Front Cover -- Physics of Life: The Physicist's Road to Biology -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Part I: General introduction -- Chapter 1. Introduction: the aim and the scope of the book -- Chapter 2. The physics of life: physics at several levels -- Part II: The physics basis -- Chapter 3. Concepts and numerical reference -- 3A Numerical values -- Chapter 4. Basics of classical (Newtonian) dynamics -- Chapter 5. Electricity: the core of reductionism basis -- 5A General electrostatics -- 5B Formalism of electrostatics* -- 5C Magnetism -- 5D Relations between electric and magnetic fields: Maxwell's equations* -- 5E Radiation -- Chapter 6. Quantum mechanics -- 6A The thermodynamic path to quantum mechanics -- 6B Basic principles of quantum mechanics -- 6C The hydrogen atom* -- 6D The strange features of quantum mechanics -- Chapter 7. Basic thermodynamics: introduction -- 7A Thermodynamic concepts -- 7B Energy and entropy -- 7C The second law of thermodynamics -- 7D Free energies and chemical potential -- Chapter 8. Statistical thermodynamics -- 8A Basic assumption and statistical entropy -- 8B Energy distribution* -- 8C More on micro- and macrostates -- Part III: The general trends and objects -- Chapter 9. Some trends in 20th century physics -- Chapter 10. From the simple equilibrium to the complex -- Chapter 11. Theoretical physics models: important analogies -- Chapter 12. The biological molecules -- 12A General properties of proteins and amino acids -- 12B Sugars -- 12C Nucleic acids -- 12D The genetic code -- 12E Energy-storing substances -- 12F Lipids: membranes -- Chapter 13. What is life? -- Part IV: Going further with thermodynamics -- Chapter 14. Thermodynamics formalism and examples: Combinatorial expressions and Stirling's formula -- 14A General formalism: energy concepts -- 14B Mixing entropy -- 14C Water: solubility.

14D Formalism of mixing and solutions* -- 14E Chemical thermodynamics* -- 14F Non-equilibrium thermodynamics* -- Chapter 15. Examples of entropy and order/disorder -- 15A Shuffling cards -- 15B The monkey library and DNA -- 15C Order and disorder -- 15D The relation to the second law -- Chapter 16. Statistical thermodynamics models -- 16A Magnetic analogies and molecule conformations -- 16B Ising-type models of 1D systems* -- 16C Renormalisation methods* -- 16D Spin glass -- Part V: Stochastic dynamics -- Chapter 17. Probability concepts -- 17A Examples -- 17B Normal distribution: approximation of binomial distribution -- Chapter 18. Stochastic processes -- 18A Introduction: general account -- 18B Terminology and formal basis -- 18C Ergodicity in biology -- Chapter 19. Random walk* -- 19A Formalism -- 19B Absorbing and reflecting boundaries -- 19C First passage time -- 19D Non-intersecting random walk -- Chapter 20. Step processes: master equations* -- 20A Poisson process -- 20B Processes with a small number of states and constant transition probabilities -- 20C Formalism: matrix method -- 20D A process with constant average and extinction possibility -- 20E Birth-death process with extinction -- 20F Reaction kinetics as step processes -- 20G Diffusion-controlled reaction as step process -- 20H Barrier passage as step process -- 201 When an average picture goes wrong: mutations and exponential growth -- Chapter 21. Brownian motion: first description* -- 21A Introduction -- 21B Formalism -- 21C Brownian motion in linear force fields: fluctuation-dissipation theorem -- Chapter 22. Diffusion and continuous stochastic processes* -- 22A Diffusion -- 22B Diffusion-controlled reactions -- 22C Gaussian processes -- 22D Fokker-Planck equations -- 22E Examples: comparisons between master equations and Fokker-Planck equations.

Chapter 23. Brownian motion and continuation* -- 23A Fokker-Planck equations for Brownian motion -- 23B Brownian motion in potentials -- 23C Brownian motion description of the passage over a potential barrier -- 23D Low-friction situation -- 23E Brownian motion description of stochastic resonance -- Part VI: Macromolecular applications -- Chapter 24. Protein folding and structure dynamics -- 24A General discussion -- 24B Protein folding as stochastic process -- 24C Stretched kinetics* -- Chapter 25. Enzyme kinetics -- 25A Enzyme actions: organisation -- 25B Formalism: basic enzyme kinetics -- 25C Allosteric action* -- Part VII: Non-linearity -- Chapter 26. What does non-linearity do? -- 26A Non-linearity in cells: oscillations, pulses and waves -- Chapter 27. Oscillations and space variation* -- 27A Electric circuit -- 27B Chemical oscillating systems -- 27C Neural signal generation -- 27D Diffusion-reaction equations and spatial structures -- 27E Non-linear waves -- Chapter 28. Deterministic chaos -- 28A General features of irregular sequences -- 28B Chaotic differential equations* -- 28C Characteristics of chaos* -- 28D Unstable orbits: control of chaos* -- Chapter 29. Noise and non-linear phenomena -- 29A General remarks -- 29B Stochastic resonance -- 29C Non-linear stochastic equations -- Part VIII: Applications -- Chapter 30. Recognition and selection in biological synthesis -- 30A Introduction: recognition -- 30B Selection in nucleic acid synthesis -- 30C Selection in protein synthesis -- 30D Formalism in non-branched processes without proofreading* -- 30E Formalism of proofreading kinetics* -- 30F Further features of selection: error propagation -- Chapter 31. Brownian ratchet: unidirectional processes -- Chapter 32. The neural system -- 32A General discussion -- 32B Spin-glass analogy -- 32C More on network features.

32D Noise in the neural system -- Chapter 33. Origin of life -- 33A Ideas about early molecular evolution -- 33B Thoughts on stability of co-operative systems -- 33C The dynamics of replicating objects in the origin of life* -- 33D Errors and mutations* -- 33E Autocatalytic growth: hypercycles* -- Part IX: Going further -- Chapter 34. Physics aspects of evolution -- Chapter 35. Determinism and randomness -- 35A General discussion -- 35B Game of life -- 35C Laplace's formula -- 35D Macroscopic world -- 35E Final words -- Chapter 36. Higher functions of life -- 36A Thinking, memory and the mind -- 36B The free will and determinism -- Chapter 37. About the direction of time -- Chapter 38. We live in the best of worlds: the anthropic principle -- References -- Index.