Introduction To Biological Physics For The Health And Life Sciences

This book aims to demystify fundamental biophysics for students in the health and biosciences required to study physics and to understand the mechanistic behaviour of biosystems. The text is well supplemented by worked conceptual examples that will constitute the main source for the students, while combining conceptual examples and practice problems with more quantitative examples and recent technological advances.

A thoroughly updated and extended new edition of this well-regarded introduction to the basic concepts of biological physics for students in the health and life sciences. Designed to provide a solid foundation in physics for students following health science courses, the text is divided into six sections: Mechanics, Solids and Fluids, Thermodynamics, Electricity and DC Circuits, Optics, and Radiation and Health. Filled with illustrative examples, Introduction to Biological Physics for the Health and Life Sciences, Second Edition features a wealth of concepts, diagrams, ideas and challenges, carefully selected to reference the biomedical sciences. Resources within the text include interspersed problems, objectives to guide learning, and descriptions of key concepts and equations, as well as further practice problems. NEW CHAPTERS INCLUDE: Optical Instruments Advanced Geometric Optics Thermodynamic Processes Heat Engines and Entropy Thermodynamic Potentials This comprehensive text offers an important resource for health and life science majors with little background in mathematics or physics. It is also an excellent reference for anyone wishing to gain a broad background in the subject. Topics covered include: Kinematics Force and Newton’s Laws of Motion Energy Waves Sound and Hearing Elasticity Fluid Dynamics Temperature and the Zeroth Law Ideal Gases Phase and Temperature Change Water Vapour Thermodynamics and the Body Static Electricity Electric Force and Field Capacitance Direct Currents and DC Circuits The Eye and Vision Optical Instruments Atoms and Atomic Physics The Nucleus and Nuclear Physics Ionising Radiation Medical imaging Magnetism and MRI Instructor’s support material available through companion website, www.wiley.com/go/biological_physics

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.

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 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.

Provides an introduction to the structure and function of biomolecules --- especially proteins --- and the physical tools used to investigate them The discussion concentrates on physical tools and properties, emphasizing techniques that are contributing to new developments and avoiding those that are already well established and whose results have already been exploited fully New tools appear regularly - synchrotron radiation, proton radiology, holography, optical tweezers, and muon radiography, for example, have all been used to open new areas of understanding

This third edition covers topics in physics as they apply to the life sciences, specifically medicine, physiology, nursing and other applied health fields. It includes many figures, examples and illustrative problems and appendices which provide convenient access to the most important concepts of mechanics, electricity, and optics.

Most of the specialists working in this interdisciplinary field of physics, biology, biophysics and medicine are associated with "The International Institute of Biophysics" (IIB), in Neuss, Germany, where basic research and possibilities for applications are coordinated. The growth in this field is indicated by the increase in financial support, interest from the scientific community and frequency of publications. Audience: The scientists of IIB have presented the most essential background and applications of biophotonics in these lecture notes in biophysics, based on the summer school lectures by this group. This book is devoted to questions of elementary biophysics, as well as current developments and applications. It will be of interest to graduate and postgraduate students, life scientists, and the responsible officials of industries and governments looking for non-invasive methods of investigating biological tissues.