I had a weird dream on that night.
I was interning in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology. I had been late to the OT and to my bad luck our HOD had noticed that, lest I was prepared to give him a lame excuse. I cursed my stars and went ahead to the changing room of the Operation Theatre complex. My HOD scolded me and asked me not to enter the OT and that necessary action would be taken later that day. I was just sitting blank in the changing room when a professor entered. He appeared to be in his sixties and measured just three inches above five foot in height. His fingers had gross deformities and I assumed he must be having Rheumatoid Arthritis and wondered how he could perform gynaecological surgeries with such deformities. Strange! I cannot associate this character with any of my real life professors. Yet, he appeared to be very brainy.
As he changed, he asked me, “So, you are good at mathematics?”
I was hiding my ignominious face and so, I just nodded in silence and tried to avoid any eye contact with him. “Then, tell me, what is Cancer in terms of mathematics?”
I was surprised at his question and reflexly looked at him. “What? In terms of Mathematics?” I retorted interrogatively. He nodded and continued, “Yes. How do you explain the growth of cancerous cells and their ability to spread to different body parts, in terms of mathematics?”
“Hmmm… sir,” I appreciated his ability to bridge two entirely different subjects and continued unconsciously. “I think, you can compare it with … factorisation of an irrational number… I mean, just the way, it goes on endlessly…”
“Wow, very good thinking! Come on, change your dress and get into the OT,” he appreciated me and disappeared into one of the theatres, leaving me perplexed in the changing room!
I was even more perplexed when I woke up and tried to interpret it. I could associate only a few components of that dream with my daily events. Earlier that day, I was watching a documentary on Discovery Channel about ‘Greatest Discoveries in Chemistry.’ One of the discoveries that the documentary featured was, the chemical structure of Benzene and how Kekulé arrived at it by interpreting his dream of a serpent trying to catch its own tail. The incident had inspired me to take a rather different approach if I think of making a progress in therapeutic Oncology (that’s my long term career goal and I think about it very often). And later that evening, I was discussing with my brother the achievements of one of my friend. He had put up in his website the methods of factorising a number which is nearly 50 or 100 digits long!
Wow… but how can I associate these two things and subsequently both of them with my dream? It is there that I lost the link and hence decided to blog it and let you people do it for me. It has been more than six years since I last did some serious mathematics and now I don’t even remember what is an irrational number, let alone whether it can be factorised or not. It was actually my dream and I pardon myself even if the whole concept of factorisation of an irrational number is mathematically vulgar!
superb loosie..
ReplyDeleteDo one thing.. study something on oncology and something on irrational numbers and their factorization.. then sleep again with this new data in ur head.. u will either find a mathematical way to solve cancer or a chemical way to solve factorizing irrational numbers ;)
On behalf of Professor Trewlaney :
ReplyDeleteYou have gloomy/dark and dangerous days ahead. The fact that you were late to your operations lab shows that there is some serious trouble in the way Saturn has aligned himself with respect to the star in the sixth place. As though this is not quite unpleasant, you even ventured to think about the most dreaded 'Factorization of an irrational number' for a supposed to be easy question of explaining cancer in terms of mathematics. This show how near is your danger. You should seriously start doing some Crystal Ball gazing or reading Tea leaves instead of trying to learn French.
Ok, that was crap. I was discussing with Ash the other day and he was telling me how you can relate or possibly find some lead to a problem you frequently run in your mind - in a totally disconnected situation. I have experienced it myself many times. Lucky if you can remember your dreams and possibly find a connection. If you really want me to interpret your dreams in the light of what August Kekule saw, I would say (more to encourage you) - You can find a medical solution to stop spreading of cancerous cells, very similar to finding out factors for an irrational number. You should probably read the methods that Ash has published and try and get some links.
PS: Dont be too afraid of your HOD.
Hey, I have completed interning and I have got my Degree Certificate at hand. So, I ain't afraid of HOD anymore!
ReplyDeleteInspirational stuff, my friend.
ReplyDeleteThere are two words here one is "irrational" another is "factorization".
Irrational: any number that cannot be expressed as p/q, where p and q are integers. Famous irrational numbers are pi(=3.1415...) and e(=2.71...). If this has any relation to cancer cells, then it is not good. Of course cancer cells might divide or spawn without any pattern or specific "structure". But, without having some structure it's difficult to predict the outcome. One possibility is the role of pi. There might be something in the rate of division of cells or growth of cells that is related to pi. I am just extending my imagination here. You know how terrible my knowledge of biology is.
"Factorization". The basic building block of a number are it's factors. More importantly, any positive integer can be decomposed into it's prime factors. Ex: 52=13*2*2, 88=11*2*2*2, 91=13*7. This type of factorization is known as prime factorization. There is no right algorithm or formula for computing prime factors of a number. The worst case occurs when the factors are just two primes.
Prime factorization is a NP (non polynomial time) problem till now. In simple words it is easy to get the number given the factors. But, if you just have the number, it is really difficult (not possible in polynomial time) to find factors.
Having said this, let me explain or extrapolate my imagination a bit. How can prime factorization be related to cancer? Let A be a large number (when I say large that means it's around hundreds of digits in length) and B and C it's factors. The number of cancer cells can be related to A (or the rate of growth perhaps). B and C can be it's building blocks. The factors can be related to the point(s) of growth of cancerous cells? (I know I am extending the thought way too much).
Or another way of putting it: Finding the factors of A, here cancer cells might lead you to the "source" of cancer cells. Or to the rate of growth of cancer cells at a previous stage of the development.
Another idea:
What if the number A is randomly growing? It's growth rate is not known. It seems to have a pattern in its growth, but it is very difficult to calculate it. Finding its prime factors would largely help in calculating the growth factor as prime factors of A tend to be much smaller than A. Can you see the parallel in terms of cancer cells? The cancer cells grow randomly or in some pattern that is completely "hidden" . But "factorizing" the cancer cells or growth rate of cancer cells, you might be able to predict the growth rate in a much more definite fashion.
My knowledge of biology is so bad (let alone that of cancer) that I was reluctant to reply to this blog.
So, whatever I have speculated (or over-speculated) above, might be nothing at all or it might be something.
If you need more info on factorization, let me know.
Hope this helps ...
Wow... Thank you so much Ashlesh! It seems like my dream has something meaningful in it. Just as you are bad at Biology, so am I bad at Mathematics right now. But my passion towards mathematics is still alive somewhere deep in my heart and it seems like the time has come to rekindle it; that of course, if YOU provide the fuel!
ReplyDeleteNow regarding the irrational numbers and their unpredictable growth (in your terms, it is 'A') or growth-rate, I find it very similar to that of Cancer Cells as well as their invasiveness. It is largely unpredictable. But then, you rightly pointed out one other thing. The factors ('B', 'C' ... ) must be smaller than than 'A'. That's a point worth considering.
Contemplating this fact, I assume, B, C and others to be "ONCOGENS" - the probable or hypothesized causes of Cancer! Just as "1" becomes a definitive Prime factor for any number, I hypothesize that this "1" in terms of Oncology to be an ONCOGENE - a gene that determines the potential of a cancerous cell to undergo an untrammelled growth!
Ugh, it seems like I am stretching my imagination too much. Let me stop here and learn more about Prime Factorisation and Non Polynomial Time problems that might help me understand "Oncology" better! :)
Thanks for your wonderful support and please continue to support me..
cool concept....there is a software based on a mathematical theory which I am unsurprisingly not sure about (I am a doc too)which helps to predict the spread of epidemics.....a very novel idea....
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Info... I am now desperate to know more about that Software... Help me out, buddy..
ReplyDeleteIts an interesting dream..but i am not at all surprised with using mathematics to solve cancer related issues.... This is a research in itself... may be u should check these links: http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/dildine/cancer/cancer.html
ReplyDeletehttp://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/lee/lee_news.html
or better... search google: http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=mathematics+cancer&meta=
The other day I read your dream regarding that OT room incidence. I wondered how one could relate factorization of an irrational number and cancer… for that matter I thought you did the same! I think they must have been two independent thoughts which were liberated from the abyss of your mind in random at that point of time. One is your passion for Caner and its complexities and another is the complexity of an irrational number and further if it can be factorised. Since my school days, I have believed that Mathematics is the mother of all sciences and there exists no discipline which is independent of Mathematics. And as such Oncology is a multi-disciplinary approach with Mathematics having a major role to play.
ReplyDeleteI understand from pathology (Robin’s Textbook of Pathology) that a single mutated cell should undergo 30 population doublings to produce 1012 cells (1 gm mass) which is the smallest clinically detectable mass and next 10 doublings would make it a 1 kg mass which is incompatible with the normal physiology of the body. Suddenly it struck my mind that it is analogous to an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction which can cause a catastrophe similar to what an untamed cancerous cell does to the body.
I don’t know if the analogies do draw us towards any important conclusions but one thing that strikes my mind is whether we can have a “Controlled Carcinogenesis” (inducing and controlling the production of Cancerous Cells). Can it be an answer to achieving immortality? The question needs to be answered. Because as we see the cell culture lines of Malignant Cells are immortal under laboratory conditions. Just like controlled fission reaction solving our energy crisis, I think, controlled carcinogenesis can help us push the boundaries of death as much as we want!
As far as the old dwarf professor with rheumatoid arthritis is concerned, I think you should open the folders of your memory and search the files of your childhood to find out if it could be a person who triggered in you the passion for Cancer. What confuses me is that rheumatoid arthritis is predominantly a disease of the females though theoretically incidence should be the same in both the sexes because it is HLA (present of Chromosome 6) linked disease and bears no relation to X chromosome. And I wonder why it was a Gynaecology OT. Is it because Carcinoma of the Cervix and Uterus are the malignancies claiming more number of deaths than others? I think you should be having better answers to the question your own mind has put forward. Though I am no Sigmund Freud I have tried interpreting your dreams modestly. Keep it up!
Regards,
Dr. Vinay R. Hallikeri
Thank you for giving me more questions! Through your analogy, you have brought between Cancer and Mathematics, yet another a branch of Science which I always loved – physics! May be physics can bridge the gap between the two seemingly unrelated branches of science. The nuclear fission reaction and Malignancy have a lot of similarities, just as you pointed out. I now wonder whether Carcinogenesis is a nature’s way of helping us move towards immortality and may be it is in an experimental stage causing catastrophes before we completely understand and find out ways to control it!
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