Introductory Mathematics For The Life Sciences

Introductory Mathematics for the Life Sciences offers a straightforward introduction to the mathematical principles needed for studies in the life sciences. Starting with the basics of numbers, fractions, ratios, and percentages, the author explains progressively more sophisticated concepts, from algebra, measurement, and scientific notation through the linear, power, exponential, and logarithmic functions to introductory statistics. Worked examples illustrate concepts, applications, and interpretations, and exercises at the end of each chapter help readers apply and practice the skills they develop. Answers to the exercises are posted at the end of the text.

A few decades ago mathematics played a modest role in life sciences. Today, however, a great variety of mathematical methods is applied in biology and medicine. Practically every mathematical procedure that is useful in physics, chemistry, engineering, and economics has also found an important application in the life sciences. The past and present training of life scientists does by no means reflect this development. However, the impact of the fast growing number of applications of mathematical methods makes it indispensable that students in the life sciences are offered a basic training in mathematics, both on the undergraduate and the graduate level. This book is primarily designed as a textbook for an introductory course. Life scientists may also use it as a reference to find mathematical methods suitable to their research problems. Moreover, the book should be appropriate for self-teaching. It will also be a guide for teachers. Numerous references are included to assist the reader in his search for the pertinent literature.

Introductory Mathematics for the Life Sciences offers a straightforward introduction to the mathematical principles needed for studies in the life sciences. Starting with the basics of numbers, fractions, ratios, and percentages, the author explains progressively more sophisticated concepts, from algebra, measurement, and scientific notation through the linear, power, exponential, and logarithmic functions to introductory statistics. Worked examples illustrate concepts, applications, and interpretations, and exercises at the end of each chapter help readers apply and practice the skills they develop. Answers to the exercises are posted at the end of the text.

An accessible undergraduate textbook on the essential math concepts used in the life sciences The life sciences deal with a vast array of problems at different spatial, temporal, and organizational scales. The mathematics necessary to describe, model, and analyze these problems is similarly diverse, incorporating quantitative techniques that are rarely taught in standard undergraduate courses. This textbook provides an accessible introduction to these critical mathematical concepts, linking them to biological observation and theory while also presenting the computational tools needed to address problems not readily investigated using mathematics alone. Proven in the classroom and requiring only a background in high school math, Mathematics for the Life Sciences doesn't just focus on calculus as do most other textbooks on the subject. It covers deterministic methods and those that incorporate uncertainty, problems in discrete and continuous time, probability, graphing and data analysis, matrix modeling, difference equations, differential equations, and much more. The book uses MATLAB throughout, explaining how to use it, write code, and connect models to data in examples chosen from across the life sciences. Provides undergraduate life science students with a succinct overview of major mathematical concepts that are essential for modern biology Covers all the major quantitative concepts that national reports have identified as the ideal components of an entry-level course for life science students Provides good background for the MCAT, which now includes data-based and statistical reasoning Explicitly links data and math modeling Includes end-of-chapter homework problems, end-of-unit student projects, and select answers to homework problems Uses MATLAB throughout, and MATLAB m-files with an R supplement are available online Prepares students to read with comprehension the growing quantitative literature across the life sciences A solutions manual for professors and an illustration package is available

This book is intended to be an introduction to Delay Differential Equations for upper level undergraduates or beginning graduate mathematics students who have a reasonable background in ordinary differential equations and who would like to get to the applications quickly. The author has used preliminary notes in teaching such a course at Arizona State University over the past two years. This book focuses on the key tools necessary to understand the applications literature involving delay equations and to construct and analyze mathematical models involving delay differential equations. The book begins with a survey of mathematical models involving delay equations.

From the reviews: "...Here we have a book which we can wholeheartedly suggest. The mathematics is sound and pared to essentials; the examples are an impressive, well-chosen selection from the biomathematics literature, and the problem sets provide both useful exercises and some fine introductions to the art of modeling... Batschelet has written an introduction to biomathematics which is notable for its clarity - not only a clarity of presentation, but also a clarity of purpose, backed by a sure grasp of the field..." #Bulletin of Mathematical Biology#1 "For research workers in the biomedical field who feel a need for freshening up their knowledge in mathematics, but so far have always been frustrated by either too formal or too boring textbooks, there is now exactly what they would like to have: an easy to read introduction. This book is highly motivating for practical workers because only those mathematical techniques are offered for which there is an application in the life sciences. The reader will find it stimulating that each tool described is immediately exemplified by problems from latest publications." #Int. Zeitschrift für klinische Pharmakologie, Therapie und Toxikologie#2

The result of lectures given by the authors at New York University, the University of Utah, and Michigan State University, the material is written for students who have had only one term of calculus, but it contains material that can be used in modeling courses in applied mathematics at all levels through early graduate courses. Numerous exercises are given as well as solutions to selected exercises, so as to lead readers to discover interesting extensions of that material. Throughout, illustrations depict physiological processes, population biology phenomena, corresponding models, and the results of computer simulations. Topics covered range from population phenomena to demographics, genetics, epidemics and dispersal; in physiological processes, including the circulation, gas exchange in the lungs, control of cell volume, the renal counter-current multiplier mechanism, and muscle mechanics; to mechanisms of neural control. Each chapter is graded in difficulty, so a reading of the first parts of each provides an elementary introduction to the processes and their models.

Authored by two distinguished researchers/teachers and an experiences, successful textbook author, Calculus for Life Sciences is a valuable resource for Life Science courses. As life-science departments increase the math requirements for their majors, there is a need for greater mathematic knowledge among students. This text balances rigorous mathematical training with extensive modeling of biological problems. The biological examples from health science, ecology, microbiology, genetics, and other domains, many based on cited data, are key features of this text.