Calculus for the Life Sciences: A Modeling Approach

James L. Cornette; Ralph A. Ackerman

ISBN 10: 1470451425 / ISBN 13: 9781470451424

Published by American Mathematical Society, 2019

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Synopsis:

Calculus for the Life Sciences is an entire reimagining of the standard calculus sequence with the needs of life science students as the fundamental organizing principle. Those needs, according to the National Academy of Science, include: the mathematical concepts of change, modeling, equilibria and stability, structure of a system, interactions among components, data and measurement, visualization, and algorithms. This book addresses, in a deep and significant way, every concept on that list. The book begins with a primer on modeling in the biological realm and biological modeling is the theme and frame for the entire book. The authors build models of bacterial growth, light penetration through a column of water, and dynamics of a colony of mold in the first few pages. In each case there is actual data that needs fitting. In the case of the mold colony that data is a set of photographs of the colony growing on a ruled sheet of graph paper and the students need to make their own approximations. Fundamental questions about the nature of mathematical modeling trying to approximate a real-world phenomenon with an equation are all laid out for the students to wrestle with. The authors have produced a beautifully written introduction to the uses of mathematics in the life sciences. The exposition is crystalline, the problems are overwhelmingly from biology and interesting and rich, and the emphasis on modeling is pervasive.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Calculus for the Life Sciences: A Modeling ...
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
Publication Date: 2019
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: New