The final exam is 430-620 Wed. June 11. Key topics will be diffusion, nerve physics, chemical reactions, statistical mechanics. Understanding the previous homework sets and exams is a good way to begin to prepare. Bring a calculator. I will be willing to answer questions if you find me in the office. The explanation of grading is presented here
Biological Physics is one of the areas of physics which is currently undergoing significant growth. This is due to many factors: the rise of molecular biology, to which many physicists contributed, and which brought the scale of the subject down to those with which physicists have traditionally worked; the enormous amount of data which is becoming available from the human genome project, and similar ones in proteomics, on the scale with which physicists have dealt successfully in other areas, and the vision which Molecular Biology extends to combat previously unassailable diseases, a vision which the people of the United States, as reflected in their Congress, are willing to generously support.
Biological physics has been recognized at the national level as priority in undergraduate education: The National Research Council prepared a report entitled ``BIO 2010- TRANSFORMING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH BIOLOGISTS", available online at http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309085357. We quote from the Executive Summary: ``The interplay of the recombinant DNA, instrumentation, and digital revolutions has profoundly transformed biological research. The confluence of these three innovations has led to important discoveries, such as the mapping of the human genome. How biologists design, perform, and analyze experiments is changing swiftly. Biological concepts and models are becoming more quantitative, and biological research has become critically dependent on concepts and methods drawn from other scientific disciplines. The connections between the biological sciences and the physical sciences, mathematics, and computer science are rapidly becoming deeper and more extensive.... undergraduate education must be transformed to prepare students effectively for the biology that lies ahead. Life sciences majors must acquire a much stronger foundation in the physical sciences (chemistry and physics) and mathematics than they now get. Connections between biology and the other scientific disciplines need to be developed and reinforced so that interdisciplinary thinking and work become second nature."
This course aims to help students apply their physics knowledge to problems of biological and medical importance.
The course information is presented here