Customer Reviews

BioNanotechnology (Synthesis Lectures on Biomedical Engineering)

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Kind of cool book like a detailed review paper. From intro to chapter 7, the approach seems very objective. However the synthesis chapter needs some chemistry background in understanding. The first two chapters give good perspective of the topic through simple examples. The best part of the book is the last 2 chapters, it has some interesting global perspectives and question of ethics, pros and cons of the technology. As a researcher, myself, kinda found the references pretty useful and impressive.

I think its a good buy for someone who wants to get an idea of Bionano apps in health care (the book focuses on 3 apps - drug delivery, imaging and devices) or if you are a grad student, it gives a great sense of direction to experiment. If you are a researcher looking for trying out newer recipes this is a great place to look, like I said before you will find the synthesis chapter useful.

The application - Chapter 6 and commercialization - chapter 7 gives some critical analysis on various related topics. Overall I find it simple to understand and mostly keeping things objective in many chapters is pretty impressive. I strongly recommend reading this if you want to get introduced to the topic, its a good buy.

The first chapter is sloppily written. For one, it describes Neils Bohr as a "Noble Laureate" [sic]. Then, not content with this, it goes on to provide a faulty derivation of the Bohr radius of a hydrogen atom. On p.19, its equation for the kinetic energy,(1.8), is given with no derivation. While the next page says "ln r = ...". The logarithm should have been omitted.

Beyond this, the chapter is simply off when it claims that "Bohr's model is arguably the simplest and most realistic model of quantum mechanics". Utter rubbish. It may be the simplest model. But its deficiencies were admitted by Bohr himself, as an ad hoc mish mash of classical mechanics and some new fangled quantum ideas. It was the Schrodinger equation, and thence the Dirac equation, of a few years later that would provide a far more unified and powerful description of quantum mechanics. The Bohr model does not produce wave functions or any way to accomodate spin, or any predictions of antimatter.