Michael L. Johnson - Böcker

Essential for all biology and biomathematics courses, this textbook provides students with a fresh perspective of quantitative techniques in biology in a field where virtually any advance in the life sciences requires a sophisticated mathematical approach. An Invitation to Biomathematics, expertly written by a team of experienced educators, offers students a solid understanding of solving biological problems with mathematical applications. This text succeeds in enabling students to truly experience advancements made in biology through mathematical models by containing computer-based hands-on laboratory projects with emphasis on model development, model validation, and model refinement.

The supplementary work, Laboratory Manual of Biomathematics is available separately ISBN 0123740223, or as a set ISBN: 0123740290)

Provides a complete guide for development of quantification skills crucial for applying mathematical methods to biological problems Includes well-known examples from across disciplines in the life sciences including modern biomedical research Explains how to use data sets or dynamical processes to build mathematical models Offers extensive illustrative materials Written in clear and easy-to-follow language without assuming a background in math or biology A laboratory manual is available for hands-on, computer-assisted projects based on material covered in the text

The critically acclaimed laboratory standard for more than forty years, Methods in Enzymology is one of the most highly respected publications in the field of biochemistry. Since 1955, each volume has been eagerly awaited, frequently consulted, and praised by researchers and reviewers alike. Now with more than 300 volumes (all of them still in print), the series contains much material still relevant today--truly an essential publication for researchers in all fields of life sciences.

In the past several years, there has been an explosion in the ability of biologists, molecular biologists and biochemists to collect vast amounts of data on their systems. This volume presents sophisticated methods for estimating the thermodynamic parameters of specific protein-protein, protein-DNA and small molecule interactions. The use of thermodynamics in biological research is used as an "energy book-keeping system.� While the structure and function of a molecule is important, it is equally important to know what drives the energy force. These methods look to answer: What are the sources of energy that drive the function? Which of the pathways are of biological significance? As the base of macromolecular structures continues to expand through powerful techniques of molecular biology, such as X-ray crystal data and spectroscopy methods, the importance of tested and reliable methods for answering these questions will continue to expand as well.

The use of thermodynamics in biological research can be equated to an energy book-keeping system. While the structure and function of a molecule is important, it is equally important to know what drives the energy force. These methods look to answer: What are the sources of energy that drive the function? Which of the pathways are of biological significance? As the base of macromolecular structures continues to expand through powerful techniques of molecular biology, such as X-ray crystal data and spectroscopy methods, the importance of tested and reliable methods for answering these questions will continue to expand as well. This volume presents sophisticated methods for estimating the thermodynamic parameters of specific protein-protein, protein-DNA and small molecule interactions. Elucidates the relationships between structure and energetics and their applications to molecular design, aiding researchers in the design of medically important molecules Provides a "must-have" methods volume that keeps MIE buyers and online subscribers up-to-date with the latest research Offers step-by-step lab instructions, including necessary equipment, from a global research community

The use of computers and computational methods has become ubiquitous in biological and biomedical research. During the last 2 decades most basic algorithms have not changed, but what has is the huge increase in computer speed and ease of use, along with the corresponding orders of magnitude decrease in cost. A general perception exists that the only applications of computers and computer methods in biological and biomedical research are either basic statistical analysis or the searching of DNA sequence data bases. While these are important applications they only scratch the surface of the current and potential applications of computers and computer methods in biomedical research. The various chapters within this volume include a wide variety of applications that extend far beyond this limited perception. As part of the Reliable Lab Solutions series, Essential Numerical Computer Methods brings together chapters from volumes 210, 240, 321, 383, 384, 454, and 467 of Methods in Enzymology. These chapters provide a general progression from basic numerical methods to more specific biochemical and biomedical applications.

Just what was so wild about the Wild West? Americans have had an enduring yet ambivalent obsession with the West as both a place and a state of mind. Now one of the most knowing observers of the Western scene offers a monumental cultural and historical analysis of how ideas of wildness have shaped the ways Euro-Americans have perceived, reacted to, and acted upon the West for nearly five hundred years. Bringing the sensibility of a poet to a sweeping discussion of place, Michael L. Johnson considers how that obsession originated, how it has determined attitudes toward and activities in the West, and how it has changed over the centuries. Investigating views of Western wildness from pre-European times until the present, Johnson tells how explorers and settlers bent on exploiting the West brought with them Old World ideas, full of muddled and even bizarre contradictions, that have defined the region in its most fundamental aspects. And he shows how those contradictory ideas were woven into an ambivalent ideology of conquest that has given us today's degraded wilderness areas, overtaxed water supplies, and sprawling suburbs. Brimming with word-play, personal anecdotes, and telling vignettes, ""Hunger for the Wild"" provocatively addresses a cornucopia of Western personalities, phenomena, and events. Invoking a vast array of writers and thinkers - from Claude Levi-Strauss to Black Elk to Richard Etulain - Johnson casts his critical eye on conquistadors and cowboys and revisits myths of Noble Savage and ""red devil"" alike. His kaleidoscopic text examines Dust Bowl woes and Wild West shows, and whether contemplating the Disneyfied frontier or the Ralphlaurenized range, he takes readers on an intellectual romp through the wilds of the contemporary West, with its UFO fanatics and postregional cowgirls. Emphasizing his call for seeing the West as ""a place of roots as well as routes,"" Johnson's tour de force marks a major contribution to the deeper history of the region and points toward a more sustainable West for the future. It should interest not only Western historians but also art and film buffs, ecocritics, cross-cultural specialists, and rodeo fans - anyone fascinated by the wild, Western-style.