The phone calls in early October came out of the blue. That’s how 24 people learned from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that they were this year’s MacArthur fellows. Recipients included a short-story writer, a blacksmith, a conservation analyst, and the following five individuals who engage in physics-related work: James J. Collins, Deborah Jin, Ned Kahn, Amy Rosenzweig, and Xiaowei Zhuang.
Collins, who is the director of Boston University’s Applied Biodynamics Laboratory and codirector of the university’s Center for Biodynamics, combines physics, mathematics, engineering, and biology in his research on the complex mechanisms that control biological systems. Much of his work focuses on creating nonlinear dynamical techniques and practicable devices to characterize, improve, or imitate biological function. For example, in work to better understand how noise can enhance or degrade biological signals, his lab showed that the introduction of tiny, random vibrations in footpads improved the...
