Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Physical Theory in Biology is about the new realm where physics meets biology - not as a coincidental collision of scientific inquiries, but as a joint venture where questions and approaches kindled in theoretical physics illuminate biological problems and biology stimulates new physics.
Attention turns first to the challenge of making notions such as biological complexity and developmental field meaningful ideas in theoretical physics, and then to their applications to organic development, cell physiology, neuropsychology, behavior, and the origins of life. Specific models are set against a background of self-contained introductions to the mathematics of morphogenetic fields, theoretical computer science, symmetry methods in bifurcation theory, and evolutionary games.
Physical theorists are justifiably notorious for their vision of the universe as a place filled with order at once strange, yet open to the mathematical mind. We invite you to join us in asking if a similar way of knowing will prove essential to the sciences of life and mind as well.
Readers in physics, the life sciences, mathematics, philosophy, theoretical computer science, psychology, and cognitive science will find topics and methods of interest in the book.
About the Author
Charles Lumsden is currently Professor, Department of Medicine and Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto. He is interested in the mathematical physics of cell physiology in complex diseases, and in the evolutionary dynamics of behavior and culture. Charles received his training in physical theory in biology at the University of Toronto's McLennan Physical Laboratories and at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Wendy Brandts began her journey into physical theory in biology at the University of Toronto. Her work on nonlinear field models of pattern formation and biological regulation took her to a PhD in theoretical physics and then to Oxford University's Mathematical Biology Group. She lives in Ottawa, Canada's national capital, as a freelance scientist and writer.
Lynn Trainor is now a Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto following a career spanning several Canadian universities, first in nuclear and statistical physics, and later theoretical biology. His present research interests include consciousness theory and neural network models applied to the collective behaviour of insect societies.
Physical Theory in Biology: Foundations and Explorations (Studies of Nonlinear Phenomena in Life Sciences, Vol. 4),Charles J. Lumsden,Wendy A. Brandts,Lynn E. H. Trainor,World Scientific Pub Co Inc,9810231210,Biophysics,General,Science,Science/Mathematics
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