What We Are Reading Today: ‘Random Walks in Biology’

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Updated 05 August 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Random Walks in Biology’

  • Howard Berg offers an essential foundation for understanding random motions of molecules, subcellular particles, and cells as well as the processes that are affected by such motions

Author: HOWARD C. BERG 

“Random Walks in Biology” provides a lucid, straightforward introduction to the concepts and techniques of statistical physics that students of biology, biochemistry, and biophysics must know.

Howard Berg offers an essential foundation for understanding random motions of molecules, subcellular particles, and cells as well as the processes that are affected by such motions.

Using the concept of “random walks” of individual particles, Berg illuminates the physics involved in diffusion, sedimentation, electrophoresis, chromatography, and cell motility.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Volcanoes in Human History’

Updated 05 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Volcanoes in Human History’

Authors: Jelle Zeilinga De Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders

When the volcano Tambora erupted in Indonesia in 1815, as many as one hundred thousand people perished from the blast and ensuing famine. 

Gases and dust particles ejected into the atmosphere changed weather patterns around the world, resulting in the infamous “year without a summer” in North America, food riots in Europe, and a widespread cholera epidemic.

And the gloomy weather inspired Mary Shelley to write the gothic novel “Frankenstein.” This panoramic book tells the story of nine such epic volcanic events.