Mathematics and HIV

World AIDS Day

There is a link between mathematics and HIV that goes beyond the geometric structure of the virus, based on the icosahedron. Denise Kirschner describes this relationship very well in Using Mathematics to Understand HIV Immune Dynamics:

Since the early 1980s there has been a tremendous effort made in the mathematical modeling of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus which causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). The approaches in this endeavor have been twofold; they can be separated into the epidemiology of AIDS as a disease and the immunology of HIV as a pathogen (a foreign substance detrimental to the body).⁽¹⁾

The paper focuses on HIV immunology:

Our goal then is to better understand the interaction of HIV and the human immune system for the purpose of testing treatment strategies.⁽¹⁾

The behavior of the immune system is schematized in this way:

Mathematicians discuss the Snowden revelations

In the last period I cannot read the Notices of AMS, so I lost the most recent discussion on this journal about the revelations made by Edward Snowden about NSA. Thanks to the n-category Café I recover the letters about this topic:

In the first part of 2013, Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), handed over to journalists a trove of secret NSA documents. First described in the media in June 2013, these documents revealed extensive spying programs of the NSA and other governmental organizations, such as the United Kingdom's GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters). The disclosures reverberated around the world, influencing the bottom lines of big businesses, the upper echelons of international relations, and the everyday activities of ordinary people whose lives are increasingly mirrored in the Internet and on cell phone networks.
The revelations also hit home in the mathematical sciences community. The NSA is often said to be the world's largest employer of mathematicians; it's where many academic mathematicians in the US see their students get jobs. The same is true for GCHQ in the UK. Many academic mathematicians in the US and the UK have done work for these organizations, sometimes during summers or sabbaticals. Some US mathematicians decided to take on NSA work after the 9/11 attacks as a contribution to national defense.

The discussion on Notices: part 1, part 2