What makes one microscope better than another? A few weeks ago I co-ran a week-long Physics and Human Physiology day camp for high school students, part of the University of Oregon’s “SAIL” program that especially targets low-income students. I’ve written about SAIL before (2019, 2017, 2014) — this was our 14th Physics + Human Physiology … Continue reading A Few Flavors of Microscopes — SAIL recap, 2023
Biophysics is full of deep puzzles that are surprisingly simple to state. Imagine a pill shaped bacterium. (Your body is home to trillions.) It grows and then cleaves itself into two equally sized progeny. How does it know where its middle is? For us, looking at the bacterium, finding the middle is an easy task. … Continue reading How does a bacterium find its center? — What is biophysics? #15
The last seven books I read were all published in 1965. I decided on this literary time travel after noticing that I unintentionally read two books in a row from 1965. I thought: Why not continue? Would I get a deep sense of the mid-1960s zeitgeist? I don’t think so, but I did find two … Continue reading Reading Like It’s 1965
Suppose someone told you that they were deeply concerned about environmental issues, the consequences of fossil fuel use in particular, and that they would therefore take concrete action to reduce their energy footprint. The action: driving one mile per hour more slowly than usual — 54 rather than 55 mph. You would probably be unimpressed. … Continue reading If you care about the environment, and you don’t care about numbers, do you care about the environment?
I’ve taught several times a graduate course on biophysics, the first instance of which I blogged about here. I love teaching this class, and students seem fond of it as well. I’m teaching it again next Fall (2023) but with a twist: it will now be a combined undergraduate / graduate course. The motivations are … Continue reading Introduction to Biological Physics — an old and new course
How many books are published each year? I’ll provide some numbers that were a surprise to me when I learned them a few years ago. First, some context. At the American Physical Society “March Meeting” two months ago, I was part of a workshop on Communicating Biological Physics. Four of us gave presentations and led … Continue reading Book inflation
This post couldn’t have been written a year ago, and one year from now it may seem quaint and archaic. Still, I’ll write it to serve as a record. As noted in the last post, I taught The Physics of Energy and the Environment this past term, a course for non-science major undergraduates at the … Continue reading ChatGPT takes my Energy and the Environment final exam
The quote in the title is from Woody Allen, and you’ll see below why it’s appropriate for this course recap. This past term I again taught “Physics of Energy and the Environment,” a class for non-science-major undergraduates at the University of Oregon. I enjoy teaching this topic and in some ways this round was better … Continue reading “Eighty percent of success is showing up” — Physics of Energy and the Environment, Winter 2023
Since I was a child I’ve wondered why an hour feels like an hour and not a second or a year, and, relatedly, what sets the speed of our thoughts. Like every aspect of life, the answer is governed by the physical phenomena that underlie biological processes. In the case of signals traveling through our … Continue reading What sets the speed of thought? — What is biophysics? #14
Which college majors have exploded in popularity over the past decade and which have shrunk? Over the past two posts (#1, #2) I’ve discussed my analyses of the number of degrees awarded in various fields at US “R1” universities (“very high research activity”) between 2011 and 2021. I’ve wondered how I could convey the overall … Continue reading College Major Trends: The Movie
The Eighteenth Elephant 