Why biophysics works for me Five scientists talk to Jon
Cartwright about why they are drawn to problems on the border
between biology and physics. People go into biophysics for a
variety of motivations, but if one reason stands out, it is
this: it focuses on phenomena that are familiar to all of us.
While some topics in physics can seem esoteric and far removed
from everyday life, biophysics can be more personal. How does a
cell work, for example, or what is the molecular basis of AIDS?
These are questions to which everyone can relate. Yet perhaps
biophysics is also attractive to scientists because it is fairly
new, and draws from many other disciplines. You might have
trained as a nuclear physicist, a computer programmer or a
physical chemist and still have much to offer. Here, five
scientists with interests in biophysics – all with very
different backgrounds – reveal what they enjoy about their
subject. Associate professor at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, US Deborah Fygenson studied atomic ph