Leticia F. Cugliandolo

Christine Ziegler

François Parcy

Eva Pebay-Peyroula

Hugues Nury

Rob W. H. Ruigrok

The book gathers lecture notes of courses given at the 2014 summer school on integrated biology in Les Houches, France, Session CII. It addresses an emerging field ranging from molecules to cells and to organisms. Through examples it presents a new way of thinking using a combination of interdisciplinary and cutting-edge methods, bridging physics and biology beyond current biophysics. Important novel developments are expected in the coming years that may well introduce paradigm shifts in biological science. The school had the ambition to prepare participants to become major actors in these breakthroughs. The power of integrated approaches is illustrated through two cases: interactions between viruses and host cells, and flower development. The role of forces in biology, as well as their mathematical modeling, is illustrated in both processes: how they allow flower organs to emerge or how they control membrane fusion during virus budding. The book also underlines the importance of conformational changes and dynamics of proteins particularly during membrane processes. It explains how membrane proteins can be handled and studied by molecular simulations. Finally, the book also contains concepts in cell biology, in thermodynamics and several novel approaches such as in-cell NMR. Altogether, the chapters show how examining a biological system from different viewpoints based on multidisciplinary aspects often leads to enriching controversial arguments.

Lecture Notes of the Les Houches School of Physics: Volume 102, July 2014

From Molecules to Living Organisms: An Interplay Between Biology and Physics

The aim of this title is to familiarise the new generation of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows with the principles and methods of modern lattice field theory, which aims to resolve fundamental, non-perturbative questions about QCD without uncontrolled approximations.

From Molecules to Living Organisms: an Interplay Between Biology and Physics

Un monde sans fleurs ? Inimaginable. Les plantes à fleur peuplent notre univers, elles nous nourrissent, nous émerveillent, nous aident à séduire... Pourtant, elles n'ont pas toujours existé ! Elles sont apparues il y a " seulement " 150 millions d'années, mais elles ont rapidement colonisé la planète. Il en existe aujourd'hui près de 400 000 espèces différentes. Ce succès évolutif aussi brutal que fulgurant fut qualifié " d'abominable mystère " par Charles Darwin lui-même, le père de la théorie de l'évolution. L'enquête scientifique dure depuis 200 ans mais la science a récemment accompli des progrès fantastiques. Le " mystère de Darwin " n'est plus aussi abominable : nous savons désormais un peu mieux comment la nature est entrée dans l'âge de la fleur. Dans un récit vivant et accessible, François Parcy dévoile des créatures bien moins sages qu'il n'y parait : les fleurs se révèlent intelligentes, manipulatrices et parfois sexuellement débridées ! Un monde étrange et captivant illustré par des dessins naturalistes inédits et par les portraits des chercheurs qui ont accompli les plus grandes avancées.

François Parcy

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