginning of life is one of the fundamentals of biology.