Physics of Biomaterials: Fluctuations, Selfassembly and Evolution

Recent years have seen a growing interest in and activity at the interface between physics and biology, with the realization that both subjects have a great deal to learn from and to teach to one another. A particularly promising aspect of this interface concerns the area of cooperative phenomena and phase transitions. The present book addresses both the structure and motion of biological materials and the increasingly complex behaviour that arises out of interactions in large systems, giving rise to self organization, adaptation, selection and evolution: concepts of interest not only to biology and living systems but also within condensed matter physics.
The approach adopted by Physics of Biomaterials: Fluctuations, Self Assembly and Evolution is tutorial, but the book is fully up to date with the latest research. Written at a level appropriate to graduate researchers, preferably with a background either in condensed matter physics or theoretical or physically-oriented experimental biology.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Geilo, Norway, March 27-April 6, 1995

to the physics of biomaterials: The role of membranes.- What does neutron spectroscopy tell on the dynamics of amphiphilic layers?.- Physical aspects of adhesion of leukocytes.- Membrane-associated-proteins: Self-assembly, interactions, and biomolecular materials.- Collective phenomena in mitosis: A physicist's perspective.- Mechanical forces in the biological world.- A biosensor that monitors mammalian cells with electrical fields.- Knots and applications to biology, chemistry and physics.- Statistical and linguistic features of DNA sequences.- The basics of protein folding physics.- Evolutionary mechanisms involved in the formation of tandem repetitive non-coding DNA.- Molecular evolutionary biology.- Fitness landscapes and evolution.- Statistical physics of neural networks.- The evolution of complexity in metazoans.- Extremal dynamics and punctuated equilibrium in co-evolution.