Physical principles and methods in biology

Abstract

The sometimes spectacular advances made recently in biological research could not have occurred if it was not recognized that the behavior of life structures is based on physical and physicochemical principles. A good understanding of these principles is very important in biology. The interconnections between physics and biology indeed are the subject and the justification of biophysics. In this chapter we will discuss the physical and physicochemical principles as they apply to biology and also the physical techniques which have shown to be so useful in biological research. The great successes that came about by the application of these techniques reflect the fact that the composition and the behavior of biological structures are determined by these physical and physicochemical principles.