Some 60 years after physicists helped to initiate the molecular-biology revolution that has produced so many medical miracles, biophysics is a growing dis- cipline worldwide. Yet in spite of the spectacular ad- vances in understanding the cell’s molecular machinery, something as widespread and pervasive as cancer re- mains a stubborn and growing medical problem. As the population ages, so the burden of cancer on society and on the economy is set to worsen. If physicists can bring a new perspective to bear on cancer, it could bring about major clinical progress and open up a new chap- ter in the science of living matter. .
