Biophysics For Dummies

Ken Vos

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118513545
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias biológicas
• Subtopic: Biofísica

The fun, easy way to get up to speed on biophysics concepts, principles, and practices

One of the most diverse of modern scientific disciplines, biophysics applies methods and technologies from physics to the study of biological systems and phenomena, from the human nervous system to soil erosion to global warming. What are the best options for satisfying the world's growing energy demands? How can we feed the world's growing population? How can we contain, or reverse, global warming? How can we vouchsafe a plentiful supply of potable water for future generations? These are among the critical questions to which biophysicists work to provide answers.

• Biophysics courses are increasingly taken by students of biology, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, statistics, bioengineering, neuroscience, computer science, pharmacology, agriculture, and many more
• Provides a friendly, unintimidating overview of the material covered in a typical college-level biophysics course
• A one-stop reference, course supplement and exam preparation tool for university students currently enrolled in an introductory biophysics courses
• An indispensable resource for those studying the natural sciences, biological sciences, and physics, as well as math, statistics, computer science, pharmacology and many other disciplines
• The current job market for people well versed in biophysics is very strong, and biophysics is currently listed as one of the fast-growing occupations in the North America

Part I

Getting Started with Biophysics

Go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/biophysics to discover some more informative Dummies content online about biophysics.

In this part . . .

Get a thorough overview of what biophysics is, including its diverse fields, such as biomechanics, fluids, waves and sound, the electromagnetic force, and medical physics, so you can fully appreciate how it affects your daily life.

Discover where you can find biophysics. You may be surprised to know who biophysicists are and where biophysics is used.

Tackle mathematics, most of which should be a review for you if you’ve already taken a chemistry, physics, or calculus class. Biophysics does use mathematics, so having a decent grasp of the basic formulas and equations is important when you study biophysics.

Comprehend some of the basics of biophysics, such as notation and terminology, that aren’t used in everyday life and clear up a few common myths.

Make the distinction between experimental and theoretical biophysics. Biophysics isn’t mathematics, but mathematics is a tool used by both experimental and theoretical biophysicists.

Chapter 1

Welcoming You to the World of Biophysics

In This Chapter

Mentioning mechanics

Flowing with fluids

Riding the waves

Identifying biophysics in the every day

Biophysics is the study of biology and all sciences connected to the biological sciences using the principles and laws of physics. It’s the ultimate interdisciplinary science combining biology, chemistry, and physics. If you love science, then biophysics is for you. The field touches on all aspects of all the natural sciences.

This chapter gives you the bird’s-eye view of biophysics and what you’ll find in this book. In this chapter, I explain the general features of biomechanics, the motion of fluids, waves and sounds, and electromagnetic force as well as radiation and radioactivity.

Getting the Lowdown on What Biophysics Really Is

No matter if you’re stuck taking a biophysics course to meet your science course requirements or you’re taking your first of many biophysics courses, you need to make sure you understand what you’re studying. Just break down the word biophysics. Bio means life and physics means nature, so biophysics is the study of living matter, its motion, and its interaction with the natural universe. Chapter 2 expands on the explanation of what biophysics is, and Chapter 3 covers some of the basic terminology used in biophysics.

The following clarifies what biophysics really means:

Biophysics uses techniques and methods from physics, mathematics, biology, and chemistry to study living organisms.

Biophysicists design experiments or do computational calculations in order to understand biological processes. A few examples of these biological processes are

• Photosynthesis

• The on-off switching of genes

• Memory and brain processes

• Muscle control

Biophysicists study how the senses work.

Biophysicists try to understand why things behave the way they do in sports and improve the performance of athletes.

Biophysicists study how molecules enter cells and how they interact.

Biophysicists study how cells move, divide, and respond to the ­environment.

As you can see, biophysics is all of this and everything that deals with living organisms. Biophysics plays an essential role in medicine, sports, engineering, physics, biology, biochemistry, and environmental science to mention a few areas. Whenever you’re considering something that involves a living organism and its interaction with its surroundings, you’re using biophysics.

Grasping the Mechanics of Biomechanics

Biomechanics is an important part of biophysics. Bio means life, and mechanics is the study of the interaction of a physical object with its surroundings. Therefore, biomechanics is the study of a living object’s interaction with its surroundings, which also includes the study of how living organisms move and the causes of this motion.

These sections explain a bit more about what biomechanics is. I discuss rules because biophysicists love rules, explain what happens when forces try to change an object’s motion, and look at the motion of an object.

Surveying the rules

Biomechanics has many rules because things don’t happen randomly or by chance. Things happen because of actions, and these rules tell you what the consequences of an action are. These rules are usually called laws, which can’t be broken.

Some important laws in biomechanics are

Newton’s first law of motion, the law of inertia: This law tel...