Synopses & Reviews
A biological physics text for a multidisciplinary audience, exploring the architectural structure of the cell.
Synopsis
Biological physics (the application of physics to understand biological phenomena) is a burgeoning, new inter-disciplinary subject. Aimed at senior undergraduates and graduate students in science and biomedical engineering, this text explores the physics behind the architecture of a cell's envelope and internal scaffolding, and the properties of its soft components. The analysis is performed within a consistent theoretical framework, although readers can navigate from the introductory material to biological applications without working through the intervening mathematics. Further applications and extensions are handled through problems at the end of each chapter.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction to the cell; Part I. Rods and Ropes: 2. Polymers; 3. Two-dimensional networks; 4. Three-dimensional networks; Part II. Membranes: 5. Biomembranes; 6. Membrane undulations; Part III. The Whole Cell: 7. The simplest cells; 8. Intermembrane forces; 9. Dynamic filaments; 10. Mechanical designs; Appendix A. Animal cells and tissues; Appendix B. The cell's molecular building blocks; Appendix C. Elementary statistical mechanics; Appendix D. Elasticity; References; Index.