Systems Biology for 21st-Century Quantitative Scientists

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Physical Models of Living Systems is a relatively short book compared with typical bio-logical science books. It is unique in its quantitative view toward biology, tailored especially (albeit not exclusively) to those with training in physics and related disci-plines. In an era of explosive development in the biological sciences, this is a desirable viewpoint to adopt, especially given the new professional opportunities offered by the rapidly evolving fields of modern biology and systems science. In some aspects, biology in the 21st century seems to face similar developments and challenges as chemistry 100 years ago. Inclusion of quantitative, physics-based approaches in chemistry education and research led to the development of physical chemistry as an explicit core area and is today reflected in any form of chemistry edu-cation. A similar trend is now observed in biology and has attracted to the life sciences large numbers of scientists from quantitative science areas such as mathematics, phys-ics, chemistry, engineering, and computer science. In turn, the contributions made by those scientists have made biological methodology and understanding more quantita-tive. This positive-feedback loop reinforces the synergy between the development of quantitative biological science and the influx of quantitative scientists to biology. The new wave of systems biology in the early 21st century was accompanied by the publication of many textbooks. Physical Models of Living Systems is one of them. It presents an unusual selection of examples ranging from molecular to epidemiological phenomena, and it attempts to associate these examples elegantly with analogous processes from physics whenever this is possible. The author is renowned scientist Philip Nelson, a physicist by training and a biophysicist by profession, active in teach-ing and research. His previous biophysics textbook, Biological Physics (Nelson, 2013), published a little more than a decade ago, has received acclaim from the biophysics community (Dobson, 2004). Though the two books are unrelated in scope and subject matter, similar organizational principles are adopted in both. That said, the author carried forward some noteworthy and well-conceived " signature " structural elements, like the " Signpost " preamble to every chapter. Most textbooks in biophysics focus on introducing the body of knowledge by using an approach similar to that of most biochemistry textbooks. While it is essential to teach factual knowledge in any scientific subject, of course, this is no longer sufficient, especially for those thinking of extending their expertise from the physical into the biological sciences or vice versa. We must also teach how to apply the theory and principles to real-world problems. Therefore, a widening gap can be felt between stan-dard-style textbooks and actual research conducted by professional scientists. In contrast to such texts, Physical Models of Living Systems attempts to connect the infor-mation found in the standard biophysical textbooks with current academic research topics. In fact, the book feels personal in its selection of topics and the training journey on which it takes its readership. In our opinion, the combination of this uniqueness