Professor Arthur T. Johnson
Biology taught to engineers should be principle-based, viewed as a system, and lead to predictive expectations about typical behavioral responses. Engineers may not be interested primarily in evolution or taxonomy, but should be familiar with typical reactions by biological organisms or groups of organisms to conditions imposed by natural and human activities. Thus, the approach to introducing biology to engineering should be different from introducing biology to biologists.
This book attempts to define this new approach. It begins with a review of relevant physical, chemical, mathematical, and engineering science principles, and follows this with explanations of biological principles used for prediction.
This book, tentatively scheduled to be published in late 2008—early 2009, is currently in draft form, and is being tested in class. Until its publication Dr. Johnson is happy to make it available for review, and welcomes your comments.
To read the draft you will need Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader) version 6.0 or higher. You can download the reader free from Adobe.
Download a Draft of Biology for Engineers (draft 7.2, January 2008) (PDF)