High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Theoretical biology is a field of academic study and research that involves the use of models and theories in biology. Initial scientific efforts to understand complex biological phenomena, such as evolution by natural selection or human consciousness, can be described as theoretical "framework" approaches. The absence, paucity or dispensability of mathematics in important theoretical biological frameworks such as those cited above, and indeed in the foundational work of many evolutionary theorists including Charles Darwin, are existence proofs that theoretical biology is somewhat distinct from mathematical or computational biology. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of the theoretical biologist is to explain the biological world using mainly mathematical and computational tools.