Physics textbook is a growing success story

Reflecting on a textbook written by them and other physics staff are (from left) University of Otago physics senior teaching fellow Dr Terry Scott and professional practice fellows Kirsten Franklin and Paul Muir. Photo by Peter McIntosh.

A textbook, written by University of Otago physics staff, began life in 1999 as an in-house publication for 1400 Otago health sciences first-year students taking a biological physics paper.

Last year, about 1700 copies of the biological physics book were printed because staff at the University of Queensland also decided to use the work titled Introduction to Physics for the Health and Life Sciences.

A major United States-based international publisher, Wiley, recently begun producing the book, which has already been adopted for use in Ireland, Australia, and the United States.

One of the authors, Otago physics senior teaching fellow Dr Terry Scott, said he had been encouraged by the international interest.

The book's quality also reflected the strength of the Otago first-year health sciences teaching programme, and input from health sciences staff had been beneficial, he said.

The book's authors include Kirsten Franklin, Paul Muir, Lara Wilcocks, Paul Yates, and other Otago physics staff.

Former physics head Emeritus Prof Gerry Carrington said the authors had done a "brilliant" job in clarifying the important role of physics in human biology.

Physics was involved in many aspects of the operation of the human body, as well as in related fields such as medical diagnosis through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Production of the book had revealed a big "gap in the market" and it was likely to be widely adopted overseas, he said.

• One recent positive British review gives the book a five-star rating in all categories and concludes it "shows physics is really fun".

- john.gibb@odt.co.nz