Intensive Care Network Podcasts

Basic Science Clinic by Steve Morgan & Sophie Connolly So mathematical truth prefers simple words since the language of truth is itself simple. Tycho Brahe Welcome to Basic Science Clinic, this is Crit think episode 5. Today our exploration of the mathematical architecture of our most inexact of sciences brings us upon the edifice of logarithms and exponentials. Daunting as it may sound, we will try to tease out their utility and relevance to critical care medicine and even attempt to penetrate the secrets of the mysterious number e. Logarithmic transformations permeate pharmacokinetic, biological and physiological modelling.  Exponentials are the inverse function of the logarithm, and the special properties of explosive exponential change in quantities has implications for ventilation, pharmacotherapy and beyond.  Euler’s number, e, represents the idea that all continually growing systems are scaled versions of a common rate. Describing e as a constant approximating 2.718 is like calling pi an irrational