How Can Physics Enhance Your Biochemistry Research in Health?

[Senrab]

Hi, I'm a sophomore in college right now, pursuing my B.S. in biochemistry. However, I'm taking calc-based physics II right now and I really love physics (plus I'm pretty good at it). I want to do research related to biochemistry and health for a career, and I would like to know what physics topics might be useful to learn for this.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Thermodynamics, no question.

 

[PieceOfPi]

Try biophysics; it looks pretty fun.

http://www.biophysics.org/

I'm not so sure if there are a lot of undergraduate biophysics courses, you can probably learn about topics that often arise in biophysics. I'm not a physicist, so I can't tell you what those topics are, but I would recommend you to Google search this field.

 

[czelaya]

There are several books on biophysics and physical biochemistry (the application of physical chemistry to biochemical systems). If you want to understand how physics can be applied to chemistry/biochemistry, a course in physical chemistry does this pretty well. Matter of fact, one of my professors is a theoretical chemist who specializes with models dealing with biochemical systems. He uses ab initio, molecular dynamics, density functional theory, charge density studies, and x-ray crystallography in understanding the underlying physical properties to biochemical systems.

There is so much overlap between physical chemistry, chemical physics, biophysics, and physical biochemistry that it's becoming harder to differentiate the fields apart.