Perspectives on theory at the interface of physics and biology

Abstract

Theoretical physics is the search for simple and universal mathematical descriptions of the natural world. In contrast, much of modern biology is an exploration of the complexity and diversity of life. For many, this contrast is prima facie evidence that theory, in the sense that physicists use the word, is impossible in a biological context. For others, this contrast serves to highlight a grand challenge. I'm an optimist, and believe (along with many colleagues) that the time is ripe for the emergence of a more unified theoretical physics of biological systems, building on successes in thinking about particular phenomena. In this essay I try to explain the reasons for my optimism, through a combination of historical and modern examples.

Based on a lecture at the 2014 conference on Theory in Biology, at the Simons Foundation

References in corpus (14)

• Novel type of phase transition in a system of self-driven particles
• Interaction Ruling Animal Collective Behaviour Depends on Topological rather than Metric Distance: Evidence from a Field Study
• Identification of direct residue contacts in protein-protein interaction by message passing
• Social interactions dominate speed control in driving natural flocks toward criticality
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• Collective behavior of place and non-place neurons in the hippocampal network
• The noisy edge of traveling waves
• Morphogenesis at criticality?
• Local equilibrium in bird flocks
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• Dynamical maximum entropy approach to flocking
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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Colloquium: Criticality and dynamical scaling in living systems
• On the role of theory and modeling in neuroscience
• Are theoretical results 'Results'?
• Gauging Fine-Tuning
• Multifractal cross-correlation effects in two-variable time series of complex network vertex observables
• Inferring couplings in networks across order-disorder phase transitions
• Modelling of processes in nerve fibres at the interface of physiology and mathematics
• Functionality of disorder in muscle mechanics
• Biases in Inverse Ising Estimates of Near-Critical Behaviour
• Propagating speed waves in flocks: a mathematical model