NEW FROM GARLAND SCIENCE
Mathematics for
Biological Scientists Mike Aitken, Bill Broadhurst and Steve Hladky, all at the University of Cambridge, UK Mathematics for Biological Scientists is a new undergraduate textbook which covers the mathematics necessary for biology students to understand, interpret and discuss biological questions. The book’s twelve chapters are organized into four themes. The first theme covers the basic concepts of mathematics in biology, discussing the mathematics used in biological quantities, processes and structures. The second theme, calculus, extends the language of mathematics to describe change. The third theme is probability and statistics, where the uncertainty and variation encountered in real biological data is described. The fourth theme is explored briefly in the final chapter of the book, which is to show how the ‘tools’ developed in the first few chapters are used within biology to develop models of biological processes. Mathematics for Biological Scientists fully integrates mathematics and biology with the use of color illustrations and photographs to provide an engaging and informative approach to the subject of mathematics and statistics within biological science.
Garland Science January 2010 470 pp Over 200 color illustrations Paperback 978-0-8153-4136-9 £32.00
16 14
unknown males females
frequency
12 10 8 6 4 2 0
66–68 68–70 70–72
72–74 74–76 76–78 78–80 temperature/°F
80–82
Pedagogical features: • Worked examples illustrate how mathematical principles apply to biological problems. • Presenting your work section at the end of each chapter gives fully worked answers and shows effective ways of presenting answers in examinations. • End of chapter questions presented at basic, intermediate and advanced levels help the reader learn and practice at an appropriate level. Readers are directed to these questions at certain points in the text to ensure they understand before moving on. • Answers are given at the back of the book to allow students to check their work. • Highlight boxes in the margins aid understanding of key terms and concepts.
“…pitched at a good level…enough detail to interest the more able/interested student, while the basic mathematics was introduced in an intuitive and engaging manner that would enable understanding for students with less mathematical background. The use of the text boxes and highlight boxes was extremely useful, presenting critical information in a manner that was easy to follow. Moreover, these gave the book the ‘feel’ of a biological textbook, rather than a more traditional mathematical textbook.” – Kevin Painter, Heriot-Watt University
Table of Contents Introduction 1. Quantities and units 2. Numbers and equations 3. Tables, graphs and functions 4. Shapes, waves and trigonometry 5. Differentiation 6. Integration 7. Calculus: expanding the toolkit
8. The calculus of growth and decay processes 9. Descriptive statistics 10. Probability 11. Statistical inference 12. Biological modeling Answers to End of Chapter Questions Presenting Your Work
Free Downloadable Resources All of the photographs and line drawings from Mathematics for Biological Scientists will be FREELY available upon publication in JPEG and PowerPoint速 formats at www.garlandscience.com/gs_textbooks.asp
www.garlandscience.com