Fields, Forces, and Flows in Biological Systems
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this course on the physical forces that drive transport in living systems: chemical gradients, electrical interactions, and fluid flow. Lectures work through how these forces act on molecules, cells, and tissues, connecting biophysics to concepts from mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering. The course materials include lecture notes, problem sets, and exams covering topics such as diffusion, electrostatics in biological media, and hydrodynamics at the cellular scale. It is aimed at students with a background in engineering or physical science who want to see how quantitative models of transport apply to biological structures, from ion channels to tissue-level flow. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all materials are free to access under a Creative Commons license, with no certificate offered.