Preface
This book derives mainly from a Research Workshop Physics of Biological
Oscillators: New Insights into Non-Equilibrium and Non-Autonomous Systems
1
held in Chicheley Hall (27–30 November 2018): see photograph. It was a highly
interdisciplinary event that brought together some of the best international experts
working on the vexed problem of how best to treat the non-autonomous oscillatory
systems that crop up so often in biology. They included life scientists who investigate and measure the oscillations and the physicists, chemists, mathematicians,
information theorists, and engineers seeking to understand their fundamental nature
and origins and to devise useful applications of this knowledge. Thus, although
their work lies in seemingly very different scientific areas—ranging from mathematics to the experimental recording and analysis of real data—they were all
addressing in one way or another the problem of time-variability in oscillatory
systems. They gave presentations about how to measure, analyze, model, and
understand such data as well as considering applications to medicine, both actual
and potential. Nearly all of the experts, assembled from 19 countries, kindly agreed
to write up their presentations for publication thereby providing the basis for the
book.
Lancaster, UK
Aneta Stefanovska
Peter V. E. McClintock
1
www.physicsoflife.org.uk/physics-of-biological-oscillators.html.
ix
This book derives mainly from a Research Workshop Physics of Biological
Oscillators: New Insights into Non-Equilibrium and Non-Autonomous Systems
1
held in Chicheley Hall (27–30 November 2018): see photograph. It was a highly
interdisciplinary event that brought together some of the best international experts
working on the vexed problem of how best to treat the non-autonomous oscillatory
systems that crop up so often in biology. They included life scientists who investigate and measure the oscillations and the physicists, chemists, mathematicians,
information theorists, and engineers seeking to understand their fundamental nature
and origins and to devise useful applications of this knowledge. Thus, although
their work lies in seemingly very different scientific areas—ranging from mathematics to the experimental recording and analysis of real data—they were all
addressing in one way or another the problem of time-variability in oscillatory
systems. They gave presentations about how to measure, analyze, model, and
understand such data as well as considering applications to medicine, both actual
and potential. Nearly all of the experts, assembled from 19 countries, kindly agreed
to write up their presentations for publication thereby providing the basis for the
book.
Lancaster, UK
Aneta Stefanovska
Peter V. E. McClintock
1
www.physicsoflife.org.uk/physics-of-biological-oscillators.html.
ix