The Usefulness of Math

According to Davide Castelvecchi at Scientific American, it's not just useful for gambling (h/t Mark Thoma).  He refers to a story in Nature which highlights several examples of mathematicians' work which would later contribute solutions for scientists and engineers in other situations.  One example:

Spanish physicist Juan Parrondo, writing with University of Greenwich mathematician Noel-Ann Bradshaw, describes a paradox Parrondo himself proposed in 1996 that gives a game-theory interpretation of the intriguing concept of Brownian ratchet, a device that appears to extract free energy from a fluid. (Equally fascinating to me is how pervasive Brownian ratchets seem to be in biology, where they power many of life’s nanomotors.)

The mathematical work is way beyond me, but it is interesting to me.  Glad somebody's smart enough to figure it out.  He says later on that the article is a call out for funding for mathematicians, and he explains why, in his opinion, mathematicians are worth having around:

On the other hand, mathematicians are cheap. They just need a small office, some chalk, a computer and, once in a while, a ticket to a conference. They make you smile by wearing nerdy T-shirts. They are good to have around on university campuses in case you are a scientist who happens to have calculus (or Riemannian geometry) questions. Oh, and they teach math to students. Lots of students.

Works for me.