• Question: what part of maths do you use most in biology?

    Asked by OliverW to williamtolmie, tomranner, ruthmclauchlan, paulterrill, Nick L, Laura B, kathrynhowells, Fiona B on 3 Feb 2025.
    • Photo: Ruth McLauchlan

      Ruth McLauchlan answered on 3 Feb 2025:

      I use a lot of statistics – analysing data using spreadsheets, working out means and standard deviations and displaying data on graphs, looking for trends. I also perform calculations that include equations with exponentials and need to solve quadratic equations.

    • Photo: Kathryn Howells

      Kathryn Howells answered on 3 Feb 2025:

      Hi there, I’m not sure about what part of maths is used in biology as I haven’t studied biology since my GCSE but in the pharmaceutical industry I use maths to calculate probabilities and test if the new drug we are developing is more effective than a drug that’s already available for patients (known as standard of care) or a placebo.

      I’m not sure if you have covered hypothesis tests yet, but in our clinical trials we test the hypothesis of the new drug having no effect. We then randomly allocate patients to the drugs and then measure the same outcome on both (eg reduction in size of cancer tumours, percentage change in blood pressure etc). We then calculate the probability of seeing the difference observed in the treatments if there was no real difference in the treatments. If the probability if low (usually less than 0.05) we can claim there is a difference in the treatments.

      Depending on the outcome that’s being measured (again reduction in size of cancer tumours, change in blood pressure etc) a different statistical analysis is used – eg linear regression, logistic regression, time to event analysis…. regardless of the method, they all calculate the probability.

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