Understanding the dynamics of cell and tissue motion forms an essential step in understanding the dynamics of life and biological self-organization. Biological motion is one of the most obvious expressions of self-organization, as it requires autonomous creation and regulated action of forces leading to shape formation and translocation of cells and tissues. The topics of the book include intracellular motility and cytoplasma dynamics (e.g. cell division), single cell movement in varying extracellular media (e.g. chemotaxis or contact guidance), cell aggregation and cooperative motion (e.g. cellular swarms or slugs) and, finally, cell-cell interactions in developing tissues (e.g. embryogenesis or plant movement). The dynamics underlying biological motion are explained, on the one hand, by various methods of image processing and correlation analysis, and on the other hand by using physico-chemical theories, developing corresponding mathematical models and performing continuum field or stochastic simulations. Thus, the study is of an interdisciplinary character typically found in theoretical and mathematical biology. Its presentation is intended to reach a broad audience a " from theoretically interested bioscientists, physicians and biophysicists to applied mathematicians interested in the application of nonlinear dynamical systems and simulation algorithms. The most important feature of the book is that it considers possible synergetic mechanisms of interaction and cooperation on different microscopic levels: on the molecular level of cytoskeletal polymers, membrane proteins and extracellular matrix filaments, as well as on the level of cells and cellular tissues. New results concern the aspects of filament or cell alignment, various modes of force transduction and the formation of global stress fields. The latter aspect of mechanical cell-cell communication is emphasized in order to complement the much more well-studied phenomena of chemical, genetical or electrophysical communication.

Polymer and cell dynamics play an important role in processes like tumor growth, metastasis, embryogenesis, immune reactions and regeneration. This volume based on an international workshop on numerical simulations of polymer and cell dynamics in Bad Honnef (Germany) in 2000 provides an overview of the relevant mathematical and numerical methods, their applications and limits. The contributions are from the fields of applied and numerical mathematics, scientific computing, theoretical physics, molecular biophysics, cell and molecular biology as well as chemical and biomedical engineering. The volume will be of interest to scientists and advanced undergraduates in the fields of biotechnology, biomedicine, applied mathematics, biomathematics, biophysics and bioinformatics."

Polymer and cell dynamics play an important role in processes like tumor growth, metastasis, embryogenesis, immune reactions and regeneration. This volume based on an international workshop on numerical simulations of polymer and cell dynamics in Bad Honnef (Germany) in 2000 provides an overview of the relevant mathematical and numerical methods, their applications and limits. The contributions are from the fields of applied and numerical mathematics, scientific computing, theoretical physics, molecular biophysics, cell and molecular biology as well as chemical and biomedical engineering. The volume will be of interest to scientists and advanced undergraduates in the fields of biotechnology, biomedicine, applied mathematics, biomathematics, biophysics and bioinformatics."

" . . . behavior is not, what an organism does itself, but to what we point. Therefore, whether a type of behavior of an organism is adequate as a certain configuration of movements, will depend on the environment in which we de scribe it. " (Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela: El arbol del conocimiento, 1984) "A thorough analysis of behavior must result in a scheme, that shows all regularities that are to be found between the sensorical input and the motorical output of an animal. This scheme is an abstract representation of the brain. " (Valentin Braitenberg: Gehirngespinste, 1973) During the 70ies, when Biomathematics (beyond Biomedical Statistics and Com puting) became more popular at universities and research institutes, the problems dealt with came mainly from the general fields of 'Population Biology' and 'Complex Systems Analysis' such as epidemics, ecosystems analysis, morphogenesis, genetics, immunology and neurology (see the first series of Springer Lecture Notes in Biomathematics). Since then, the picture has not considerably changed, and it seems that "a thorough analysis of behavior" of single organisms and, moreover, of their mutual interactions, is far from being understood. On the contrary, mathematical modellers and analysts have been well advised to restrict their investigations to specific aspects of 'biological behavior', one of which is 'biological motion'. Until now, only a few Conference Proceedings or Lecture Notes have paid attention to this important aspect, some of the earlier examples being Vol. 24: 'The measurement of biological shape and shape changes' (1978) or Vol.

An interdisciplinary study explaining the dynamics underlying biological motion one of the most obvious expressions of self-organization. Designed for a broad audience from bioscientists to applied mathematicians, this book considers possible synergetic mechanisms of interaction and cooperation on different microscopic levels."