Question: Hi Sam, What is the link between the evolutionary pathway and the mathematics behind it? I am unable to see a correlation there is between the two of them. Is it to do with the populations of each of the different species and the relations, or can the mathematics actually explain the behavioural characteristics themselves? Thanks

Sam Tazzyman answered on 21 Jun 2011:

Much of evolutionary theory is implicitly statistical or probabilistic in nature. For example, when we say “survival of the fittest” we actually mean that on average, organisms better adapted to their environment will be more likely to survive than those that are worse adapted. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that if you lined the animals up in order of size (say) the top 25% biggest will definitely survive and the others will die. Instead we can assume there is some sort of probability of surviving based on size. Mathematics is the only way we can analyse ideas like this in a logical and rigourous fashion, to avoid the pitfalls and hidden contradictions that can occur with purely verbal reasoning. I don’t think it can actually explain the behavioural characteristics themselves, but it can explain their evolution if the question is correctly phrased.

Hope that helps!