#random walk

https://www.permanentstyle.com/2023/12/seoul-a-menswear-shopping-guide.html

Today in Manga History

June 3rd, 2000

Random Walk begins serialization in Ribon Magazine

A tango with tangled polymers

While statisticians are driven by real-world problems, U of S mathematics professor Chris Soteros is motivated by the more esoteric behaviour of long-chain molecules, such as polymers and DNA, and the mathematical problems they pose.

Her work involves analyzing the folding and "packaging" behaviour of these molecules. Given that two metres of DNA are folded into each cell in our body, studying the behaviour is daunting indeed.

To help unpack the problem, Soteros simplifies and simulates these molecules on a three-dimensional lattice, then uses mathematical tools such as random and self-avoiding walks to model their behaviour.

The sporadic path of a random walk is often described as "a drunkard's walk home," and is used to model random movements in large data sets—from stock market fluctuations to particle physics. A self-avoiding walk is a random walk that cannot cross the same path or retrace steps. Since no two atoms can occupy the same space, in three dimensions it is an ideal tool to model polymer behaviour.