The Nature of Biological Systems as Revealed by Thermal Methods is a guide for experiments using thermal methods. The Editor has used his many years of experience to create a unique resource that will enable others with a less mathematical background, to realize the beauty and power of this tool and to gain a better understanding of biological problems.

Biological calorimetry (and of course thermal analysis) is of increasing interest and is not covered thoroughly in other resources. The methods presented are macroscopic, for the rather inhomogeneous material (micromethods are often not possible or not pertinent). This book will help beginners in the field of thermal analysis or calorimetry understand the principles of thermodynamics being applied to biological systems. Biological systems are highly organized and very complex. The water and the different types of weak interactions among the macromolecules make the interpretation of thermal events very difficult. This book includes examples how to handle such problems.

The Nature of Biological Systems as Revealed by Thermal Methods is unique in that it:
-has a broad spectrum, from molecules and biochemistry, tissues, and food, to whole organisms;
-combines practical problems (food processing, quality control, thermal denaturation of proteins, plants and small insects, etc.) with concrete solutions and interpretation;
-provides practical strategies and tools without "dry physics and mathematics";
-initiates the application of thermal methods in new fields (e.g. medicine);
-forces the reader to go into more detail of thermodynamics and thermal techniques;
-simplifies communication between biologists, medical doctors and experts of thermal analysis.

The book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in thermodynamics, including practising professionals applying thermal methods to biological problems; researchers and graduate students beginning work using thermal methods; and specialists of thermal analysis starting work on biological problems. In addition, this book will be a useful resource for libraries and institutes as the only book covering quantitative thermal analysis of biological systems.

Af ter a kind mo ti va tion by Judit Si mon (Ed i tor-in-Chief of the Jour nal of Ther mal Anal y s is and Cal o ri m e t r y , Kluwe r Ac a dem ic Pub lis her) and ne go ti a tions with po- si ble con tri bu tors - lasting for m ore than one year - it was de cided to write a book about the ap pli ca tion of ther mal meth ods in bi ol ogy. Its aim was to be a guide how to per form ex per i ments and what kind of in for mation m ight be gained by them. We tried to col lect in for mation tha t could be achieved only dur ing a long per sonal pra- tice. In this way sci en tists from bi ol ogy and med i cine , e. g. , who are not so skilled in phys ics and math e mat ics may re al ize very soon the beauty and power of this tool at one hand. On the other hand, those sci en tists with better back ground in nat u ral sc- ences can be more sensitive to find out exciting biological problems.