Physics of Life
1st Edition
The Physicist's Road to Biology
Description
The purpose of the book is to give a survey of the physics that is relevant for biological applications, and also to discuss what kind of biology needs physics. The book gives a broad account of basic physics, relevant for the applications and various applications from properties of proteins to processes in the cell to wider themes such as the brain, the origin of life and evolution. It also considers general questions of common interest such as reductionism, determinism and randomness, where the physics view often is misunderstood. The subtle balance between order and disorder is a repeated theme appearing in many contexts. There are descriptive parts which shall be sufficient for the comprehension of general ideas, and more detailed, formalistic parts for those who want to go deeper, and see the ideas expressed in terms of mathematical formulas.
Key Features
- Describes how physics is needed for understanding basic principles of biology
- Discusses the delicate balance between order and disorder in living systems
- Explores how physics play a role high biological functions, such as learning and thinking
Readership
Students, researchers and professionals in physics and biology
Table of Contents
I. General Introduction
- Introduction
- Physics of Life. Physics of Two LevelsII. Basic Physics Concepts
- Concepts and Numerical Reference
- Basis of Classical (Newtonian) Dynamics
- Electricity - The Core of Reductionism Basis
- Quantum mechanics
- Basic Thermodynamics; Introduction
- Statistical ThermodynamicsIII. The General Trends and the Objects
- Some Trends in 20th Century Physics
- From Simple to Complex Systems
- Theoretical Physics Models; Important Analogies
- The Biological Objects
- What is Life?IV. Going Further with Thermodynamics
- Thermodynamic Formalism and Examples
- Examples of Entropy and Order/Disorder
- Statistical Thermodynamics ModelsV. Stochastic Dynamics
- Basic Probability Concepts
- Stochastic Processes
- Random Walk*
- Stochastic Step Processes; Master Equations*
- Brownian Motion, First Description*
- Diffusion and Continuous Stochastic Processes*
- Brownian Motion, Continuation*VI. Basic Macromolecular Applications
- Protein Folding and Structure Dynamics
- Basis of Enzyme KineticsVII Non-linearity
- General Introduction to Non-linearity
- Oscillations and Space Variations*
- Deterministic Chaos
- Noise and Nonlinear PhenomenaVIII. Applications
- Recognition and Selection in Biological Processes
- Brownian R
Details
- No. of pages:
- 436
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- © Elsevier Science 2007
- Published:
- 1st October 2007
- Imprint:
- Elsevier Science
- eBook ISBN:
- 9780080554648
- Hardcover ISBN:
- 9780444527981
About the Author
Clas Blomberg
Born 1936, Clas Blomberg has a PhD in theoretical physics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1966. He has been a Professor there since 1986. He started studies in statistical mechanics, and since mid-70:s worked with theoretical physics problems with relevance to biology. He built up a successful research group at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
Affiliations and Expertise
Theoretical Biological Physics Group (KTH), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden