Cliff Brangwynne: All the right materials
نویسنده
چکیده
JCB • VOLUME 214 • NUMBER 2 • 2016 122 Growing up in the Boston area, Cliff Brangwynne was a kid with distinct interests. He recalls performing one of his fi rst experiments after watching a TV program on quantum mechanics: spending an afternoon bouncing a tennis ball off a wall in an attempt to observe quantum tunneling. Through high school, he read pop-science books about the weirdness of the quantum world. Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics especially captivated him; the atomic world seemed so different, with interconnected energies that were in a sense mystical. It was this mystical aura about the scientifi c world that ultimately drew him in. Today, Brangwynne explores the mystical realms of materials physics and cell biology in his own lab at Princeton University, where he studies the phase transitions that underlie the formation and function of membraneless organelles and other cellular processes. We contacted him to learn more.
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