PHYS 275Biological Physics
The course teaches how a few fundamental models from statistical physics provide quantitative explanatory frameworks for many seemingly unrelated problems in biology. Case studies rotate from year to year and may include ion channel gating, cooperative binding, protein-DNA interaction, gene regulation, molecular motor dynamics, cytoskeletal assembly, biological electricity, population and evolutionary dynamics. May be coscheduled with PHYS 175. Students in PHYS 275 are expected to complete a report at the level of a research paper. Recommended preparation: an introduction to statistical mechanics, at least at the level of PHYS 140A or CHEM 132.
Prerequisites
None listed in the catalog.