Physics of Living Systems

Physics of Living Systems

eLife reviews research in which approaches from the physical sciences are used to provide insights into the properties of biological systems and processes. Learn more about what we review and sign up for the latest research.
Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Latest articles

    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Postural adaptations may contribute to the unique locomotor energetics seen in hopping kangaroos

    Lauren H Thornton, Taylor JM Dick ... Christofer J Clemente
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Valuable
    • Convincing
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Microbiomes Through the Looking Glass: Linking Species Interactions to Dysbiosis through a Disordered Lotka-Volterra Framework

    Jacopo Pasqualini, Amos Maritan ... Samir Suweis
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Important
    • Compelling
    1. Ecology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    The dominant–egalitarian transition in species-rich communities

    David A Kessler, Nadav M Shnerb
    A model of a species-rich neutral ecosystem, perturbed by environmental noise impacting each species differently, predicts that for large noise the community is dominated by a few species, while for weaker noise it is more egalitarian, with many significant species.
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    The Matthew effect and early-career setbacks in research funding—a replication study

    Vincent Traag, Emer Brady ... Carter Bloch
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    • Important
    • Convincing
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Fragmentation and aggregation of cyanobacterial colonies

    Yuri Z Sinzato, Robert Uittenbogaard ... Maziyar Jalaal
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Important
    • Solid
    1. Neuroscience
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    A Deep Learning Pipeline for Mapping in situ Network-level Neurovascular Coupling in Multi-photon Fluorescence Microscopy

    Matthew Rozak, James Mester ... Bojana Stefanovic
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v4
    Updated
    • Valuable
    • Solid
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Balancing stability and flexibility when reshaping archaeal membranes

    Miguel Amaral, Felix Frey ... Anđela Šarić
    Archaeal cells mix single-headed and double-headed lipids to construct resilient but flexible membranes to help them survive in extreme environments.
    1. Neuroscience
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    Advantageous and disadvantageous inequality aversion can be taught through learning of others’ preferences

    Shen Zhang, Oriel FeldmanHall ... A Ross Otto
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Important
    • Incomplete
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Non-equilibrium strategies enabling ligand specificity by signaling receptors

    Andrew Goetz, Jeremy Barrios ... Purushottam Dixit
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Valuable
    • Compelling
    1. Ecology
    2. Physics of Living Systems

    A tale of two birds: cognitive simplicity drives collective route improvements in homing pigeons

    Shoubhik Chandan Banerjee, Fritz A Francisco, Albert B Kao
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    • Important
    • Compelling
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Highlights

    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Flagella: A new kind of beat

    Kirsty Y Wan
    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Cancer: Cells under pressure

    Dhiraj Indana, Ovijit Chaudhuri
    1. Physics of Living Systems
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Modelling biomolecular condensates

    Furqan Dar, Rohit Pappu

Senior editors

  1. Felix Campelo
    Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
  2. Aleksandra Walczak
    Ecole Normale Superieure, France
  3. See more editors