Course content
This course will give you an understanding of how properties of biological systems are determined by basic physical laws, and an introduction to physical models for molecular and cellular processes.
After completing this course:
- you will be familiar with a number of processes both on a cellular and organism level where physics increases insight. Examples could be diffusion and active transport, entropic forces and cooperative transitions, excitable cells and how cells move.
- you will be able to do calculation on physical models for molecular and cellular processes.
- you will be able to peruse and obtain knowledge from textbooks on biological physics and science articles.
- you will be able to explain connections between physics, chemistry and biology in the natural Sciences.
Teaching
4-6 hours of organized teaching per week through the semester.
The teaching will be a mixture of lectures, colloquias, problem solving, teamwork, small and large projects and laboratory exercises.
All compulsory tasks must be completed and approved to be eligible for exam.
There will be 4-6 compulsory projects consisting of laboratory and numerical problems.
The course may (in case of few students) alternatively be offered as a self-study with limited guidance, that is, no ordinary lectures.
Active participation in all of the compulsory tasks (including writing a lab journal and/or oral presentation where required) must be completed and approved to be eligible for the oral exam.
Textbook
"Biological Physics - Energy, Information, Life", by Philip Nelson, W.H. Freeman and company