Zoological Physics: Quantitative Models of Body Design, Actions, and Physical Limitations of Animals

Zoological Physics presents a physicist's view of life. The primary life functions of animals, such as eating, growing, reproducing and getting around all depend on motion: Motion of food into the organism, motion of materials through the body, motion of limbs and motion of the entire body through water, air, and on land. These activities are controlled by internal information stored in the genes or generated in the brain and by external information gathered by the senses: predominantly eyes and ears. This book models these life functions with the tools of physics. It is aimed at students of life science, engineering and physics, but will also appeal to other readers with a general interest in animals.