We are witnessing a cultural shift in the biological sciences. This is due, in part, to the availability of huge amounts of information such as the genomes of several organisms. But it is also the result of an increasing number of physicists taking an interest in complex biological problems. A good example of this modern physical biology is a recent study led by Alain Arneodo of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon, France, in which the DNA sequence of human chromosomes was analysed.
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