Motivation and Action: Preface to the Second English Edition

More than a decennium has passed since I finished the first English edition of this textbook – a long time for a rapidly developing science! A mass of original publications as well as reviews and books for each of the addressed topics can always be found on the website of the “Web of Knowledge.” Consequently, a full revision of all chapters was necessary, and a number of new results and topics had to be included. The long time it took in writing this textbook, starting from the first German edition in 1971, reflects an important period of development of biophysics as a modern scientific discipline. It was extremely fascinating to not only observe the progress in biophysics but also to follow the ups and downs of the crucial aspects of its development. At first radiation biophysics dominates. Later one biocybernetics, discussion about entropy and negentropy, extended Onsager matrices of coupled flux equations, dissipative structures, types of kinetic catastrophes, the paradox of spontaneous protein folding, etc. were discussed in extension. All of these approaches and ideas have eventually been well fitted into the complex system of biophysics more or less according to their real importance. It was not easy to decide on what really should be included in such an introductory textbook, what should be the length of the corresponding sections, how should the plethora of new facts and relations be arranged, and what a student should essentially know to be able to understand the complex framework of biophysics. The author is aware of the subjective nature of these decisions. At present, biophysical research is mainly focused on molecular structures and processes. This has indeed proved important and helpful in the preparation of this textbook, as new results of molecular biophysics could be included in various sections of this edition. It should be noted, however, that the molecules are embedded in a definite medium. Osmotic and Donnan-osmotic effects control the biological reactions and functions of these molecules. Therefore, the basic figures of “classical” thermodynamics should not be forgotten. The Nernst equation as well as all other basic equations derived by famous physicists – Planck, Fick, Donnan, etc. – still valid and indispensable even in modern research. Therefore,