The Physics of Living Systems

This book starts from the macroscopic world, namely the thermodynamics of the Universe and the Solar system, and, via such subjects as the greenhouse effect and energetics of metabolism, steps into to the microscopic world (physics of bacteria and unicellular life, cells and tissues, biomolecules); finally the perspective moves again upwards in length- and time-scales to the physics of organs and whole organisms, to end up with subjects in zoology (e.g., simplified aerodynamics of insect flight, energy budget for the survival and reproduction of a flock of animals), and planetary ecology (species competition in the Biosphere, limits of ecosystems).
Physics in its many aspects, thermodynamics, mechanics, current electricity, fluid dynamics, is the guiding light in this fascinating journey, providing ideas, examples and stimulating reflections for undergraduate students in physics or chemistry and all those interested in the frontiers between physics and biology. The idea of this book is not to introduce much new physics for these students, but rather use their recently acquired academic knowledge of thermodynamics, mechanics, fluid physics, electricity, to start seeing the physics behind the biology. As an undergraduate textbook in introductory biophysics contains the necessary background and tools, including exercises and Appendices, to form a progressive course. In this case, the chapters can be used in the order proposed, possibly split between two semesters.
But the book is also a pleasant read for researchers in the life sciences who want to revive or go deeper into physics concepts glanced in their early years of scientific training. The less physics-oriented reader might skip the first chapter, as well as all the "grey boxes"containing the more formal developments, and create his/her own menu of chapters, more or less á la carte.

Fabrizio Cleri received his PhD from the University of Perugia, Italy in 1984 and his Habilitation in Physics (HDR) from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg in 2004. After 20 years at the ENEA in Rome, he became a full professor at the University of Lille1 and Director of Research at IEMN-Cnrs de Lille in 2006. Fabrizio Cleri is the founder and director of biennial Master studies in Biological and Medical Physics in the Department of Physics in Lille. His teaching covers both introductory-level and advanced courses in Condensed Matter Physics and Biophysics, as well as Applied Nuclear Physics for medical physicists.
Author of more than 120 scientific papers and more than 40 invited talks, with over 2500 citations and a H-factor of 22, his skills as a theoretical physicist range from nuclear and radiation physics, to condensed-matter physics and materials mechanics, to molecular physics, biophysics and bio-nanotechnology. He gave a major contribution to the understanding of micromechanical phenomena and charge/heat transport processes in materials and biomolecules at the nanometer scale.
Since 1986, he has been an invited professor at the CEA of Cadarache, at MIT in Boston, at the ITP, UC Santa Barbara, California, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, at the Institute of Industrial Sciences at the University of Tokyo, as well as permanent researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago between 1995 and 1998. He is an Associate Editor of Applied Physics Letters and of the European Physical Journal B.