A Physicist’s Approach to Biology Brings Ecological Insights

There is an entire field of study known as biophysics which is basically this. My PhD program in biophysics is typically about 50% physics majors, 50% bio majors. Makes for interesting discussions and journal clubs. The physics folks always have a hard time picking up the biology, and vice versa, but it's a very effective way to study biology.

One of my favorite anecdotes, heard straight from the scientist himself: "You remember that scene in The Right Stuff where one of the astronauts sees funny scintillations when he's in space? I wanted to understand more about cosmic rays, so I did some calculations, came up with some filters that ensured only a (statistical) single particle would make it from the linear accelerator to the test subject, and then sat down in the beam to see what it would look like."

I thought he was bullshitting and then I found https://www.nature.com/articles/239209a0

i'm just going to leave this here: http://www.whatislife.ie/downloads/What-is-Life.pdf

For some basic introduction to some of this work check out Strogatz nonlinear dynamics book, highly recommend.

Super cool article!

Off topic, but of course I can't help but be reminded of this: https://xkcd.com/793/