Ever wondered what entropy actually was? How about temperature? In this class, we explore the microscopic origins of these very important concepts that are ubiquitous in everyday life and across the sciences. We will see that these concepts naturally arise when studying large systems in a statistical way (i.e. statistical mechanics) and thus that they are rigorously defined in a microscopic way. We will then apply these concepts to study complex biological systems, such as proteins. For proteins to function, they must acquire specific structures in the crowded, chaotic cellular environment. Using statistical mechanics, we can understand what causes proteins to become structured, or "fold" correctly, and under what conditions folding is disrupted, potentially leading to diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer.

In this course, we will learn about the physical principles that explain how life works. As an analogy, the infrastructure in a city-buildings, bridges, roads, etc-is stably held together by forces including tension and support forces. In much the same way, the "structures" and "machines" in our cells (often made up of proteins) adopt their structures and perform their life-sustaining tasks as a result of forces between atoms. But while physics enables the engineering of a city, it also sets constrains on what's possible-for instance, a bridge carrying too heavy of a load will collapse. As we will see, life is similarly constrained by physics, and when living things do not abide by these constraints, diseases such as cancer result. This course will introduce the basic physics governing diverse and crucial biological processes -including evolution, protein folding/assembly, molecular machines, and genetic regulatory networks -and how "catastrophic failure" of these processes leads to disease. Regular interactive activities and computer simulations will ensure that students attain a physical intuition of how and why biology works, rather than simply memorizing facts.

In this course, we will learn about the physical principles that explain how life works. As an analogy, the infrastructure in a city-buildings, bridges, roads, etc-is stably held together by forces including tension and support forces. In much the same way, the "structures" and "machines" in our cells (often made up of proteins) adopt their structures and perform their life-sustaining tasks as a result of forces between atoms. But while physics enables the engineering of a city, it also sets constrains on what's possible-for instance, a bridge carrying too heavy of a load will collapse. As we will see, life is similarly constrained by physics, and when living things do not abide by these constraints, diseases such as cancer result. This course will introduce the basic physics governing diverse and crucial biological processes -including evolution, protein folding/assembly, molecular machines, and genetic regulatory networks -and how "catastrophic failure" of these processes leads to disease. Regular interactive activities will ensure that students attain a physical intuition of how and why biology works, rather than simply memorizing facts.

Living organisms are able to achieve various amazing feats, such as growing, problem-solving, and adapting to their environment. Yet, these diverse and complex biological phenomena are ultimately driven by a few central laws of physics. In this course, we will explore three central topics in biology—electrical signaling in neurons, folding of proteins into their functional structure, and evolution—and discover how these emerge from simple physical principles. The course will give students a feel for intuitive, physical modeling of biological problems (with minimal mathematics), while introducing them to key experiments that provided support for existing biophysical models. No experience in biology or physics is expected, the only prerequisite is curiosity!