Simple Maths for a Perplexing World

摘要

Charles Darwin famously remarked that those versed well in mathematics are endowed with something akin to an extra sense. In the past half century, mathematics has brought a great deal of insight into evolutionary biology, and perhaps for this reason hoards of mathematicians and physicists flock to biology to apply their insight. The depth and range of topics dealt with in Richard McElreath and Robert Boyd's Mathematical Models of Social Evolution keenly demonstrate how far that extra sense can bring us.