Subject: ARTICLES - Part (1/5) of UK Nonlinear News
From: UK Nonlinear News (uk-nonl_at_ucl.ac.uk)
Date: 06/29/04
- Next message: UK Nonlinear News: "Subject: CONTENT - Part (0/5) of UK Nonlinear News"
- Previous message: Rich: "Re: [Fwd: MAA MathFest]"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 01:49:39 +0100
Subject: ARTICLES - Part (1/5) of UK Nonlinear News
UK Nonlinear News, May 2004
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles and Reviews
* Book Review: Mathematical Biology (3rd edition) .
Reviewed by Jaroslav Stark.
* Report: Pattern Formation and Nonlinear Dynamics (PANDA) .
By Alastair Rucklidge.
* Report: First Meeting of the LMS Scheme 3 Mathematics in Medicine
and
Biology.
By David Terry.
* A listing of reviews of nonlinear books can be found at
http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/Applied/news.dir/issue7.dir/art/books.html
(this article is periodically updated).
* An index of UK Nonlinear News can be found at
http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/Applied/news.dir/uknonl-index.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mathematical Biology (3rd edition): I: An Introduction II: Spatial
Models
and Biomedical Applications
J.D. Murray
By Jaroslav Stark
Springer Verlag
Vol. I: 2002 0-387-95223-3, 551 pages, Vol. II: 2003; 0-387-95228-4, 811
pages.
Corrected 2nd Printings 2004.
Mathematical biology is currently a field undergoing explosive growth.
On
one hand this is driven by demand from life scientists, who are
beginning to
appreciate that modelling is going to be an essential tool in making
sense
of the increasingly complex biological systems that they are attempting
to
understand. On the other, more and more mathematicians are becoming
convinced that many of the most exciting developments in 21st century
mathematics will be motivated by biological problems, just as much of
the
mathematical progress of the last two centuries was driven by the
physical
sciences.
Given this surge of interest, it is perhaps surprising that there is
still
only a handful of general text-books in this area. One of the first,
which
by now has become a classic, is the first edition of Jim Murray's
Mathematical Biology, published in 1989. For many years, this was
essential
reading for any PhD student entering the field, and it is probably fair
to
say that it shaped a whole generation of mathematical biologists in the
UK,
if not elsewhere. Following a minor update for the second edition in
1993,
Jim Murray has now added so much material that the third edition has
appeared in two volumes, which at some 1360 pages are nearly double the
page
count of the first edition. Clearly, such a vast undertaking represents
a
huge challenge in terms of organization and presentation, particularly
in a
field as diverse as mathematical biology. The author has solved this
problem
in an interesting fashion.
The first volume, as its subtitle suggests, provides a broad
introduction to
mathematical biology. It is essentially a somewhat cut-down version of
the
original first edition, with the addition of three new chapters. Two of
these are case studies based on the author's own research and describe
the
development of models for two rather unusual systems, namely temperature
sensitive sex determination in alligators and marital conflict. The
third
new chapter is the final chapter of this volume and consists of an
overview
of the use of fractals in mathematical biology. This is somewhat
out-of-place and perhaps too brief to be useful to someone who is not
already familiar with the topic. In addition, most chapters have been
expanded with typically one or two new sections per chapter, as well as
more
detailed updating where appropriate. There has also been some
re-arrangement
of material, so that for instance the chapter on Continuous Models for
Interacting Populations has been merged with that for Discrete Models
(losing the section on periodic locust outbreaks in the process), whilst
the
Dynamics of Infectious Diseases has been substantially expanded and
brought
forward. Finally, most (but not all) of the chapters dealing with
spatially
extended systems have been moved to the second volume.
Overall, I think that these changes have been very successful. As a
result,
this first volume is now an even better introduction to mathematical
biology
than the first edition and should prove suitable in a wide variety of
contexts at the final year undergraduate and beginning graduate level.
From
a personal point of view, I was a little bit disappointed by the
omission of
topics such as molecular biology, cell biology and immunology. Modelling
in
these areas has seen dramatic growth during the past decade (and is
likely
to continue), and yet as far as I am aware there is a complete lack of
text
books covering these areas. However, I appreciate that since biology is
such
a vast subject, it is impossible to cover the whole of mathematical
biology
in a single text. The material included in a particular volume thus has
to
reflect the personal interests and tastes of the author. In that
context, I
think that Jim Murray has made an excellent choice, giving a very
coherent
and manageable account. Including other topics would probably have
quickly
led to something that was completely indigestible.
By contrast, the second volume has a different style. It takes the
majority
of the chapters dealing with spatially extended systems from the earlier
editions, updates and expands them, and then adds a considerable number
of
new topics, all based on the author's own research. As such, it comes
close
to representing the collected works of Jim Murray, his students and
collaborators. This is clearly material dear to the author's own heart
and
he has put an immense amount of effort into collecting historical
background, interesting anecdotes and beautiful photographs which all
serve
to lighten the vast amount of detailed mathematical development. Being
such
a personal account, it is well structured and the reader never loses
their
way in over 750 pages of text, supported by some 750 references. Much of
this is held together by a number of key themes such as
reaction-diffusion
systems, travelling waves and the author's own mechano-chemical theory
of
pattern formation.
This is a monumental work, longer than the whole of the first edition,
and
will serve as an important resource for anyone working in this field. It
also provides a huge range of challenging problems which could serve as
motivation for applied mathematicians looking for new mathematical
questions, even if they do not have a particular interest in the
underlying
biological systems.
Together, both volumes are a tremendous achievement, and I think will
turn
out to be classics in their own right. As I have indicated above, they
serve
different purposes and will appeal to different audiences. The first is
an
ideal introduction to mathematical biology for graduate students, the
second
a more specialized reference book for active researchers in spatially
extended systems. As such, it is unlikely that both volumes will appeal
equally to many readers, but I would strongly recommend anyone with an
interest in modern nonlinear mathematics to have a close look at least
at
one or the other.
UK Nonlinear News would like to thank Springer-Verlag for providing a
copy
of these volumes for review.
Both volumes area currently on special offer from www.springeronline.com
until 31.7.2004.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pattern Formation and Nonlinear Dynamics (PANDA)
University of Leeds, 14 May 2004
By Alastair Rucklidge
A one-day meeting on pattern formation and nonlinear dynamics was held
on
Friday 14th May 2004 in the Department of Applied Mathematics,
University of
Leeds. The theme of the meeting was `Dynamics in Mathematical Biology'.
The
LMS-funded PANDA network links Surrey, Cambridge, Leeds and Nottingham.
This
was the first meeting of the year: the next one will be help in
Guildford on
Thursday 8th July.
Sixteen people participated in the meeting. There were two review
lectures
by Carmen Molina-Paris (Leeds), who spoke on `Mathematical model of
T-cell
activation', and Stephen Coombes (Nottingham), who discussed `Patterns,
bumps and waves in neural field theories'. Following these, there were
two
shorter research talks: Christophe Girardet (Oxford) spoke on `A strong
reaction - small diffusion system with environmental effects', and
Jennifer
Siggers (Nottingham) presented her work on `Flows in curved pipes'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
First Meeting of the LMS Scheme 3 Mathematics in Medicine and Biology
Loughborough University, 18 February 2004
By John Terry
The inaugural meeting of the LMS Scheme 3 Grant: Mathematics in Medicine
and
Biology was held at Loughborough University on February 18. The theme of
the
meeting was modelling of neural systems and the meeting was fortunate to
have 4 internationally renowned scientists presenting their work.
Professor
Karl Friston (UCL) spoke on Hierarchical Dynamics Models, Professor Jim
Horne (Loughborough) spoke on the Dynamics of Sleep, Professor John
Taylor
(KCL) spoke on control theory and consciousness and Professor David
Willshaw
(Edinburgh) spoke on modelling of the nervous system. The meeting was
well
attended with over 30 participants.
The next meeting in the series is to be held at the University of
Warwick,
on June 28th 2004, where the speakers will be Professor Philip Maini
(Oxford), Dr Markus Owen (Loughborough), Dr Andrew Yates (Institute of
Child
Health) and Dr Ingeborg van Leeuwen (Free University of Amsterdam).
Further
information regarding the Joint Research Group may be found at :
majrt-mac.lboro.ac.uk/~majrt/LMSScheme3.html.
=============================================================================
Issue 36, WWW -
http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/Applied/news.dir/
May 2004 Email submissions -
mailto:uk-nonl@ucl.ac.uk
UK NONLINEAR NEWS---UK NONLINEAR NEWS---UK NONLINEAR NEWS---UK NONLINEAR
NEWS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Next message: UK Nonlinear News: "Subject: CONTENT - Part (0/5) of UK Nonlinear News"
- Previous message: Rich: "Re: [Fwd: MAA MathFest]"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
