Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life

by Philip Nelson

Award-winning professor brings you from first-year physics and chemistry to the frontier of single-molecule biophysics.
Biological Physics is a university textbook that focuses on results in molecular motors, self-assembly, and single-molecule manipulation that have revolutionized the field in recent years, and integrates these topics with classic results in statistical physics, biophysical chemistry, and neuroscience. The text also provides foundational material for the emerging fields of nanotechnology and mechanobiology, and has significant overlap with the revised MCAT exam. This inexpensive new edition updates the classic book, particularly the chapter on motors, and incorporates many clarifications and enhancements throughout. Exercises are given at all levels of difficulty. Instead of offering a huge pile of facts, the discovery-style exposition frequently asks the reader to reflect on "How could anything like that happen at all?" and then shows how science, and scientists, have proceeded incrementally to peel back the layers of mystery surrounding these beautiful mechanisms. Working through this book will give you an appreciation for how science has advanced in the past, and the skills and frameworks needed to push forward in the future.



Additional topics include the statistical physics of diffusion; bacterial motility; self-assembly; entropic forces; enzyme kinetics; ion channels and pumps; the chemiosmotic mechanism and its role in ATP maintenance; and the discovery of the mechanism of neural signaling.

Genres: Physics, Biology, Science, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Neuroscience

584 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Philip]

Life's Ratchet by Peter Hoffman says (pp 260--261):

"Although I already listed [Biological Physics] in my sources, I list it here again because of its importance to Life's Ratchet. This book inspired me to write [my] book in the first place. Biological Physics is the most interesting and well-written textbook I have ever read."

[Hind]

I liked this book. When I was assigned it during undergrad we never really ended up using it, but I enjoyed reading through it.

[Sara Ghotb]

On the recommendation of my professor, I read this book during my undergraduate studies. At that time, I was deeply intrigued by this book. This book is not only well-written, but also contains interesting and challenging problem sets.

[Kelsey]

Worst textbook...ever!

[Mike Lisanke]

This is a text book And IMO a good text book on Biophysics; and I've taken a course in biophysics and should know. Like all textbooks it's very well referenced and notated. It has a few examples of the math it expect in problem solving But like most college text it doesn't have many actually worked example problems. It also suffers from the problem that Biochemistry Biology and Physics are huge subjects and attempting to teach the specifics of physics for biology is, difficult. So, there are many missing descriptions and teaching left as an exercise for the reader interested in this subject. If you are interested in biophysics, learning biophysics or teaching biophysics, you should read this book.

[Isaac]

One of the better textbooks I've read in a while. I haven't touched biology since highschool, but I would have loved to have this book then. As a more physics-minded person, this book explains many biomolecule things that I was confused or curious about. The writing style is engaging (though could be more concise), answered the questions I had while reading, and gives a good intuition for the processes discussed.

[Navid Aliakbarian]

On average this is a very intresting although the problems are not very useful.

[Antoine]

solid biological physics textbook. riveting read lol

[Philip]

Life's Ratchet by Peter Hoffman says (pp 260--261):

"Although I already listed [Biological Physics] in my sources, I list it here again because of its importance to Life's Ratchet. This book inspired me to write [my] book in the first place. Biological Physics is the most interesting and well-written textbook I have ever read."

[Rouhollah Abdolvahab]

Very interesting book for physicists who likes life and biology.