Title:
Transport/Reaction Processes in Biology and Medicine
Transport/Reaction Processes in Biology and Medicine
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Author(s)
Lightfoot, Edwin N.
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Abstract
Transport Phenomena, and particularly mass transfer and chemical reaction, govern a great
variety of physiological and pathological processes, and they supplement in a non-trivial way
genetic factors in both organism development and species evolution. For humans and other
mammals, of primary interest here, the body may in fact be viewed as a complex and hierarchical
transport/reaction system supplying the needs of genes and protecting them from the
environment. Four major organs, skin, gut, lungs, and kidneys, interact directly with the external
environment and, via an extremely complex series of transport processes, with other organs,
organelles, all body cells and ultimately their genes. These processes range from relatively
familiar convective transport in blood and pulmonary gases to very complex forced diffusion
mechanisms at the cellular and sub-cellular levels. Our purpose here is to suggest effective bases for modeling and manipulating selected
subsystems of living organisms, and it must be recognized at the outset that a complete
description is impossible. Just a glimpse at an atlas of human anatomy will make this clear. Our
approach is to suggest approximations simple enough to be soluble, testable and hopefully
sufficiently detailed for the purposes at hand – and these purposes can vary greatly. There is thus
a need for multi-scale models. There is also a strong historical component to evolution. This is why Himalayan climbers
struggling at the very limits of their respiratory systems can sometimes look up and see
migrating geese flying strongly far over their heads. The geese have inherited the pulmonary
systems of dinosaurs. In addition biological systems, though they must obey the equations of change, can employ a
wider range of boundary conditions than permitted by engineering texts. Thus while the rising
sap in tall trees must follow Poiseuille’s law it can operate at negative pressures.
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Date Issued
2010-09-29
Extent
79:12 minutes
Resource Type
Moving Image
Resource Subtype
Lecture