ESP Biography

Did you know that your body is made up of more than 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules? From zebra stripes to patterns on snakes to the spacing between the bones in your spine, biological systems have to control their organization by positioning individual molecular signals in this sea of molecules. With so many chemicals floating around, how do organisms control the position of individual types? In the first half of the class, we will learn how to use simple ideas from physics to mathematically describe the motion of individual molecules diffusing and reacting in a biological system. We will learn exactly it means for something to move around "randomly", and use this new understanding to derive the "Langevin Dynamics" approach to atomic simulation using only the simple fact that molecules react by colliding with each other. In the second half of the class, we will use our new physics knowledge to work as a class on a real question from biology. Example questions that will be chosen from are: How can an embryo create the pattern of signals needed to form its spinal column during development? How can the tiny bacterial cells all around us move the two copies of their DNA into each new cell when they split in two, even without anything to pull two copies of the DNA apart? Students will have a chance to see what it feels like to do work on the cutting edge of these fields. There will also be cool videos of each system to help the class decide what to work on.

Did you know that your body is made up of more than 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules? From zebra stripes to patterns on snakes to the spacing between the bones in your spine, biological systems have to control their organization by positioning individual molecular signals in this sea of molecules. With so many chemicals floating around, how do organisms control the position of individual types? In the first half of the class, we will learn how to use simple ideas from physics to mathematically describe the motion of individual molecules diffusing and reacting in a biological system. We will learn exactly it means for something to move around "randomly", and use this new understanding to derive the "Langevin Dynamics" approach to atomic simulation using only the simple fact that molecules react by colliding with each other. In the second half of the class, we will use our new physics knowledge to work as a class on a real question from biology. Example questions that will be chosen from are: How can an embryo create the pattern of signals needed to form its spinal column during development? How can the tiny bacterial cells all around us move the two copies of their DNA into each new cell when they split in two, even without anything to pull two copies of the DNA apart? Students will have a chance to see what it feels like to do work on the cutting edge of these fields. There will also be cool videos of each system to help the class decide what to work on.

Did you know that your body is made up of more than 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules? From zebra stripes, to patterns on snakes, to the spacing between the bones in your spine, biological systems have to control their organization by positioning individual molecular signals in this sea of molecules. With so many chemicals floating around, how do organisms control the position of individual molecules? In this class, we will go over various examples of cells use their genes to create the beautiful and intricate patterns that allow life to exist, even when each individual molecule inside you seems to move completely randomly. There will be cool videos.

Did you know that your body is made up of more than 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules? From zebra stripes to patterns on snakes to the spacing between the bones in your spine, biological systems have to control their organization by positioning individual molecular signals in this sea of molecules. With so many chemicals floating around, how do organisms control the position of individual types? In the first half of the class, we will learn how to use simple ideas from physics to mathematically describe the motion of individual molecules diffusing and reacting in a biological system. We will learn exactly it means for something to move around "randomly", and use this new understanding to derive the "Langevin Dynamics" approach to atomic simulation using only the simple fact that molecules react by colliding with each other. In the second half of the class, we will use our new physics knowledge to work as a class on a real question from biology. Example questions that will be chosen from are: How can an embryo create the pattern of signals needed to form its spinal column during development? How can the tiny bacterial cells all around us move the two copies of their DNA into each new cell when they split in two, even without anything to pull two copies of the DNA apart? Students will have a chance to see what it feels like to do work on the cutting edge of these fields. There will also be cool videos of each system to help the class decide what to work on.