Friday, March 25, 2016

Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine

I’m cheap and I’m proud of it; I love free stuff. Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology isn’t free. Russ Hobbie and I appreciate our readers’ willingness to spend their money to purchase our book. Thank you! But what if you want more? What if—heaven forbid—you find our book is not totally clear, complete, or comprehensive? In IPMB we cite many references at the end of each chapter, so you have many sources of additional information. But often these sources cost money or may be difficult to obtain. Is there anywhere you can go online for free to augment IPMB?

A screenshot of the wikibook Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine.
A screenshot of the wikibook
Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine.
One option is the wikibook Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. This book covers much of the same material as in the last half of IPMB. It analyzes in depth nuclear medicine (our Chapter 17), but it also covers the interaction of radiation with tissue (our Chapter 15), Fourier methods and tomography (our Chapters 11 and 12), detectors and x-ray imaging systems (our Chapter 16), ultrasound (our Chapter 13), and even a little magnetic resonance imaging (our Chapter 18).

Some of my favorite parts of the wikibook are not covered in IPMB:
What are the advantages of IPMB? For one thing, IPMB has a large collection of homework problems, more extensive than in Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. Also, I think our book has a better focus on using mathematical modeling to illustrate medical and biological physics concepts. Moreover, the entire first half of IPMB—about biomechanics, biothermodynamics, diffusion, bioelectricity, biomagnetism, and feedback—is absent from Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. Finally, and most importantly, Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine doesn’t have a blog with weekly updates.

If you are looking for a free, easily accessible online textbook to use as a supplement (please, not a replacement!) for Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology, consider Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. It’s worth every penny.

No comments:

Post a Comment