Quantitative Understanding of Biosystems

Reviews / Votes

The author has done a magnificent job in writing an easy-to-follow, intriguing and well-written introductory section. ... the chapter referring to `Direct ultraviolet effects on biological systems' is probably my favourite. Exceptionally written, it contains informative material found only in specialised textbooks and is equally attractive for science and medical students. ... the text is stimulatingly and well written for the focused student. Apart from the scientific content, the artwork of the book is of high quality, aiding significantly the understanding of the concepts presented. ... this book is highly recommended for introducing biophysics to the motivated and curious undergraduate students.
-Nikolaos Kourkoumelis, Contemporary Physics, June 2012


This terrific text offers a broad range of learning opportunities for many undergraduate majors. It is filled with a wide range of analogies that facilitate understanding of fundamental biophysics, thus making abstract concepts easier to comprehend. It uses a friendly language that avoids unnecessary technicalities and terminologies. ... Almost all sections of the book illustrate conceptual examples supplemented by estimates and calculations of biophysical parameters, describing biological problems in depth. This characteristic marks the fundamental distinction between this biophysics book and others. It will enable students to understand the significance of biological parameters through quantitative examples-a modern way of learning biophysics.
-American Journal of Physics, February 2012


The book contains a beautiful review of essential physics for understanding biological systems, particularly at the molecular scale, emphasizing that which is rarely taught in standard physics classes: how to think like a physicist. The chapters on quantum mechanics and the interaction of photons with biological systems are particularly welcome, and set this book apart. I believe that the progression through to the effects of UV radiation and sunscreens will be popular with students.
-Ernest Barreto, George Mason University


This book is so far the best on the market in terms of an undergraduate biophysics textbook. It is very likely that I will adopt this textbook for my next year! The book is quite an equilibrated comprehensive description of the basic mechanisms that govern biological systems. This textbook is indeed a great example of a quantitative approach for teaching undergraduate students from physics and biological sciences. The material offers conceptual examples and broad lists of key references. The textbook will have great success not only for the clarity of presentation, but also for its structure and numerous examples ... .
-Liviu Movileanu, Department of Physics and Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, Syracuse University





This is an excellent book for the physics or bioengineering undergraduate student. It is approachable at the junior level and it is written in a very clear style with plenty of useful and colorful figures. Particularly, it is nice how the book builds up toward the main equations to make them intuitive from basic principles... . The accompanying CD is very useful as well. The glossary section is an excellent tool for the student not familiar with biology.
-Diego Krapf, School of Biomedical Engineering, Colorado State University


Biology is complex, but teaching it may be even more complicated. Modern biology integrates a traditional biology perspective with a deeper look into mechanisms that require perspectives from physics and chemistry. However, many instructors who want to teach courses that bridge these fields often are confronted with the problem that no good text exists. We therefore need textbooks that can function as the basis for courses that will train students to integrate these diverse disciplines. Quantitative Understanding of Biosystems is a text geared toward starting a student along this path. The book provides a good introduction into a broad range of biology and physics topics and shows how physics can explain aspects of biological mechanisms at many different length scales. The text also provides a nice exposition on the differences between how a biologist approaches a problem and how a physicist does. This discussion is important for helping to bring these two communities together, and will aid in making a course developed using this text applicable to students from biology as well as from physics, chemistry, math, or engineering.
-Charles Wolgemuth, University of Connecticut Health Center


A superb pedagogical textbook about the behavior and properties of the microscopic structures that form the essential building blocks of living systems. ... Full-color illustrations aid students in their understanding of how to use mathematical tools (graphing, calculus, simple differential equations, diagrammatic analysis, and more) to better grasp, analyze, and project solutions to problems involving the quantitative characterization of biosystems. An accompanying CD-ROM offers `active' versions of Excel graphs and diagrams listed in the text, and links to mathematical, biological, and biochemical source data. ... an excellent college text or self-instruction manual for advanced biophysics science students.
-Midwest Book Review, May 2011


Combines a nice balance of topics with important basic material ... . The emphasis on problems, projects, and tools is very helpful.
-Stephen J. Hagen, University of Florida





A versatile textbook that also serves as a good introduction to quantitative biology ... strikes a balance between `not too difficult' for life science students and `conceptually rich and challenging' for physics and math students.
-Yuri Gartstein and Stephen Levene, The University of Texas at Dallas