Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology

Citation

Hobbie, R. K., & Roth, B. J. (2015). Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology (5th ed.). Springer.

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition has eighteen chapters in about 630 pages. According to the publisher, the first half is primarily biological physics, using ideas from physics to understand biology and physiology, and the second half is primarily medical physics, describing the use of physics in diagnosis (mainly imaging) and therapy. The chapter titles follow that split: the first eleven move from mechanics and transport to nerve and muscle electricity, biomagnetism, feedback and data analysis, and the last seven concern images, sound, light, radiation and nuclear medicine. Each chapter has an extensive reference list.

Chapters 1–3: Mechanics; Exponential Growth and Decay; Systems of Many Particles

Three opening chapters (about 30, 20 and 30 pages) set the physical and mathematical base. Chapter 1 applies mechanics, Chapter 2 treats exponential growth and decay, and Chapter 3 moves to systems of many particles.

Chapters 4–5: Transport in an Infinite Medium; Transport Through Neutral Membranes

Two chapters on transport. The first deals with transport in an unbounded medium; the second adds membranes, bringing the discussion to the boundary between compartments in living systems.

Chapters 6–9: Impulses in Nerve and Muscle Cells; The Exterior Potential and the Electrocardiogram; Biomagnetism; Electricity and Magnetism at the Cellular Level

The electrical block of the book. Chapter 6 covers nerve and muscle impulses (about 40 pages), Chapter 7 the potential outside the body and the electrocardiogram, Chapter 8 biomagnetism, and Chapter 9 electricity and magnetism at the cellular level.

Chapters 10–11: Feedback and Control; The Method of Least Squares and Signal Analysis

Chapter 10 treats feedback and control and Chapter 11 the method of least squares and signal analysis. They close the biological-physics half with tools for modelling regulation and for fitting and analysing data.

Chapters 12–13: Images; Sound and Ultrasound

The medical-physics half opens with a short chapter on images (about 20 pages) and a chapter on sound and ultrasound (about 15 pages).

Chapters 14–16: Atoms and Light; Interaction of Photons and Charged Particles with Matter; Medical Uses of X-Rays

Atoms and light (about 40 pages) leads to the interaction of photons and charged particles with matter (about 35 pages), which is then applied in the chapter on medical uses of X-rays (about 40 pages).

Chapters 17–18: Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Medicine; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The book ends with nuclear physics and nuclear medicine and then magnetic resonance imaging (about 30 pages each).

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–5: Mechanics to membrane transport

• Exponential growth and decay: a mathematical form given its own chapter early in the book.
• Systems of many particles: the collective-behaviour topic that follows single-body mechanics.
• Transport through membranes: movement between compartments, treated after transport in an infinite medium.

Chapters 6–11: Electrical, magnetic and analytical topics

• Nerve and muscle impulses: the electrical signalling of excitable cells.
• Electrocardiogram and biomagnetism: signals measured outside the body, electrical in Chapter 7 and magnetic in Chapter 8.
• Feedback and control: regulation in physiological systems.
• Least squares and signal analysis: fitting models to data and analysing signals.

Chapters 12–18: Medical physics

• Images: the general treatment of imaging that precedes the individual modalities.
• Interaction of photons and charged particles with matter: the physics behind X-ray, nuclear and radiation topics.
• X-ray, nuclear and magnetic resonance imaging; ultrasound: the modalities named in the chapter titles.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Clear two-part design. The publisher's split between biological physics and medical physics matches the chapter titles, so a course can take one half or both.
• Wide span of physics in one book. Mechanics, thermal physics and transport, electricity and magnetism, optics, sound, nuclear physics and imaging all appear, tied to physiology and medicine.
• Plenty of practice. The publisher cites more than 850 problems that test understanding and add biological examples, and a solutions manual for instructors; each chapter has an extensive reference list.
• Long track record. The book has been used in more than 20 countries, according to the publisher, and its first edition appeared in 1978 from a course Hobbie developed in 1973 after auditing medical school courses.
• Fifth-edition additions. The publisher lists new coverage of topics such as cyclotrons, photodynamic therapy, color vision, X-ray crystallography, the electron microscope, cochlear implants, deep brain stimulation and nanomedicine.

Limitations

• Prerequisites. Prior courses in physics and calculus are assumed, so it is not a first book for students who have not met both.
• Superseded edition. The blog that supports the book reports that a sixth edition, with Gene Surdutovich as an added coauthor, was in page proofs in September 2026, with new chapters on surface tension and on radiation damage, the feedback chapter split in two, and more than 1,000 problems. Readers choosing a copy should check which edition their course uses.
• A physics text, not an engineering survey. Its subject is physics applied to medicine and biology; students wanting a survey of biomedical engineering subfields will find it narrower than general introductory texts.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the course's books, this is the one that supplies the physics beneath physiology and imaging. Ann Saterbak, Ka-Yiu San and Larry McIntire's Bioengineering Fundamentals is a first course organised around conservation laws; Mark Saltzman's Biomedical Engineering: Bridging Medicine and Technology builds the field outward from biology; Ritter and colleagues' Biomedical Engineering Principles is an introductory treatment stressing quantitative analysis and design; Enderle's Introduction to Biomedical Engineering is a broad survey. Wittrup and colleagues' Quantitative Fundamentals of Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering treats the rate processes of molecules and cells instead.

Read Hobbie and Roth after one of the introductory texts, once calculus-based physics is in hand, as the deeper treatment of nerve electricity, biomagnetism, transport and imaging physics. Both it and the Wittrup book treat transport, but the two differ in emphasis: this one is organised around physics, that one around molecular and cellular models.

How to Use This Book

The book suits advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in biophysics, physiology, medical physics, neuroscience and biomedical engineering, in the publisher's description, and is also positioned for self-study and as a reference for researchers. Calculus and introductory physics should be in hand.

A practical plan:

• Core for a physiology-oriented course: Chapters 1 to 11 in order, with Chapters 4–9 (transport and bioelectricity) as the central block.
• Core for a medical-physics or imaging course: Chapters 12 to 18, preceded by Chapters 1–3 if the many-particle ideas are unfamiliar; Chapters 14–15 (atoms and light, and radiation interacting with matter) lead into Chapters 16–18.
• Optional: Chapter 8 on biomagnetism and Chapter 10 on feedback and control can be postponed without breaking the sequence.

Work a selection of problems from every chapter, since that is where additional biological examples appear, and follow the reference lists for topics beyond the chapter. Check the edition before buying: the fifth edition is the one described here.