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 colour illustrations and photographs to provide an engaging and informative approach to the subject of mathematics and statistics within biological science.

Reviews

This book should help remind students that there can be concrete applications for mathematics.

—The Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 85, December 2010

…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

Contents

1. Quantities and Units

2. Numbers and Equations

3. Tables, Graphs and Functions

4. Shapes, Waves and Trigonome

5. Differentiation

6. Integration

7. Calculus: Expanding the Toolkit

8. The Calculus of Growth and Decay Processes

9. Descriptive Statistics and Data Display

10. Probability

11. Statistical Inference

12. Biological Modeling

Presenting Your Work

End of Chapter Questions

Answers to End of Chapter Questions

Author Bio

Steve Hladky is a Reader in Membrane Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge. He was Secretary of the Department's teaching committee for 17 years, during which time he coordinated the teaching in the Department.

Bill Broadhurst is Assistant Director of Research in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.

Mike Aitken is a University Lecturer and the Undergraduate Teaching Director in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge.