ABSTRACT
A physicist attempting to study biological problems is engaged in a very risky business. The reason usually put forward to explain this is that a physicist looks for universality and simplicity, which more often than not serve as useful guides for uncovering physical law. Biology results from chance and history, so that differentiation and detail become the guiding principles of investigation. Physicists and mathematicians are not about to provide a comprehensive picture of any of these problems anytime soon, but may still shed some light on certain of their aspects through inspired modeling. One of the most perplexing problems in molecular biophysics arises from the speed with which a protein finds its way, through a staggering maze of possibilities, to its native state. A vast compendium of knowledge and folklore concerning this problem has accumulated over years of study, and some of it has been presented at this meeting by the Richardsons.
