MATH BEATS CANCER & MAKES BRAIN MORE BEAUTIFUL NOW

Math is everywhere. But recently, math has been found to have a beautiful impact on our lives. New findings show how math can beat cancer. And still others show how our brains equate math with beauty. Check it out below.

MATHEMATICS IN GAME THEORY CAN BEAT CANCER CELLS

Games can save lives. And games are largely a function of math. This fact might entice more kids to learn to love their math homework.

In a recent report, researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have released their new studies on cancer - which they are doing with the help of evolutionary game theory! Their goal is to figure out how cells collaborate within a tumor and make energy, and with that, identify the best time to disturb the metastatic cancerous process.

Now, you’re probably wondering what game theory has to do with cancer - and the answer is actually quite revolutionary.

Game theory is generally used to predict how humans interact with each other in situations of cooperation and conflict. But scientists are discovering that it can be used to model many other interactions as well, including to foretell cell-to-cell interactions in cancerous tumors.

Tumor cells have various cooperative and competitive states which vary as the tumor grows. Applying game theory to this process, the scientists found that there are a series of critical periods, based on mutation rates in which the cells in the tumor change their game-like strategy.

In this newfound window, scientists think that the tumor can be particularly vulnerable. With more research, game theory can calculate to help identify the ideal time to disrupt the growth of cancer cells and increase the efficiency of anticancer drugs.

Some tumor cells may stimulate surrounding normal cells to release lactate which, in turn, feeds the tumor. A therapy that disrupts this system, while it is in a critical transition, could help to shut down the tumor and pave the way for anti-cancer therapies to take effect.

Though scientists are just starting out with applying the mathematics of game theory to cancerous cells and more research needs to be done to find out if this occurs in all tumors, this scientific advancement is already taking another step in the right direction - opening the door to finding out more about the progressive nature of cancer.

BRAIN SEES MATH AS BEAUTIFUL

The brain reacts to the beauty of math in the same ways as it reacts to the beauty of art and music.

It has recently been discovered that there may be a neurological basis to beauty. This was found when brain images of people familiar with mathematics were compared with people who were shown beautiful art or music.

In the study, published earlier this year, researchers at the University College of London analyzed the brains of 15 mathematicians as they viewed 60 mathematical formulae, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs). The subjects were tasked with rating each formula on how beautiful they perceived it to be.

Then, the researchers observed that different areas of the brain were activated, depending on whether a formula was considered to be beautiful, ugly or neutral.

They found that the experience of mathematical beauty activated the same part of the emotional brain, mainly the medial orbitofrontal cortex -- the same areas triggered by music and art!

This study highlights the fact that math is a very beautiful thing! The most beautiful formulae were found to be Euler’s identity and the Pythagorean identity. Can aesthetic experiences be quantified? The answer appears to be: Yes!

Read more about Beautiful Math, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Math is a Beautiful Thing Right Now: 10 New Books.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Math in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 09.21.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

PHOTO CREDITS:

1. Image: Courtesy of Penn State. Cancerous Brain Cells.
2. Photo: by Akash Kataruka. Complex Math.
3. Image: Courtesy of Moffitt Cancer Center. Individual Cell-Based Model for Tumor Growth.
4. Photo: by Yale Rosen. Cancerous Cell.
5. Photo: Courtesy of Zeiss Microscopy. Bone Cancer.
6. Photo: by Ed Uthman. Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Bronchial Washing, Pap Stain.
7. Photo: Courtesy of Zeiss Microscopy. Bone Cancer.
8. Photo: by Ed Uthman. Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Bronchial Washing, Pap Stain.
9. Photo: Courtesy of Cultura/Rex Features Photography. Breast Cancer Cell.
10. Photo: by Yale Rosen. Invasive Mucinous Adenocarcinoma Case 115.
11. Photo: Courtesy of Qatar National Health Strategy. Cancerous Lung Cell Interaction.
12. Photo: by Derek Bruff. Euler’s Identity.
13. Photo: by Gabriel Molina. Math.
14. Photo: by Paul Wicks. Medial Orbitofrontal Cortex Reacting to Beauty in Math.
15. Image: by Tomohiro Ishizu and Semir Zeki. Cortical Activation responding to beauty of math.
16. Photo: by Gertrud K. Sholz & Friends. Sculpture of E=MC2 Formula.
17. Photo: by Ivan T. “Mathematica.”
18. Image: by Semir Zeki and Hideaki Kawabata. Medial Orbito-frontal Cortex Activation in Response to Beauty.