Biophysics Week

What is ‘Biophysics’?

It’s ‘Biology’ – the study of living things – and ‘Physics’ – the study of matter and energy and their interactions – joined equally in the discipline of Biophysics.

How Old is Biophysics?

· The word ‘biophysics’ was first used in 1892, according to the Time-Traveler dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biophysics .

· Other new words in 1892 go from ‘achlorhydria’ – ‘the absence of Hydrochloric Acid from the gastric juice’ – to ‘workweek’!

· New scientific words were ‘Angstrom, biotic, cardiorespiratory, ribose, scopolamine and triceratops, along with the non-scientific words ‘basketball’, ‘chardonnay’, and ‘unionization’.

· The ~337 new words in 1892 included some multiple words, such as ‘petri dish’, ‘nucleic acid’, ‘coefficient of correlation’, and ‘war bride’.

There are those who insist upon calling their discipline “Biological Physics,” to make it clear that this is PHYSICS and not some equal joining of the 2 disciplines. I’m glad the Biophysical Society is named for the equal joining of Biology and Physics.