Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Combining Fluidic Devices with Microscopy and Flow Cytometry to Study Microbial Transport in Porous Media Across Spatial Scales
Published on: November 25, 2020
Deriving principles of microbiology by multiscaling laws of molecular physics
Peter Ortoleva1, P Adhangale, S Cheluvaraja
1Center for Cell and Virus Theory, Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, 47405, USA. ortoleva@indiana.edu
Abstract:
It has long been an objective of the physical sciences to derive principles of biology from the laws of physics. At the angstrom scale for processes evolving on timescales of 10(-14) s, many systems can be characterized in terms of atomic vibrations and collisions. In contrast, biological systems display dramatic transformations including self-assembly and reorganization from one cell phenotype to another as the microenvironment changes. We have developed a framework for understanding the emergence of living systems from the underlying atomic chaos.
Related Concept Videos
History of Microbiology
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Applications of Molecular Taxonomy
Scaling
Phylogenetic Species Concept in Microbiology
Microbial Growth Measurement: Indirect Methods

