Essential Information & explanations, latest texts & monographs on
Biophysics.
Biophysics
Biophysics research today comprises of a number of specific biological studies. These studies do not share a unique identifying factor, or subject themselves to clear and concise definitions. This is the result of biophysics' relatively recent appearance as a scientific disipline. The studies included under the umbrella of biophysics ranges from sequence comparison to neural networks. In the recent past, biophysics included creating mechanical limbs and nanomachines to regulate biological functions. Nowadays, these are more commonly referred to as belonging to the fields of bioengineering and nanotechnology respectively. We may these definitions to further refine themselves.
Biophysics does not form a discipline of its own, but has departments within the fields of biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology, physiology, physics, and neuroscience. Perhaps more useful than listing every science department in academia, what follows is a list of examples of how each department applies it's efforts toward the study of biophysics. This list is hardly all inclusive. Nor does each subject of study belong exclusively to any particular department. Each academic institution makes it's own rules and there is a lot of mixing between departments.
- Biology - Almost all biophysics efforts are included in some biology department somewhere. To include some: gene regulation, single protien dynamics, bioenergetics, patch clamping, phylogenetic tree, biological structures.
- Biochemistry and chemistry - biomolecular structure, siRNA, nucleic acid structure.
- Computer science - sequence comparison, neural networks.
- Mathematics - population modeling, fluid dynamics.
- Medicine and Neuroscience - tackling neural networks experimentally (brain slicing) as well as theoretically (computer models), membrane permitivity, gene therapy, understanding tumors.
- Pharmacology and Physiology - channel biology, biomolecular interactions, cellular membranes, polyketides.
- Physics - biomolecular free energy, biomolecular structures and dynamics, protein folding, stochastic processes, surface dynamics.
(Below follows an entry predating mine. The writer of the above is a physicist and hardly upset by the definition of biophysics given below. But many studying biophysics without backgrounds in the physical sciences may be offended by such.In truth, the definition below only describes part of what might be called biophysics.)
Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary science that applies theories and methods of the physical sciences to questions of biology. Many of the research traditions in biophysics were initiated by scientists who were doctoral level physicists, although many of the scientists who call themselves biophysicists today are not. Biophysicists work in the areas of physics, pharmacology, physiology, neuroscience, biochemistry and molecular biology.
Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide")
1 Topics in biophysics and related fields
2 Famous biophysicists
3 Other notable biophysicists
4 External links
Topics in biophysics and related fields
Famous biophysicists
Other notable biophysicists
External links
The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
Surviving the Extremes: A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance by Kenneth Kamler
The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life by Robert Becker
The Forensic Science of C.S.I by Katherine M. Ramsland
Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering (Applications of Mathematics, 53) by Paul Glasserman
Genes VIII by Benjamin Lewin
Biophysics : An Introduction by Rodney M. J. Cotterill
Random Walks in Biology by Howard C. Berg
The Physics of Consciousness: The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life by Evan Harris Walker
Biological Thermodynamics by Donald T. Haynie
Mechanics of Motor Proteins and the Cytoskeleton by Jonathon Howard
Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life by Philip Nelson
Biomechanics: Mechanical Properties of Living Tissues by Yuan-Cheng Fung
Life in Moving Fluids by Steven Vogel
Introduction to Biomedical Engineering by Michael M. Domach
Mathematical Biology II by J.D. Murray
Bibliographic Resources
Updates and comments at Essential Facts blog
Are you interested in Feng Shui?
Price Theory Resources
Fructose, Sucrose, Glucose Core Bibliography
World Class Photographers
Some philosophical movements
Top PDF and eBook Downloads
|