Two puzzles in the statistical physics of life (and a small step towards studying one of them)

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• Wilson Poon (School of Physics & Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh)
• Tuesday 07 May 2024, 13:00-14:00
• Center for Mathematical Sciences, Lecture room MR4.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Sarah Loos.

While I was participating in the “New Statistical Physics of Life’ programme at the INI last year, I thought a lot about two puzzles in the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of living systems. In this seminar, my main purpose is to present these puzzles and explain why I think they are worthwhile challenges for statistical mechanicians. The first puzzle is about exactly how non-equilibrium a system has to be in order for it to be alive. The second puzzle is why biology ubiquitously couples dissipative self disassembly to (often near-equilibrium) self assembly. For the second puzzle, I’ll present some preliminary results from a collaborative study with EPFL colleagues using a very simple model system.

This talk is part of the DAMTP Statistical Physics and Soft Matter Seminar series.

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• All CMS events
• Center for Mathematical Sciences, Lecture room MR4
• DAMTP Statistical Physics and Soft Matter Seminar
• Soft Matter
• bld31

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