[ChinoCoug]

Differential Equations: The most successful math for modelling natural phenomena, and the focus of my program.

Whenever I speak to physicists about some of the mathematical models in their field I'm familiar with (e.g. heat, wave equations), they know exactly what I'm talking about. Some even helped me out with my homework.

When I talk to (PhD-level!) chemists or biologists, it's a different story. Last Sunday, I spoke with a PhD student in chemistry at Georgetown and brought up the BZ reaction, the first reaction shown to oscillate between different colors before settling on an equilibrium. "What reaction again?" was her response.

A few months back, I also talked to a neuroscience researcher at the NIH about the cable equation (which models conductance along an axon) and looked at me like, "WTF are you talking about?"