Biology by Numbers An Encouragement to Quantitative Thinking

About this book

Biologists are notoriously reticent about using mathematics. Biology by Numbers 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. Biology by Numbers is geared towards the non-mathematician, 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 reader. A key feature is the structure of Biology by Numbers. Rather than building it around biological disciplines, Dr Burton emphasises 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). Written primarily for beginning undergraduates, this enlightening text will also be an essential aid for students throughout their undergraduate and graduate years.

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

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