The Physics of Living Systems

The Physics of Living Systems
Author: Fabrizio Cleri
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 635
Release: 2016-10-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319306472

In this book, physics in its many aspects (thermodynamics, mechanics, electricity, fluid dynamics) is the guiding light on a fascinating journey through biological systems, providing ideas, examples and stimulating reflections for undergraduate physics, chemistry and life-science students, as well as for anyone interested in the frontiers between physics and biology. Rather than introducing a lot of new information, it encourages young students to use their recently acquired knowledge to start seeing the physics behind the biology. As an undergraduate textbook in introductory biophysics, it includes the necessary background and tools, including exercises and appendices, to form a progressive course. In this case, the chapters can be used in the order proposed, possibly split between two semesters. The book is also an absorbing read for researchers in the life sciences who wish to refresh or go deeper into the physics concepts gleaned in their early years of scientific training. Less physics-oriented readers might want to skip the first chapter, as well as all the "gray boxes" containing the more formal developments, and create their own á-la-carte menu of chapters.

Physical Models of Living Systems

Physical Models of Living Systems
Author: Philip Nelson
Publisher: Macmillan Higher Education
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2014-12-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1319036902

Written for intermediate-level undergraduates pursuing any science or engineering major, Physical Models of Living Systems helps students develop many of the competencies that form the basis of the new MCAT2015. The only prerequisite is first-year physics. With the more advanced "Track-2" sections at the end of each chapter, the book can be used in graduate-level courses as well.

The Physics of Living Processes

The Physics of Living Processes
Author: Thomas Andrew Waigh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 617
Release: 2014-10-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1118449940

This full-colour undergraduate textbook, based on a two semester course, presents the fundamentals of biological physics, introducing essential modern topics that include cells, polymers, polyelectrolytes, membranes, liquid crystals, phase transitions, self-assembly, photonics, fluid mechanics, motility, chemical kinetics, enzyme kinetics, systems biology, nerves, physiology, the senses, and the brain. The comprehensive coverage, featuring in-depth explanations of recent rapid developments, demonstrates this to be one of the most diverse of modern scientific disciplines. The Physics of Living Processes: A Mesoscopic Approach is comprised of five principal sections: • Building Blocks • Soft Condensed Matter Techniques in Biology • Experimental Techniques • Systems Biology • Spikes, Brains and the Senses The unique focus is predominantly on the mesoscale — structures on length scales between those of atoms and the macroscopic behaviour of whole organisms. The connections between molecules and their emergent biological phenomena provide a novel integrated perspective on biological physics, making this an important text across a variety of scientific disciplines including biophysics, physics, physical chemistry, chemical engineering and bioengineering. An extensive set of worked tutorial questions are included, which will equip the reader with a range of new physical tools to approach problems in the life sciences from medicine, pharmaceutical science and agriculture.

Theoretical Physics for Biological Systems

Theoretical Physics for Biological Systems
Author: Paola Lecca
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2019-01-30
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1351374311

Quantum physics provides the concepts and their mathematical formalization that lend themselves to describe important properties of biological networks topology, such as vulnerability to external stress and their dynamic response to changing physiological conditions. A theory of networks enhanced with mathematical concepts and tools of quantum physics opens a new area of biological physics, the one of systems biological physics.

Living Systems

Living Systems
Author: James G. Miller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 120
Release: 1971
Genre: Biology
ISBN:

The Systems View of Life

The Systems View of Life
Author: Fritjof Capra
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2014-04-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107011361

The first volume to integrate life's biological, cognitive, social, and ecological dimensions into a single, coherent framework.

A Legacy for Living Systems

A Legacy for Living Systems
Author: Jesper Hoffmeyer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2008-02-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1402067062

Gregory Bateson’s contribution to 20th century thinking has appealed to scholars from a wide range of fields dealing in one way or another with aspects of communication and epistemology. A number of his insights were taken up and developed further in anthropology, psychology, evolutionary biology and communication theory. But the large, trans-disciplinary synthesis that, in his own mind, was his major contribution to science received little attention from the mainstream scientific communities. This book represents a major attempt to revise this deficiency. Scholars from ecology, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, anthropology and philosophy discuss how Bateson's thinking might lead to a fruitful reframing of central problems in modern science. Most important perhaps, Bateson's bioanthropology is shown to play a key role in developing the set of ideas explored in the new field of biosemiotics. The idea that organismic life is indeed basically semiotic or communicative lies at the heart of the biosemiotic approach to the study of life. The only book of its kind, this volume provides a key resource for the quickly-growing substratum of scholars in the biosciences, philosophy and medicine who are seeking an elegant new approach to exploring highly complex systems.

Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems

Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems
Author: Andreas Wagner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2007-07-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691134049

All living things are remarkably complex, yet their DNA is unstable, undergoing countless random mutations over generations. Despite this instability, most animals do not grow two heads or die, plants continue to thrive, and bacteria continue to divide. Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems tackles this perplexing paradox. The book explores why genetic changes do not cause organisms to fail catastrophically and how evolution shapes organisms' robustness. Andreas Wagner looks at this problem from the ground up, starting with the alphabet of DNA, the genetic code, RNA, and protein molecules, moving on to genetic networks and embryonic development, and working his way up to whole organisms. He then develops an evolutionary explanation for robustness. Wagner shows how evolution by natural selection preferentially finds and favors robust solutions to the problems organisms face in surviving and reproducing. Such robustness, he argues, also enhances the potential for future evolutionary innovation. Wagner also argues that robustness has less to do with organisms having plenty of spare parts (the redundancy theory that has been popular) and more to do with the reality that mutations can change organisms in ways that do not substantively affect their fitness. Unparalleled in its field, this book offers the most detailed analysis available of all facets of robustness within organisms. It will appeal not only to biologists but also to engineers interested in the design of robust systems and to social scientists concerned with robustness in human communities and populations.

Artificial Life IV

Artificial Life IV
Author: Rodney Allen Brooks
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 462
Release: 1994
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780262521901

This book brings together contributions to the Fourth Artificial Life Workshop, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the summer of 1994.