School on Community Ecology: from patterns to principles

Theoretical physics is the search for compelling mathematical descriptions of the world around us, and it has been extraordinarily successful.  We have discovered the equations that govern the flow of electrons in a computer chip and the flow of air over an airplane wing, we can describe what happens deep inside the atomic nucleus and the evolution of the universe on the largest scales.  But what about us?  Can we imagine writing equations that describe how our brain makes decisions, or how a single cell develops into a complex organism?  Creating a “physics of life” is a daunting task, but there has been exciting progress.