A little physics in your bio

Discussion: Prediction vs. reality

Ponderable, coin flips: prediction and measurement.

Discussion: Sample populations, RMS deviations and standard deviations, and central limit theorem (law of large numbers)

There is a nice simulation of these ideas, in terms of dice rolling. Try this by varying the number of die and the number of rolls. Note that you can reset the applet by changing the number of die, and if you select 5 rolls, each consecutive roll rolls 5 more times. Thus, you can see the distribution build up.

Discussion: measurements and sample populations to random walk

Discussion and lab: Video microscopy, calibration, and observation of brownian motion

Discussion and lab: Video microscopy, calibration, and observation of protists

Lab: Conversion and importing videos to imageJ

Lab: Analyze videos with imageJ

Discussion: kinematics and forces

Tangible, kinematics of cellular motion: prediction and measurement.

Tangible, kinematics of motion: laser trap.

Additional resources and readings

• Intro Reading on stats
• Reading on combinatorics.
• Random Walk, Berg, Random Walks in Biology.
• Random Walk, Nelson, Biological Physics.

This material was prepared for the NSF REU Site: Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics and Biomaterials