Introduction

Abstract

What the definition of biophysics should be is a question asked in almost all texts dealing with biophysics or biophysical sciences. Many of the answers given in such texts are as vague as they are negative: biophysics is a discipline without a fixed content; biophysics is not yet an established discipline; its subject matter is not (yet) very well defined; biophysics is more or less what individual biophysicists have made and are making it. Yet many eminent scientists whose work has significantly contributed to our understanding of many biological phenomena have called themselves biophysicists and apparently did so for more or less pragmatic reasons. This indicates that there is an area of scientific activity which, by general consent rather than by definition, is covered by the name biophysics. Therefore, rather than to try to define or emphasize the lack of definition, it seems to make more sense to identify it by discussing the relation between the physical sciences and biology.