Physics of Life

Course manual 2025/2026

Course content

This course offers an exploration of modern quantitative biology through the lens of physics. We will learn how core principles from statistical mechanics, non-linear dynamics, information theory, and condensed matter can be applied to explain fundamental biological phenomena.  We will also discus the opposite: how living systems pose a fundamental challenge to physics. We address the physics of living systems through four interconnected and fundamental concepts: information, dynamics, emergence & learning.  

Study materials

Literature

• Lecture notes, Select readings

Software

• Please come prepared with your own computational environment (Python, Matlab, etc) for numerical explorations

Objectives

• The student can describe and illustrate the core physical principles that are relevant to living systems.
• The student can apply relevant physical principles to quantitatively analyze the emergent behavior of diverse biological systems.
• The student can describe prominent examples of how physical principles play a role in the functional behavior of living systems.
• The student can communicate complex scientific ideas on the physics of life effectively and concisely.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Presentation/symposium
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis
• Self-study

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (TER-B):

• Each student is expected to participate actively in each component of the programme that he/she signed up for. A student that does not attend the first two seminars of a course, will be administratively removed from the seminar group. A request for reregistration for the seminars can be applied to the programme coordinator.
• If a student cannot attend an obligatory component of a programme's component due to circumstances beyond his control, he must report in writing to the relevant teacher as soon as possible. The teacher, if necessary after consulting the study adviser, may decide to issue the student a replacing assignment.
• It is not allowed to miss obligatory commponents of the programme if there is no case of circumstances beyond one's control.
• In case of participating qualitatively or quantitatively insufficiently, the examiner can expel a student from further participation in the programme's component or a part of that component. Conditions for sufficient participation are set down in advance in the course manual.

Assessment

For the project assignment you will work in a group and present your project findings, along with a Jupyter-style notebook towards the end of the course.  Project topics will be available at the end of the first week.

For the lecture and werkcollege discussion, there will be readings assigned every week, as well as exercises. You are expected to participate in the ongoing discussion generated by these assignments, and this will be assessed randomly throughout the course.

For the AI diary, each student will individually construct a detailed document describing how they have learned to collaborate with AI tools (e.g., for coding, brainstorming, understanding concepts) during the course. The diary should critically reflect on
the benefits, challenges, and even ethics of this collaboration.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Contact information

Coordinator

• Greg Stephens