Mel Andrews is an instructor and doctoral student in the department of philosophy at the University of Cincinnati.  Their work focuses on the phenomena of cognition and life, comparing and contrasting the merits and explanatory scope of conceptual and formal models of life and mind, and exploring the implications of these considerations for science at large.  Today Mel joined us to talk about the philosophy of math in science and mathematical models in scientific reasoning.  How do models relate to the real world?  When can models tell us something about ... anything other than their own mathematical substance?  And perhaps most importantly, in the Q&A section, how can we build a formal mathematics for computer hacking ??  This was a super fun event and we are very thankful for Mel's time.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!