Molecular Driving Forces: Statistical Thermodynamics in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Nanoscience, 2nd Edition 2nd Edition

The delivery was relatively rapid for Amazon, these days (for a company that started as an online book seller, their book deliveries are disappointingly slow). The book itself is printed on heavy glossy paper. It is a cut above a lot of textbook paper these days. The development of the material is reminiscent of S. K. Ma's text, with a lot of emphasis on the basis of thermodynamics as emergent from sampling large numbers of particles. It covers applications in a number of fields. It does not cover traditional physical chemistry of biological systems in the traditional scope. But it does explore a number of applications to biology, genetics, etc, for example. Great book!

Allow me to offer a novel take on this book...As someone who completed a Ph.D. in computational, statistical chemistry in 2013, I used to say the 1st edition of this book was my favorite undergraduate text, despite it never being assigned for any of my courses. I used to constantly refer to it for simple refreshers on concepts I hadn't used recently, yet needed for my research. At times, I was ashamed to be using an undergraduate book so frequently for grad-level research.Now, as someone returning to the field, I truly love this book for its simple exposition of essential concepts, the insightful figures and examples, and it's instructive exercises. Yes, I know I've forgotten most of these concepts, yet they come back so quickly when presented in this format.I can totally see why some reviewers say this book isn't fit for graduate-level study, yet that is why I personally think it's a great introduction to the field. It's also why I'm happy to have this work reintroduce me to the field I once cherished and used to actually know a bit about.Lastly, I think readers will be surprised to find the only thing this book lacks is more math, which is funny because so much of this work is professionally solved through numerical methods in established software packages and libraries. I'm glad it's not filled with walls of equations that few of us will actually ever need.

This is a fine introductory text covering the basics of molecular statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, as well as their applications to a number of systems that are likely to be of interest to those studying the biosciences or other areas that depend on the concepts covered in this book. It is not a book for "experts" or an advanced graduate level text.One nice feature of the book, especially for bioscience students whose math may be rusty, are the chapters devoted to mathematical tools in the context of the book's subject matter.If you want a more in-depth text at an advanced level, look elsewhere. If you want a solid down-to-earth introduction to these subjects, this is a good place to start, especially if your math background is not particularly strong.

Dill and Bromberg's effort is extraordinary. I don't think there are other text books out there that explain complex matters in such a rigorous but accessible way. I would recommend this book to anyone who's taking an undergrad or grad course in thermodynamics, statistical thermodynamics or anything remotely similar, as this book will really enlight you. It may happen because of the main text, the examples or the exercises, but it will happen.I've had the chance to read both the first and second edition. Information has been reorganized a little bit and the new chapters are great. Go get this book.

This book is very easy to understand and has plenty of examples imbedded within the text. Perfect for upper division physical chemistry classes. I bought this specifically for a class but found that I enjoyed reading it. Dill (the author) lays out the facts of physical chemistry almost like a story that is fascinating to read.

The book illustrated important concepts very well without having to go through lengthy mathematical derivations. I say this coming from a life science background with minimal exposure to mathematics beyond calculus. I recommend this book for anyone in the sciences (and engineering) due to the broad applicability of the topics covered in the text. Great read and goes well with Israelachvili's Intermolecular and Surface Forces.

Based on the reviews for this text, I was looking forward to my second quarter of undergraduate-level biophysical chemistry (specifically, statistical thermodynamics). I was, however, thoroughly disappointed with the reading. While the mathematics was rigorous, I found that little insight was provided as to how to apply the knowledge at all. The chapters we read were mostly concerned with derivations, which was entirely unhelpful with regards to learning to solve the end-of-chapter problems. And since I find that only the act of solving problems can cement my understanding of abstract concepts, I feel as if the augmentation of my physical chemistry knowledge-base this quarter was minimal at best. I consider my mathematical skills fairly decent (I took two years of calculus/differential equations/linear algebra before embarking on biophysical chemistry) but I feel that this book needs a signficant number of additional in-chapter examples in order to meaningfully instruct rising chemists who are planning careers in experimental/wet-lab work, as opposed to theoretical/computational chemistry. This text would be fairly decent as a reference, but is not sufficiently reader-friendly in order to serve as voluntary/bedtime reading for even the mathematically well-versed undergraduate chemistry student.

The textbook did get a little bit wordy/muddled up at most points, but gave a lot of information. The practice questions were really hard to find relevant to what was in the actual chapter. Also, it did go through most formula really in-depth, but it was hard to figure out the finished product.