Fractals in Biology and Medicine

This text explores the potential of fractal geometry for describing and understanding biological organisms, their development and growth as well as their structural design and functional properties. It extends these notions to assess changes associated with disease in the hope of contributing to the understanding of pathogenetic processes in medicine. This book is a presentation of the importance of the new concept of fractal geometry for biological and medical sciences. It collates extended papers based on invited lectures and free communications presented at a symposium in Ascona, Switzerland, attended by leading scientists in this field, among them the originator of fractal geometry, Benoat Mandelbrot. “Fractals in Biology and Medicine” begins by asking how the theoretical construct of fractal geometry can be applied to biomedical sciences, and then addresses the role of fractals in the design and morphogenesis of biological organisms, as well as in molecular and cell biology.