Biophysics : A Student’s Guide to the Physics of the Life Sciences and Medicine

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii Introduction: The Nature of Biophysics (William C. Parke)....Pages 1-9 The Kinds of Ordinary Materials (William C. Parke)....Pages 11-25 Mechanical Aspects of Biosystems (William C. Parke)....Pages 27-76 Fluid Mechanics Applied to Biosystems (William C. Parke)....Pages 77-111 Acoustics in Biology and Medicine (William C. Parke)....Pages 113-182 Electric and Magnetic Fields in Life (William C. Parke)....Pages 183-204 Light in Biology and Medicine (William C. Parke)....Pages 205-277 Ionizing Radiation and Life (William C. Parke)....Pages 279-324 Bioenergetics (William C. Parke)....Pages 325-420 The Statistical Basis of Bioenergetics (William C. Parke)....Pages 421-512 Biomolecular Structure and Interactions (William C. Parke)....Pages 513-542 Entropy and Information in Biology (William C. Parke)....Pages 543-556 Modeling Biological Systems (William C. Parke)....Pages 557-575 Neural Networks and Brains (William C. Parke)....Pages 577-594 Ordering Theory (William C. Parke)....Pages 595-606 Energy Flow in the Production of Order (William C. Parke)....Pages 607-612 Life in the Universe (William C. Parke)....Pages 613-618 Future Developments (William C. Parke)....Pages 619-624 Back Matter ....Pages 625-695