title: The physics of life: one molecule at a time.
abstract: The esteemed physicist Erwin Schrödinger, whose name is associated with the most notorious equation of quantum mechanics, also wrote a brief essay entitled 'What is Life?', asking: 'How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?' The 60+ years following this seminal work have seen enormous developments in our understanding of biology on the molecular scale, with physics playing a key role in solving many central problems through the development and application of new physical science techniques, biophysical analysis and rigorous intellectual insight. The early days of single-molecule biophysics research was centred around molecular motors and biopolymers, largely divorced from a real physiological context. The new generation of single-molecule bioscience investigations has much greater scope, involving robust methods for understanding molecular-level details of the most fundamental biological processes in far more realistic, and technically challenging, physiological contexts, emerging into a new field of 'single-molecule cellular biophysics'. Here, I outline how this new field has evolved, discuss the key active areas of current research and speculate on where this may all lead in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK. m.leake1@physics.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Leake
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D003585:Cell Biology; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology; D002477:Cells / Q000737:chemistry*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D036103:Nanotechnology; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000379:methods; D006180:Proton-Translocating ATPases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D006180:Proton-Translocating ATPases