8-24-26: Lecture 1 [Course overview]: wiggling and jiggling, the crowded cell, nonequilibrium processes and the origins of life.
PDF,
Video.
8-25-26: Lecture 2: Molecules diffusing in a volume, transition rates for random motion, probabilities, moments, mean squared displacement (MSD).
PDF,
Video
8-29-25: Lecture 3: Master equation, deriving equations for the moments of the distribution, calculating the MSD.
PDF,
Video.
8-31-26: Lecture 4: Measuring MSD, diffusion at different biological scales, the implausibility of giraffes, the continuum approximation.
PDF,
Video.
Slides: Shake, rattle, and roll...
Movie: Diffusion experiment
Slides: Diffusion time scales in biology
Experimental apparatus design: Bob Sobin, Rick Bihary; thanks to Pete Kernan for the Rokenbok balls