Elsevier Launches Physics of Life Reviews

23 October 2003

Elsevier Launches New Biophysics Journal
Physics of Life Reviews

Amsterdam, 23 October 2003 - Elsevier has launched a new journal entitled Physics of Life Reviews http://www.elsevier.com/locate/plrev dedicated to the increasing amount of research in the interdisciplinary field of biophysics. Physics of Life Reviews , published quarterly, is a cross-disciplinary publication addressing all living systems - from molecules to populations, from genetics to mind and artificial systems - and the modeling of these phenomena. The journal's first issue will be published at the beginning of 2004.

Leonid Perlovsky, Principal Research Physicist and Technical Advisor, Air Force Research Laboratory, well known for his contributions to the physics of the mind, will lead the journal's editorial board. "Physics of Life Reviews is unique in addressing the entire spectrum of life sciences", he explains, "The journal elucidates the first principles of organization of complex living systems. It is a great honor for me to lead an editorial board of outstanding scientists from across the globe, representing multiple disciplines of physics of life."

Commenting on the launch, Walter J. Freeman, Professor of the Graduate School Division of Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, says, "Physics of Life Reviews provides the basic knowledge needed by explorers who are pursuing threads of explanation that lead across cultural and scientific borders. The essays in Physics of Life Reviews are passports to support constructive explorations and modeling of biological phenomena, not by reduction to already known forms, but by putting into service the foundations of physics for the synthesis of multifaceted solutions to our critical problems."

"Major progress has occurred during the past few decades in modeling multiple levels of biological organization. Physics of Life Reviews now provides a valuable forum for integrating these disparate contributions and highlighting how biological phenomena emerge from fundamental physical principles", states Stephen Grossberg, Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems & Professor of Mathematics, Psychology and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University.

In line with the journal's interdisciplinary character the journal will target a range of different researchers: physicists, chemists, mathematicians, biologists, computer scientists, material scientists, life scientists and engineers with an interest in biological systems and their models.

Alexander Rich, William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics at MIT, points to the need for an interdisciplinary approach to biophysics. "Progress in the Life Sciences has always advanced due to the contributions from many fields from chemists and others. Physics of Life Reviews will make valuable contributions by stimulating physical scientists to look more closely at biology."

About Elsevier

Elsevier http://www.elsevier.com is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Elsevier publishes more than 1,800 journals and 2,200 new books per year and offers a suite of innovative electronic products, bibliographic databases, online reference works and subject specific portals. Elsevier is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands with offices worldwide. The company is part of the Reed Elsevier Group plc http://www.reedelsevier.com a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

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