Physics

GENERAL OBJECTIVES: The main objective of the course in Theoretical Biophysics is to show how statistical physics has a crucial role for a quantitative understanding of many biological phenomena. To this aim, the course focuses on two very general aspects present in a variety of biological processes: the role of noise and the signal to noise ratio; the emergence of collective phenomena. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: A - Knowledge and understanding OF 1) To acquire some fundamental background in statistical physics, related in particular to elementary stochastic processes, critical phenomena and statistical inference OF 2) To learn the phenomenology of several important biological processes such as chemotaxis and chemoreception, photoreception, proteins, neural networks, living active matter and collective motion. OF 3) to acquire modeling techniques B - Application skills OF 4) To be able to apply theoretical concepts and models to the quantitative description of the phenomenology experimentally characterized. To build models starting from the data. C - Autonomy of judgment OF 5) To be able to modify approaches derived from statistical physics to study specific phenomena occurring in biological systems. D - Communication skills E - Ability to learn OF 6) Have the ability to consult and study scientific texts and literature of both theoretical and experimental character in a highly interdisciplinary context.