The Physics Department's first-year and intermediate seminars provide potential physics majors and other students with an early opportunity to acquaint themselves with cutting edge topics in physics.  The topics vary.  This year's focus, made possible in part by grants from HHMI, is on biological physics.

First-year students study the physics of electrophoresis.  They use video cameras to determine the motion curves and terminal speeds of protein molecules in an electrophoretic gel.

In these courses, students learn about the role of physical principles in the world of biology.  We aim to understand the elaborate machinery of a living cell and other amazing biological systems in terms of structure, forces, energy, and system design. We discuss topics in current research on protein folding and nucleotide conformations, biopolymers, biomembranes, membrane transport processes, diffusion of molecules in liquids, chemical forces and self-assembly, propagation of nerve impulses and briefly survey topics in nanotechnology and soft materials. The emphasis is on formulating elementary concepts of probability theory, entropy, random walks, fluid dynamics and Boltzmann statistics and applying these physical concepts to biological systems.

Students fill cellulose membranes with sugar solution to study osmotic flows and the membranes' permeability coefficient.

The courses are a combination of lectures, discussion of assigned readings, small group problem-solving sessions, demonstrations, and experimental work with biophysical techniques, such as optical tweezing, electrophysiology, atomic force microscopy, electrophoresis, chromatography, spectrophotometry, dynamic light scattering, x-ray crystallography, and proteomics. The courses provide an excellent foundation for further work in physics laboratories throughout the curriculum, including experience in estimating experimental uncertainties, analyzing and graphing numerical data sets, and preparing clear, complete reports of experimental results.

Primary text for both, the first-year and intermediate seminars, by Paul Nelson.