Mathematical Models for Society and Biology, 2nd ed. [Book Reviews]

This 12-chapter text has the goal of showing how mathematics can illuminate fascinating problems drawn from society and biology. Each chapter takes a particular mathematical topic and applies it to one or more problems in society or biology. The text is written at the approximate level of a person who has completed sophomore mathematics and is familiar with items such as false positives and false negatives, probability, differential equations, etc. The text is not designed to be a classroom textbook but instead is recommended by this reviewer as a supplement to lectures in biology or applied mathematics or simply as an enjoyable read over a period of several afternoons at your leisure. For many readers, the mathematics in the chapters should be a review; however, a few chapters may cover topics that are not covered in undergraduate courses. Therefore, if needed, the appendices cover the normal density, Poisson events nonlinear differential equations and oscillations, and conditional probability, and may be reviewed to aid understanding of a particular chapter topic.