physics

Nicolas Rashevsky

Nicolas Rashevsky is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nicolas Rashevsky rather than just read about it. In short: Nicolas Rashevsky (November 9, 1899 – January 16, 1972) was an American theoretical physicist who was one of the pioneers of mathematical biology, and is also considered the father of mathematical biophysics and theoretical biology. Academic career He studied theoretical physics at the St.

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Reference excerpt

Nicolas Rashevsky (November 9, 1899 – January 16, 1972) was an American theoretical physicist who was one of the pioneers of mathematical biology, and is also considered the father of mathematical biophysics and theoretical biology.

Academic career He studied theoretical physics at the St. Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev. He left Ukraine after the October Revolution, emigrating first to Turkey, then to Poland, France, and finally to the US in 1924. In USA he worked at first for the Westinghouse Research Labs in Pittsburgh where he focused on the theoretical physics modeling of the cell division and the mathematics of cell fission. He was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1934 and went to the University of Chicago to take up the appointment of assistant professor in the department of physiology. In 1938, inspired by reading On Growth and Form (1917) by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, he made his first major contribution by publishing his first book on Mathematical Biophysics, and then in 1939 he also founded the first mathematical biology international journal entitled The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics (BMB); these two essential contributions founded the field of mathematical biology, with the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology serving as the focus of contributing mathematical biologists over the last 70 years. During the late 1930s, Rashevsky's research group was producing papers that had difficulty publishing in other journals at the time, so Rashevsky decided to found a new journal exclusively devoted to mathematical biophysics. In January 1939, he approached the editor of the journal Psychometrika, L.L. Thurstone, and formed an agreement that the new journal, the BMB, would be published as a supplement to their quarterly issues.

Major scientific contributions In 1938 he published one of the first books on mathematical biology and mathematical biophysics entitled: "Mathematical Biophysics: Physico-Mathematical Foundations of Biology." This fundamental book was eventually published in three revised editions, the last revision appearing in two volumes in 1960. It was followed in 1940 by "Advances and applications of mathematical biology.", and in 1947 by "Mathematical theory of human relations", an approach to a mathematical model of society. In the same year he established the World' s first PhD program in mathematical biology at the University of Chicago. In the early 1930s, Rashevsky developed the first model of neural networks. This was paraphrased in a Boolean context by his student Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch in their 1943 paper "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity," published in Rashevsky's The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics in 1943. This paper subsequently became extremely influential for research on artificial intelligence and artificial neural networks. His later efforts focused on the topology of biological systems, the formulation of fundamental principles in biology, relational biology, set theory and propositional logic formulation of the hierarchical organization of organisms and human societies. In the second half of the 1960s, he introduced the concept of "organismic sets" that provided a unified framework for physics, biology and sociology. This was subsequently developed by other authors as organismic supercategories and Complex Systems Biology.

Rashevsky's most notable students Some of Rashevsky's most outstanding PhD students who earned their doctorate under his supervision were: George Karreman, Herbert Daniel Landahl, Clyde Coombs, Robert Rosen and Anatol Rapoport. In 1948, Anatol Rapoport took over Rashevsky's course in mathematical biology, so that Rashevsky could teach mathematical sociology instead.

Administrative and political obstacles However, his more advanced ideas and abstract relational biology concepts found little support in the beginning amongst practicing experimental or molecular biologists, although current developments in complex systems biology clearly follow in his footsteps. In 1954 the budget for his Committee of Mathematical Biology was drastically cut; however, this was at least in part politically imposed, rather than scientifically, motivated. Thus, the subsequent University of Chicago administration—notably represented by the genetics Nobel laureate George Wells Beadle— who reversed in the 1960s the previous position and quadrupled the financial support for Rashevsky's Committee for Mathematical Biology research activities ("Reminiscences of Nicolas Rashevsky." by Robert Rosen, written in late 1972). There was later however a fall out between the retiring Nicolas Rashevsky and the University of Chicago president over the successor to the Chair of the Committee of Mathematical Biology; Nicolas Rashevsky strongly supported Dr. Herbert Landahl-his first PhD student to graduate in Mathematical Biophysics, whereas the president wished to appoint a certain US biostatistician. The result was Rashevsky's move to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and his taking ownership of the well-funded "Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics".

Formation of Mathematical Biology, Inc. He also formed in 1969 a non-profit organization, "Mathematical Biology, Incorporated", which was to be the precursor of "The Society for Mathematical Biology", with the purpose of "dissemination of information regarding Mathematical Biology". In his later years, after 1968, he became again very active in relational biology and held, as well as Chaired, in 1970 the first international "Symposium of Mathematical Biology" at Toledo, Ohio, in USA with the help of his former PhD student, Dr. Anthony Bartholomay, who has become the chairman of the first Department of Mathematical Medicine at Ohio University. The meeting was sponsored by Mathematical Biology, Inc.

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nicolas Rashevsky

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nicolas Rashevsky claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nicolas Rashevsky before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nicolas Rashevsky ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nicolas Rashevsky

In research: Nicolas Rashevsky appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nicolas Rashevsky in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nicolas Rashevsky is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1899 births, 1972 deaths, 20th-century American biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nicolas Rashevsky outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

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Why does Nicolas Rashevsky matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

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Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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