ISC 2026 – Physics in Life Sciences

How does a laser work, and how can we use it as a tool to observe individual proteins as they function and even manipulate them? What is fluorescence, and how does it help us better understand biological processes in cells? Why can the radiation from radioactive substances—which is actually dangerous—help in the treatment of cancer? Destructive radiation? What is that, anyway? And what is it good for? In this course, participants learned about the physical methods used to answer questions in the life sciences. They conducted experiments at XLAB and visited scientists at their research institutes on the University of Göttingen’s natural sciences campus.