Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Biomembranes

One of the most exciting and rapidly growing areas of research in cell biology today is the structure and function (mechanical and chemical) of cell membranes. Numerous review articles and texts have appeared in the past ten years on the ultrastructure and transport function of biomembranes, but there has been no unifying text outlining the new developments in the continuum mechanics of biomembranes in this same period. This book by Drs. Evans and Skalak is a very welcome and much needed addition to the field. It provides at the same time an excellent tutorial introduction for engineering and physical scientists interested in a continuum mechanical and thermodynamic description of biomembrane systems and a valuable reference text for advanced researchers in the field. Two particular strengths of the presentation are that it ties together the mechanical concepts of deformation, rate of deformation and force resultants with thermodynamic concepts that provide constitutive relations for the material properties of membranes and then relates this theoretical framework to an impressive array of biological membrane experiments that are described in some detail in the last third of the book.