Biophysics
The study of biological phenomena is the focus of the multidisciplinary field of biophysics, which borrows concepts and strategies from physics in order to conduct its investigations. The scope of biophysics extends from the molecular to the organismic and even to the population level of biological organisation. The fields of biochemistry, molecular biology, physical chemistry, physiology, nanotechnology, bioengineering, computational biology, biomechanics, developmental biology, and systems biology all have substantial overlap with biophysical study.
Karl Pearson is credited as being the first person to use the word "biophysics" in 1892. The study of the physical quantities (such as electric current, temperature, stress, and entropy) that are present in biological systems is what is referred to as biophysics in the academic world on a regular basis. Research on the biophysical aspects of living creatures is also conducted in the fields of molecular biology, cell biology, chemical biology, and biochemistry, amongst other areas of the biological sciences.
In most cases, molecular biophysics investigates biological concerns that are comparable to those studied in biochemistry and molecular biology. Its goal is to discover the physical foundations that lie behind biomolecular occurrences. Researchers who work in this area are interested in figuring out how different cellular processes, such as the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and proteins, interact with one another and how these processes are controlled. Specifically, their studies focus on how DNA, RNA, and protein biosynthesis communicate with one another. In order to provide answers to these issues, a wide range of methods are used.
In addition to traditional (i.e. molecular and cellular) biophysical topics like structural biology or enzyme kinetics, modern biophysics encompasses an extraordinarily broad range of research, ranging from bioelectronics to quantum biology, utilising both experimental and theoretical tools. This includes structural biology and enzyme kinetics, for example. It is becoming more standard practise for biophysicists to use the models and experimental methodologies gained from physics, in addition to mathematics and statistics, to bigger systems such as tissues, organs, populations, and ecosystems. The study of electrical conduction in single neurons, as well as the analysis of neural circuits in tissue and the entire brain, makes considerable use of biophysical models.
The Berlin school of physiologists was responsible for carrying out a number of the first investigations in the field of biophysics. These studies were carried out in the 1840s. Among its members were pioneers like as Hermann von Helmholtz, Ernst Heinrich Weber, Carl F. W. Ludwig, and Johannes Peter Müller. Even farther, one may argue that the field of biophysics can be traced back to the work of Luigi Galvani.
The publication of Erwin Schrodinger's book titled "What Is Life?" led to an increase in the number of people interested in the subject. Since 1957, participants in the field of biophysics have been organising themselves into what is now known as the Biophysical Society, which has around 9,000 members spread throughout the globe.
The discipline of biophysics has come under fire from a number of writers, including Robert Rosen, who argue that the biophysical technique fails to take into consideration the peculiarities of biological processes.