Customer Reviews

Mathematical Models In Biology

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are lots of books about mathematical modeling, and many of them cover biological systems. But no book I've ever seen even comes close to the quality of this beautiful work by Edelstein-Keshet. So what is it that makes this book so special? First of all, the book is both accessible and self-contained. Just start at the beginning, and you're guaranteed to learn A LOT of math. Second, the style of writing and the way in which the author presents the material is utterly beautiful. It is impossible NOT to understand, but the material is not at all 'chewed out' for the reader. Third of all, the book really encourages the reader to pick up pen and paper, go out there and MODEL something; dozens of inspiring and high-quality exercises and research projects are to be found throughout the book. Fourth, the various techniques are easily applied to non-biological problems. Fifth, the book will help to gain insight in the qualitative aspects of biological phenomena. What Peter Atkins is to chemistry, Edelstein-Keshet is to mathematical biology. Sadly, she is not as widely known. Get this book while you can!

This is a nice introductory book on math biology models. It is easy to understand and a necessary reading for those who want to approach more difficult books such as Mathematical Physiology. The exercises presented are useful for active learning of this topic.
Be aware: this book requires prior knowledge of calculus (differential equations, partial derivatives, Taylor series expansion...).

The book is very easy to read and appropriate for undergraduate and postgraduate level, whether it be review or introduction to a particular topic. The biology and how it relates to the mathematics is clearly explained. Overall I would highly recommend this book to students entering the biomathematics arena or who simply have an interest in this area.

This is an excellent book for teaching. However due to the rapid progress in the field I hope that the auther will consider a new and enlarged version of the book. Also a paperback edition will be helpful especially for thos in third world countries.
I thank the auther for this book.

A classic textbook in mathematical biology, and still one of the best I know. It is a testament to the quality of this book that many other textbooks that have been published after it essentially follow the template of this book.

No other book does a better job at explaining clearly and concisely the biological background. The tone is precise and approachable without being aloof.

There are two flaws about this book: One is the mathematical exposition, which is sometimes simply wrong. (The whole section about the Hopf bifurcation is very poor, and I couldn't use this section in classes I taught. It has to be supplemented by other textbooks.) The other, related, flaw is the flood of typos. This is the text with the most typos I've ever seen. (The latest errata list has 16 pages, and there are still many unlisted typos.) And this is the second edition! Normally typos don't bother me too much, but there are so many here that it truly becomes a nuisance.

Overall, though, this is a good textbook. I wish the author would decide to update the text and clean up the typos and some of the math sections.

This is one of the best books I have read in Math. biology. I strongly propose that a second updated paperback edition is done so that many students will benefit from it.

While the book seems to be fairly well written, reading easily with examples worked out in full detail, there are an abundance of errors throughout the text. Rather than actually correcting these errors, the publisher instead decided to put an "Errata" section at the beginning of the book, leaving the mistakes strewn throughout the text. So, prior to reading a chapter, one must look up what errors there are and either make a mental note or correct it by hand. Since the errors are quite copious, 16 pages worth in all with an error every 5 pages, it becomes extremely distracting.

From the author's webpage, the following is a list of errata in this edition: [...].