title: Ask not what physics can do for biology--ask what biology can do for physics.
abstract: Stan Ulam, the famous mathematician, said once to Hans Frauenfelder: 'Ask not what Physics can do for biology, ask what biology can do for physics'. The interaction between biologists and physicists is a two-way street. Biology reveals the secrets of complex systems, physics provides the physical tools and the theoretical concepts to understand the complexity. The perspective gives a personal view of the path to some of the physical concepts that are relevant for biology and physics (Frauenfelder et al 1999 Rev. Mod. Phys. 71 S419-S442). Schrödinger's book (Schrödinger 1944 What is Life? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)), loved by physicists and hated by eminent biologists (Dronamraju 1999 Genetics 153 1071-6), still shows how a great physicist looked at biology well before the first protein structure was known.
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Frauenfelder
mesh_terms: D001703:Biophysics / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins