PH 3710 - Intro to Biophysics

• Apply knowledge of basic sciences, including physics, mathematics, and biology
• Understand the impact of the biophysical techniques on the scientific issues in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context and recognize the need for a life-long learning approach towards new professional ideas
• Describe physics of heat energy, free energy, and internal energy and their relation to biological systems
• Understand the hierarchy of scales in a cell and learn the biological macromolecules
• Apply the physics of the random walk, Brownian motion, friction, and diffusion to biological systems and describe different types of transport across the membrane
• Describe and calculate the Reynolds number and utilize it to qualify the relative importance of friction and inertia
• Analyze the behavior and phenomena in biological systems based on energy and entropy arguments
• Describe osmotic pressure and the applications of Laplace law and physical aspects of surface tension
• Explain how living cells generate electricity, and describe the molecular machines in membranes, the ion pumping, and the rotary motors
• Understand Nerve impulses and describe ionic basis of resting membrane potential and actual potential
• Develop scientific writing and communication skills through term paper and class discussion

• Familiar with Kinetic Theory, 1st and 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, the ideal gas law, and the concept of entropy
• Familiar with different types of biomolecules, DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, etc. and understand the structures and functions of these biomolecules

• Cellular components and biological molecules: The physical aspects of cell function and structure, hierarchy, molecular components and molecular devices
• Diffusion and transport in cell. Random walks, friction, and diffusion Brownian motion, diffusion laws, diffusion equation, Fick’s Law and biological applications of diffusion
• The low Reynolds number world and biological applications
• Entropy, temperature, and free energy
• Microscopic view of entropic forces, osmotic pressure, and surface tension, ion cloud distributions, and charged surfaces
• Molecular machines in membranes. Electro osmotic effects, Donnan equilibrium, Ion pumping, rotary motors
• Nerve impulses, ion channels, action potential