Book excerpt: The Common Extremalities in Biology and Physics is the first unified systemic description of dissipative phenomena, taking place in biology, and non-dissipative (conservative) phenomena, which is more relevant to physics. Fully updated and revised, this new edition extends our understanding of nonlinear phenomena in biology and physics from the extreme / optimal perspective. - The first book to provide understanding of physical phenomena from a biological perspective and biological phenomena from a physical perspective - Discusses emerging fields and analysis - Provides examples