If people are endowed with a "number instinct" similar to the "language instinct" -- as recent research suggests -- then why can't everyone do math? In The Math Gene, mathematician and popular writer Keith Devlin attacks both sides of this question. Devlin offers a breathtakingly new theory of language development that describes how language evolved in two stages and how its main purpose was not communication. Devlin goes on to show that the ability to think mathematically arose out of the same symbol-manipulating ability that was so crucial to the very first emergence of true language. Why, then, can't we do math as well as we speak? The answer, says Devlin, is that we can and do -- we just don't recognize when we're using mathematical reasoning.

In The Maths Gene, Keith Devlin explains how the human mind came to perform mathematical reasoning. He claims the answer lies in our genes, and reveals why some people feel they can't do maths, while a select few excel.

A groundbreaking book about math and language, from the well-known NPR commentator Keith Devlin.

Math is Everywhere has 365 math activities you can do with your kids, right now! You could watch bugs, listen to music, or ride a bike. You’ll find ideas to entertain with math while waiting for a dentist appointment! You can make flubber or a real dirt cake that you can eat! You will not find any worksheets or artificial word problems, but your child probably will want to create some, so beware! You won’t need to buy a thing, unless it’s the groceries you and your child will use to make dinner. Math is Everywhere is a book for anyone who wants to answer the question, “When am I ever going to use this math?”

Written to equip students in the mathematical siences to understand and model the epidemiological and experimental data encountered in genetics research. This second edition expands the original edition by over 100 pages and includes new material. Sprinkled throughout the chapters are many new problems.

This volume contains pedagogical and elementary introductions to genetics for mathematicians and physicists as well as to mathematical models and techniques of population dynamics. It also offers a physicist's perspective on modeling biological processes.Each chapter starts with an overview followed by the recent results obtained by authors. Lectures are self-contained and are devoted to various phenomena such as the evolution of the genetic code and genomes, age-structured populations, demography, sympatric speciation, the Penna model, Lotka-Volterra and other predator-prey models, evolutionary models of ecosystems, extinctions of species, and the origin and development of language. Authors analyze their models from the computational and mathematical points of view.