Appears in collection : Misha Gromov : Beauty of Life seen through Keyhole of Mathematics

We start with reminding  basic molecular structures (Crick dogma, genetic code etc.) in living  entities and classical  examples of the mathematical thought in genetic (Darwin, Mendel, Morgan, Sturtevant, trees of sequences…) and the traditional discussion/controversy  on the nature of Life. Then we present a mathematical counterpart to the question “What is Life?”, indicate possible role of mathematics in the future bioengineering and conclude with the current  and projected numerical data on the human role in ecology of Earth.