Applied Biophysics: A Molecular Approach for Physical Scientists [Paperback]

Tom Waigh (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 047001718X | ISBN-13: 978-0470017180 | Publication Date: September 25, 2007 | Edition: 1

This book presents the fundamentals of molecular biophysics, and highlights the connection between molecules and biological phenomena, making it an important text across a variety of science disciplines.

The topics covered in the book include:

• Phase transitions that occur in biosystems (protein crystallisation, globule-coil transition etc)
• Liquid crystallinity as an example of the delicate range of partially ordered phases found with biological molecules
• How molecules move and propel themselves at the cellular level
• The general features of self-assembly with examples from proteins
• The phase behaviour of DNA

The physical toolbox presented within this text will form a basis for students to enter into a wide range of pure and applied bioengineering fields in medical, food and pharmaceutical areas.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A timely textbook explaining how the many concepts and tools widely used in physics can be applied to understand biological systems." (Reviews, June 2008)

From the Back Cover

This text presents a ‘nuts and bolts’ approach to the topic of biophysics. The presentation focuses on the simple underlying concepts and demonstrates them using a series of up-to-date applications.

The book aims to explain the constructions and machinery of biological molecules, in a similar way as a civil engineer would examine the construction of a building or a mechanical engineer would examine the dynamics of a turbine. Little or no recourse is taken to the chemical side of the subject, instead modern physical ideas are introduced to explain aspects of the phenomena that are confronted. These ideas provide an alternative complementary set of tools to solve biophysical problems.

The book begins with a discussion of the biological building blocks and the mesoscopic forces that occur between them. It then moves on to discuss such aspects as phase transitions, liquid crystallinity, motility, self-assembly and surface phenomena. The author then applies these principles to the behaviour of biomacromolecules, charged ions, polymers, and membranes. Furthermore applications in continuum mechanics, chromosomal structure, biorheology and modern experimental techniques are explored. Each chapter concludes with tutorial questions to challenge the reader as they progress through the text.

It is hoped that the approach taken within this text will appeal to physical scientists at all levels who are confronted with biological questions for the first time, as they become involved in the current biotechnological revolution.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 1 edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047001718X
• ISBN-13: 978-0470017180
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,769,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Really Bad - Don't buy, its a waste of money, June 24, 2009

By 

A. Einstein "science bookish" (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Applied Biophysics: A Molecular Approach for Physical Scientists (Paperback)

Having entered this field of research recently I was looking for standard literature in the field of Computational Biophysics and stumbled upon this book by Waigh.
Well, in my judgement, it is mediocre as a textbook. The author is apparently a physicist that doesn't know much, if at all, of biophysics and biochemistry. This isn't necessarily bad for writing a textbook on Applied Biophysics, but the book doesn't keep its promise, because the author has no experience in biophysics really which you tell from the choice of chapters and the topics covered. Most likely he is a physicist that at some point entered the field of polymer or biophysics. The usual stuff: Crystallinity, self-Assembly, polymer dynamics, Scattering theory, diffusion, surfactants, rheology, electrostatics, capilarity, all the stuff that you can find in so many other textbooks and which he probably only had to copy and then maybe draw some new figures. This is a introductory first semester course in polymer physics. But as such, there are many better books on the field on the market, e.g. Polymer Physics by Rubinstein and Colby who offer much more detailed and knowledgable insight into these topics than Waigh. As an alibi, there is ONE chapter on DNA at the end of the book and one on membranes. But these cover extremly shallow only the very basics that you find in any introductury biology or molecular biology textbooks. Probably the author himself read such chapters in other books for the first time when he wrote his own book.
The first chapter on proteins is extremely shallow, superficial and unspecific. No real theories are explained or expanded on, no computational models, not a single algorithm, nothing that goes into any detail or would be helpful for someone trying to start research in this field. This book strikes me as being written by someone who just wanted to write a book that "sounds" interesting by the title. In my opinion this book is completely superfluous, it doesn't cover any advanced topics, there is nothing new, just a conglomerate of basics which you can find in so many other books that have been already on the market for years. As a physicist, the author is also not an expert in this field. Very dissapointing. I don't recommend it and I regret having wasted my money. I rather invest my money now in trying to read original research papers in this field, particularly on simulation models, written by experts who really do research in this area and publish their own, original ideas.