Physics of Life Network 2 (PoLNet2)

“生命的物理学”是EPSRC当前的一个大挑战研究主题。这是一个非常富有成效的跨学科研究领域，也是英国的一项战略投资，因为我们的研究基地有潜力做出领先的贡献，甚至超过欧盟、美国和中国的最大努力，尽管我们在投资方面落后于这些国家。战略上的必要性源于(i)软物质物理学、仪器（特别是成像）和计算物理学（包括大数据处理）的实验、理论和建模方面的新技术，以及（ii）需要物理方法在从分子到种群水平的生物系统的许多长度尺度上解决的丰富的生物挑战领域。比起第一个网络的开始，现在更是如此。(i)的例子有：先进的膜原子力显微镜、光学显微镜中的高分辨率和3D方法、复杂分子物质的高性能计算、“蛋白质物理学”的子领域、相分离的场理论、大分子物质的粗粒化、活性软物质、非平衡热力学。（ii）的例子有：组织生长和形态、细胞分化、细胞环境感知、细胞膜筏、进化动力学、纤维自组装、分子马达。

The 'Physics of Life' is a current Grand Challenge research theme for EPSRC. It is a very fruitful interdisciplinary research field, and a strategic investment for the UK because of the potential our research base has to make leading contributions at or beyond the best efforts in the EU, USA and China, even though we lag behind these somewhat in investment. The strategic imperative arises from (i) the new techniques in experiment, theory and modelling from soft matter physics, instrumentation (especially imaging) and computational physics (including large data processing), together with (ii) a rich field of biological challenges that require physical methods to address at many length scales of biological systems from the molecular to population levels. This is even more true now than at the start of the first Network. Examples of (i) are: advanced AFM of membranes, high-resolution and 3D methods in optical microscopy, high-performance computing of complex molecular matter, the subfield of 'protein physics', field-theories of phase separation, coarse-graining in macromolecular matter, active soft matter, non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Examples of (ii) are: tissue growth and form, cell differentiation, cellular environment sensing, cell membrane rafts, evolutionary dynamics, fibrillar self-assembly, molecular motors.