A scientist who uses the tools and methods of physics to study how living things work at the molecular and cellular level.
From bio- (life) + physicist (scientist studying physics). Field formalized in mid-1900s as physicists realized quantum mechanics and thermodynamics explained biological processes.
Biophysicists figured out how muscles actually contract, how proteins fold into the exact shapes needed to work, and even how DNA copies itself—answers that pure biology couldn't give.
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