History of Biophysics

Biophysics is a relatively young branch of science; it arose as a definite subfield in the early to mid-20th Century. However, the foundations for the study of biophysics were laid down much earlier, in the 19th Century, by a group of physiologists in Berlin. The Berlin school of physiologists included Hermann von Helmholtz, Emil DuBois-Reymond, Ernst von Brücke, and Carl Ludwig. In 1856, Adolf Fick, one of Ludwig’s students, even published the first biophysics textbook. But technology in physics had not sufficiently advanced at this time to study lifeforms in a detailed way, such as at the molecular level.

In the first half of the 20th Century, German scientists dominated the biophysics. They studied electromagnetic fields and light, and they became mainly concerned with studying the effects of radiation on living things. The popularity of biophysics rose when the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger published the book What is Life? in 1944. This book was based on a series of public lectures that Schrödinger gave on explaining the processes of living things through physics and chemistry. In it, he proposed the idea that there was a molecule in living things that contained genetic information in covalent bonds. This inspired scientists such as James Watson and Francis Crick to search for and characterize the genetic molecule, and with the aid of Rosalind Franklin’s x-ray crystallography research, they discovered the double helix structure of DNA in 1953.

By the mid-20th century, biophysics programs had sprung up and gained popularity in other countries, and from 1950-1970, biophysics research occurred at a faster rate than ever before. In addition to the discovery of DNA and its structure, biophysics techniques were also used to create vaccines, develop imaging techniques such as MRI and CAT scans to help doctors diagnose diseases, and create new treatment methods such as dialysis, radiation therapy, and pacemakers. Currently, biophysics has also begun to focus on issues related to the Earth’s changing climate. For example, some biophysicists are working on developing biofuels from living microorganisms that could replace gasoline as a fuel.