All life-forms consume energy (ATP) on a molecular scale to actively regulate physical, chemical and mechanical processes over a large range of length and time scales. For example, on the nanometer scale, individual molecules within a cell display random diffusive motion but can exhibit emergent collective behavior on a mesoscopic scale. The spatial order on the mesoscopic scale, in turn, affects processes on the cellular and tissue level. In the Physics of Life we use concepts from fields, such as Statistical Mechanics and Soft Condensed Matter, to understand how inherently noisy processes develop spatiotemporal order and function. However, where these traditional physical theories have been developed for systems in thermodynamic equilibrium, processes in living organisms are out of equilibrium, raising the question to what extend these traditional theories apply.
In this talk I’ll tell how the Physics of Life became the physics of my life. I'll discuss how traditional physics can help to understand the living world around us and where these theories potentially break down. Furthermore, I’ll give a brief overview of my PhD project on self-organization in developing embryos and explain how this is a small building block to develop a unifying theory of life.
