Biology by Numbers: An Encouragement to Quantitative Thinking

Description

This textbook is both an introduction to quantitative biology and a guide for the number-shy. Richard Burton fosters a sense of the fundamental importance and usefulness of mathematical principles in biology, with a fascinating range of examples. The book is geared toward the nonmathematician, and covers the basics as well as various more advanced topics from many diverse biological disciplines. Questions and calculations encourage active participation without holding up the casual reader. A key feature is the structure of the book. Rather than building it around biological disciplines, Dr. Burton emphasizes the common ways of reasoning used in areas as diverse as insect and population growth, seed mortality, and sensory response (to mention a few that use logarithms). Cover Frontmatter Contents Preface A guide to the book 1 - Putting two and two together 2 - Units, formulae and the use of old envelopes: confronting some obstacles to quantitative thinking 3 - Aspects of energy metabolism 4 - Getting things in proportion 5 - Perilous percentages, dangerous ratios 6 - Building a trophic pyramid 7 - Sodium in animals and plants 8 - Exchanges of water and carbon dioxide 9 - A geometric series 10 - Introduction to logarithms 11 - Bringing logarithms to life 12 - Exponential relationships 13 - Aspects of allometry 14 - More on allometry, and on quantitative patterns in nature 15 - How the abundance of food affects rates of feeding 16 - The characterization of trees and other branching systems 17 - Epilogue References Notes Index