An Introduction to the Mathematics of Biology - Hardcover

Yeargers, Edward K.; Herod, James V.; Shonkweiler, Ronald W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0817638091 ISBN 13: 9780817638092

Publisher: Birkhäuser Boston, 1996

Synopsis

Biology is a source of fascination for most scientists, whether their training is in the life sciences or not. In particular, there is a special satisfaction in discovering an understanding of biology in the context of another science like mathematics. Fortunately there are plenty of interesting (and fun) problems in biology, and virtually all scientific disciplines have become the richer for it. For example, two major journals, Mathematical Biosciences and Journal of Mathematical Biology, have tripled in size since their inceptions 20-25 years ago. The various sciences have a great deal to give to one another, but there are still too many fences separating them. In writing this book we have adopted the philosophy that mathematical biology is not merely the intrusion of one science into another, but has a unity of its own, in which both the biology and the math­ ematics should be equal and complete, and should flow smoothly into and out of one another. We have taught mathematical biology with this philosophy in mind and have seen profound changes in the outlooks of our science and engineering students: The attitude of "Oh no, another pendulum on a spring problem!," or "Yet one more LCD circuit!" completely disappeared in the face of applications of mathematics in biology. There is a timeliness in calculating a protocol for ad­ ministering a drug.

About this title

About the Author

James Herod joined the struggle against capitalists, politicians,
and priests (or, to use the abstractions, capital, state, and god)
during the social upheavals of 1968 and has remained in it ever since.

Review

"A very well balanced combination of biology and mathematics. Mathematics students have an opportunity to learn enough biology to make good models, and biology students will see it as an opportunity to understand the dynamics of a biological system. It can serve as the source of many good models with possible applications in different areas of biological research."   —Gen. Physiol. Biophysics

"The title is a good description of this introductory textbook, which integrates quite nicely biology and mathematics... Each chapter ends with questions for discussion and references pointing to further reading... Intended for biology students with one year of calculus who want an introduction to mathematical modeling and for mathematics students with little knowledge of biology who want to become familiar with biological applications. The book succeeds at both intents. It is an excellent appetizer."   —Zentralblatt MATH

Edition details

• Publisher: Birkhäuser Boston
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817638091
• ISBN 13: 9780817638092
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432