title: Far from equilibrium percolation, stochastic and shape resonances in the physics of life.
abstract: Key physical concepts, relevant for the cross-fertilization between condensed matter physics and the physics of life seen as a collective phenomenon in a system out-of-equilibrium, are discussed. The onset of life can be driven by: (a) the critical fluctuations at the protonic percolation threshold in membrane transport; (b) the stochastic resonance in biological systems, a mechanism that can exploit external and self-generated noise in order to gain efficiency in signal processing; and (c) the shape resonance (or Fano resonance or Feshbach resonance) in the association and dissociation processes of bio-molecules (a quantum mechanism that could play a key role to establish a macroscopic quantum coherence in the cell).
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, P. le A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy; E-Mails:  nicola.poccia@roma1.infn.it.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poccia
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ansuini
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bianconi
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013816:Thermodynamics
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