The 6th Edition of IPMB Has Been Submitted!

On December 26, Gene Surdutovich and I submitted our draft of the 6th Edition of Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology to Springer, our publisher. To give you all a sneak peak about what’s in store, here’s an excerpt from the preface.

Sadly, Russ Hobbie passed away in 2021 at the age of 87. The Sixth Edition of IPMB is the first edition for which he did not himself supervise the revision. However, his influence lives on, and much of the text contains his original words.

When preparing the Sixth Edition, Hobbie’s coauthor Brad Roth added another coauthor: Eugene Surdutovich. Surdutovich is a physicist who for decades has studied how ions interact with tissue. He has also taught Biological Physics and Medical Physics from the Fifth Edition of IPMB. Finally, his expertise in both the LaTeX typesetting system and producing figures using Mathematica have contributed much to this edition.

The Sixth Edition of IPMB has several new features. Most of the figures were redrawn, and many are now in color. Three chapters have been added. First, a brief introduction to surface tension is provided in the new Chapter 2. The previous chapter on feedback and control contained much material about mathematical modeling using nonlinear dynamics. Now this chapter has been split into two, one on feedback and the other on nonlinear dynamics. Finally, a chapter was added that focuses on damage to cells that are exposed to ionizing radiation. There, Surdutovich shares his insight about radiation damage caused by ion beams. This is crucial for understanding proton and heavy ion beam therapies. Despite this new material, the Sixth Edition is significantly shorter than the Fifth. We ruthlessly removed topics that we did not cover when we taught from the book. 

The Sixth Edition has more end-of-chapter homework problems than previous editions. We now have over 1000 problems that highlight biological applications of physics. Many of the problems extend material in the text. Problems marked with an asterisk are particularly challenging. A solutions manual is available to those teaching the course. Instructors can use it as a reference or provide selected solutions to their students. The solutions manual makes it easier for an instructor to guide an independent-study student. Information about the solutions manual is available at the book’s website: https://sites.google.com/view/hobbieroth/home. The book also has an associated blog that is updated every Friday (hobbieroth.blogspot.com).

The good folks at Springer now will do their thing, fixing all our formatting issues and putting the book into their house style. Then, the page proofs come back to us for checking. At that point, finally, the finished product will be available. I’m hoping it’s ready for use during the fall semester.

Thanks to all who made suggestions, provided feedback, and otherwise helped us complete this revision. For those of you who like the earlier editions: fear not. There’s still a lot of Russ Hobbie in the 6th Edition. It’s been just over four years since we lost him. I’ve been thinking about him much throughout this revision.