The lost art of mathematical modelling

Mathematical modeling plays a crucial role in unraveling the mysteries of biological systems. However, the dominance of analysing models over formulating them hinders progress in the field of mathematical biology. This article provides a critique of mathematical biology in light of rapid developments in modern machine learning and argues that out of the three modelling activities — (1) formulating models; (2) analysing models; and (3) fitting or comparing models to data — inherent to mathematical biology, researchers currently focus too much on activity (2) at the cost of (1). It's proposed that this can be reversed by realising that any given biological phenomenon can be modelled in an infinite number of different ways, through the adoption of a pluralistic approach, when we view a system from multiple, different points of view. An explanation of this pluralistic approach uses fish locomotion as a case study and illustrates the pitfalls — universalism, creating models of models, etc. — that hinder mathematical biology. It's then asked how we might rediscover the lost art of creative mathematical modelling.