A Life Scientist's Guide to Physical Chemistry

Motivating students to engage with physical chemistry through biological examples, this textbook demonstrates how the tools of physical chemistry can be used to illuminate biological questions. It clearly explains key principles and their relevance to life science students, using only the most straightforward and relevant mathematical tools. More than 350 exercises are spread throughout the chapters, covering a wide range of biological applications and explaining issues that students often find challenging. These, along with problems at the end of each chapter and end-of-term review questions, encourage active and continuous study. Over 130 worked examples, many deriving directly from life sciences, help students connect principles and theories to their own laboratory studies. Connections between experimental measurements and key theoretical quantities are frequently highlighted and reinforced. Answers to the exercises are included in the book. Fully worked solutions and answers to the review problems, password-protected for instructors, are available at .

The precautionary principle has been labeled simplistic and the rational approach to decision-making under risk was modeled on well-specified games of chance. How then are we to manage the risks, uncertainties, and 'unknown unknowns' of the real world? In this book, Alan Randall unravels the key controversies surrounding the precautionary principle and develops a new framework that can be taken seriously in policy and management circles. Respecting the complexity of the real world, he defines a justifiable role for the precautionary principle in a risk management framework that integrates precaution with elements of the standard risk management model. This is explained using examples from medicine, pharmacy, synthetic chemicals, nanotechnology, the environment and natural resources conservation. This carefully reasoned but highly accessible book will appeal to readers from a broad range of disciplines, including environmental policy, risk management and cost-benefit analysis.