Single molecule experiments in biophysics: exploring the thermal behavior of nonequilibrium small systems

TL;DR

This paper discusses how fluctuation theorems applied to biomolecules enhance understanding of their nonequilibrium thermal behavior, supported by experimental results on small systems where thermal fluctuations are significant.

Contribution

It introduces experimental insights into the thermal fluctuations of biomolecules using fluctuation theorems, advancing knowledge of nonequilibrium small systems in biophysics.

Findings

Experimental validation of fluctuation theorems in biomolecules

Insights into energy fluctuations at the nanoscale

Enhanced understanding of nonequilibrium thermodynamics in biology

Abstract

Biomolecules carry out very specialized tasks inside the cell where energies involved are few tens of k_BT, small enough for thermal fluctuations to be relevant in many biomolecular processes. In this paper I discuss a few concepts and present some experimental results that show how the study of fluctuation theorems applied to biomolecules contributes to our understanding of the nonequilibrium thermal behavior of small systems.