The most thorough coverage of biophysics available, in a handy, easy-to-read volume, perfect as a reference for experienced engineers or as a textbook for the novice. Following up on his first book, Fundamentals of Biophysics, the author, a well-known scientist in this area, builds on that foundation by offering the biologist or scientist an advanced, comprehensive coverage of biophysics. Structuring the book into four major parts, he thoroughly covers the biophysics of complex systems, such as the kinetics and thermodynamic processes of biological systems, in the first part. The second part is dedicated to molecular biophysics, such as biopolymers and proteins, and the third part is on the biophysics of membrane processes. The final part is on photobiological processes. This ambitious work is a must-have for the veteran biologist, scientist, or chemist working in this field, and for the novice or student, who is interested in learning about biophysics. It is an emerging field, becoming increasingly more important, the more we learn about and develop the science. No library on biophysics is complete without this text and its precursor, both available from Wiley-Scrivener.
Biophysics is an evolving, multidisciplinary subject which applies physics to biological systems and promotes an understanding of their physical properties and behaviour. Biophysics: An Introduction, is a concise balanced introduction to this subject. Written in an accessible and readable style, the book takes a fresh, modern approach with the author successfully combining key concepts and theory with relevant applications and examples drawn from the field as a whole. Beginning with a brief introduction to the origins of biophysics, the book takes the reader through successive levels of complexity, from atoms to molecules, structures, systems and ultimately to the behaviour of organisms. The book also includes extensive coverage of biopolymers, biomembranes, biological energy, and nervous systems. The text not only explores basic ideas, but also discusses recent developments, such as protein folding, DNA/RNA conformations, molecular motors, optical tweezers and the biological origins of consciousness and intelligence. Biophysics: An Introduction * Is a carefully structured introduction to biological and medical physics * Provides exercises at the end of each chapter to encourage student understanding Assuming little biological or medical knowledge, this book is invaluable to undergraduate students in physics, biophysics and medical physics. The book is also useful for graduate students and researchers looking for a broad introduction to the subject.
This comprehensive and extensively classroom-tested biophysics textbook is a complete introduction to the physical principles underlying biological processes and their applications to the life sciences and medicine. The foundations of natural processes are placed on a firm footing before showing how their consequences can be explored in a wide range of biosystems. The goal is to develop the readers’ intuition, understanding, and facility for creative analysis that are frequently required to grapple with problems involving complex living organisms. Topics cover all scales, encompassing the application of statics, fluid dynamics, acoustics, electromagnetism, light, radiation physics, thermodynamics, statistical physics, quantum biophysics, and theories of information, ordering, and evolutionary optimization to biological processes and bio-relevant technological implementations. Sound modeling principles are emphasized throughout, placing all the concepts within a rigorous framework. With numerous worked examples and exercises to test and enhance the reader’s understanding, this book can be used as a textbook for physics graduate students and as a supplementary text for a range of premedical, biomedical, and biophysics courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It will also be a useful reference for biologists, physicists, medical researchers, and medical device engineers who want to work from first principles.
Biophysics is a science that comprises theoretical plotting and models based on contemporary physicochemical conceptions. They mirror physical specificity of the molecular organization and elementary processes in living organisms, which in their turn form the molecular basis of biological phenomena. Presentation of a complete course in biophysics requires vast biological material as well as additional involvement of state-of-the-art concepts in physics, chemistry and mathematics. This is essential for the students to "perceive" the specific nature and peculiarity of molecular biological processes and see how this specificity is displayed in biological systems. This is the essence of the up-to-date biophysical approach to the analysis of biological processes. Fundamentals of Biophysics offers a complete, thorough coverage of the material in a straightforward and no-nonsense format, offering a new and unique approach to the material that presents the appropriate topics without extraneous and unneeded filler material.
This exercise book contains 300 typical problems and exercises in modern physics and radiation physics with complete solutions, detailed equations and graphs. This textbook is linked directly with the textbook "Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists", Springer (2010) but can also be used in combination with other related textbooks. For ease of use, this textbook has exactly the same organizational layout (14 chapters, 128 sections) as the "Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists" textbook and each section is covered by at least one problem with solution given. Equations, figures and tables are cross-referenced between the two books. It is the only large compilation of textbook material and associated solved problems in medical physics, radiation physics, and biophysics.
Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine Thomas S. Deisboeck and J. Yasha Kresh Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine covers the emerging field of systems science involving the application of physics, mathematics, engineering and computational methods and techniques to the study of biomedicine including nonlinear dynamics at the molecular, cellular, multi-cellular tissue, and organismic level. With all chapters helmed by leading scientists in the field, Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine's goal is to offer its audience a timely compendium of the ongoing research directed to the understanding of biological processes as whole systems instead of as isolated component parts. In Parts I & II, Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine provides a general systems thinking perspective and presents some of the fundamental theoretical underpinnings of this rapidly emerging field. Part III then follows with a multi-scaled approach, spanning from the molecular to macroscopic level, exemplified by studying such diverse areas as molecular networks and developmental processes, the immune and nervous systems, the heart, cancer and multi-organ failure. The volume concludes with Part IV that addresses methods and techniques driven in design and development by this new understanding of biomedical science. Key Topics Include: • Historic Perspectives of General Systems Thinking • Fundamental Methods and Techniques for Studying Complex Dynamical Systems • Applications from Molecular Networks to Disease Processes • Enabling Technologies for Exploration of Systems in the Life Sciences Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine is essential reading for experimental, theoretical, and interdisciplinary scientists working in the biomedical research field interested in a comprehensive overview of this rapidly emerging field. About the Editors: Thomas S. Deisboeck is currently Assistant Professor of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. An expert in interdisciplinary cancer modeling, Dr. Deisboeck is Director of the Complex Biosystems Modeling Laboratory which is part of the Harvard-MIT Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. J. Yasha Kresh is currently Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Research Director, Professor of Medicine and Director of Cardiovascular Biophysics at the Drexel University College of Medicine. An expert in dynamical systems, he holds appointments in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Molecular Pathobiology Program. Prof. Kresh is Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, Biomedical Engineering Society, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
A physicist's guide to the phenomena of life Interactions between the fields of physics and biology reach back over a century, and some of the most significant developments in biology—from the discovery of DNA's structure to imaging of the human brain—have involved collaboration across this disciplinary boundary. For a new generation of physicists, the phenomena of life pose exciting challenges to physics itself, and biophysics has emerged as an important subfield of this discipline. Here, William Bialek provides the first graduate-level introduction to biophysics aimed at physics students. Bialek begins by exploring how photon counting in vision offers important lessons about the opportunities for quantitative, physics-style experiments on diverse biological phenomena. He draws from these lessons three general physical principles—the importance of noise, the need to understand the extraordinary performance of living systems without appealing to finely tuned parameters, and the critical role of the representation and flow of information in the business of life. Bialek then applies these principles to a broad range of phenomena, including the control of gene expression, perception and memory, protein folding, the mechanics of the inner ear, the dynamics of biochemical reactions, and pattern formation in developing embryos. Featuring numerous problems and exercises throughout, Biophysics emphasizes the unifying power of abstract physical principles to motivate new and novel experiments on biological systems. Covers a range of biological phenomena from the physicist's perspective Features 200 problems Draws on statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and related mathematical concepts Includes an annotated bibliography and detailed appendixes
Each chapter has three types of learning aides for students: open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, and quantitative problems. There is an average of about 50 per chapter. There are also a number of worked examples in the chapters, averaging over 5 per chapter, and almost 600 photos and line drawings.
