The Common Extremalities In Biology And Physics

The Common Extremalities in Biology and Physics is the first unified systemic description of dissipative phenomena, taking place in biology, and non-dissipative (conservative) phenomena, which is more relevant to physics. Fully updated and revised, this new edition extends our understanding of nonlinear phenomena in biology and physics from the extreme / optimal perspective. The first book to provide understanding of physical phenomena from a biological perspective and biological phenomena from a physical perspective Discusses emerging fields and analysis Provides examples

Bioenergetics deals with the very first energy transformation steps performed by living cells. Increased dissipation is the primary effect of processing external energy packages. Enzyme-supported charge separation is the minor but essential outcome for maintaining life. This book explores the usefulness of dissecting the entropy production of enzymes involved in cellular defenses, fermentation, respiration, and photosynthesis, assuming that tightly regulated dissipation is the hallmark of life. Researchers, educators, and students of life sciences can find in this text many examples of how we can use the interdisciplinary approach to study cells' virtuoso ability to connect the microscopic to the macroscopic world. Each chapter is a self-contained unit with a glossary and selected references for further reading.

Describes the physico-chemical laws underlying various kinds of motion in biological systems, with particular emphasis on the mathematics involved. Each chapter covers one type of biological motion, employing mathematics no more advanced than elementary calculus. Explained are biological phenomena such as osmotic pressure, frictional resistance, diffusion, motion in electrical fields, potentials at interfaces, transport across membranes, and entropy-driven processes. Also covered are viscosity, conversion of chemical to mechanical energy, and critical concentrations.

Over the last few years, bacterial adhesion has become a more and more important and active scientific area, but the field lacks communication and scientific exchange between medical and microbiology researchers who work with the relevant biological systems, and biochemists, structural biologists and physicists, who know and understand the physical methods best suited to investigate the phenomenon at the molecular level. The field consequently would benefit from a cross-disciplinary conference enabling such communication. This book tries to bridge the gap between the disciplines.

Recent years have seen a growing trend to derive models of macroscopic phenomena encountered in the fields of engineering, physics, chemistry, ecology, self-organisation theory and econophysics from various variational or extremum principles. Through the link between the integral extremum of a functional and the local extremum of a function (explicit, for example, in the Pontryagin’s maximum principle variational and extremum principles are mutually related. Thus it makes sense to consider them within a common context. The main goal of Variational and Extremum Principles in Macroscopic Systems is to collect various mathematical formulations and examples of physical reasoning that involve both basic theoretical aspects and applications of variational and extremum approaches to systems of the macroscopic world. The first part of the book is focused on the theory, whereas the second focuses on applications. The unifying variational approach is used to derive the balance or conservation equations, phenomenological equations linking fluxes and forces, equations of change for processes with coupled transfer of energy and substance, and optimal conditions for energy management. A unique multidisciplinary synthesis of variational and extremum principles in theory and application A comprehensive review of current and past achievements in variational formulations for macroscopic processes Uses Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms as a basis for the exposition of novel approaches to transfer and conversion of thermal, solar and chemical energy

Two key words define the scope of this book: 'ultrasound' and 'colloids'. Historically, there has been little real communication between practitioners in these two fields. Although there is a large body of literature devoted to ultrasound phenomenon in colloids, there is little recognition that such phenomena may be of real importance for both the development and applications of colloid science. On the other side, colloid scientists have not embraced acoustics as an important tool for characterizing colloids. The lack of any serious dialogue between these scientific fields is the biggest motivation behind this book. Covers in detail this multidisciplinary field combining acoustics, electroacoustics, colloid science, analytical chemistry and rheology Provides a bibliography with more than 1,000 references Presents theories and their experimental verification, as well as analysis of the methods and hardware pertaining to applications such as pharmaceuticals, ceramics, and polymers

Fractals in Physics