Office Hours Prof. Miller Tuesday 1:30-3:30, NO OFFICE HOURS TUESDAY MARCH 2, TA M. Steuck, msteuck@u
NO office hours during the week of Feb 14-19.
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 building models to handle biological systems in a quantitative manner.
A brief description of the course content is presented here
A more detailed description of the course content, as well as a discussion of grading procedures (and the first HW problem (due the third day of the quarter) is presented here
The powerpoint part of the first lecture (some is a blackboard presentation only) is here
The first homework set is here: First home work .
The second homework set is here: Second home work .
Material for the lecture of Friday Jan 15 is here
The third homework set is here: Third home work .
The fourth homework set is here: Fourth home work .
The fifth homework set is here: Fifth home work due Feb 17. .
The sixth homework set is here: Sixth home work due Feb 24. .
NO OFFICE HOURS TUESDAY MARCH 2
The seventh homework set is here: Seventh home work due March 3. .
NO OFFICE HOURS TUESDAY MARCH 9
The eighth homework set is here: Eighth home work due March 10. .