What are /r/Biophysics' favorite Products & Services?

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To get technical, you always should, but don't need to balance charge. OP is using NAMD and there is a charge balancing correction applied for non-neutral systems. Similarly, you should use a large simulation box (1.5x your protein dimensions), but you only need to make your system large enough so that your protein can't see it's own periodic image, (about 2.5x your long-range cutoff value)[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/archive-gmx-users/MnHD2wDOaEs]. I also suggest OP use charmm-gui to set-up a simulation box when using NAMD. In my opinion, getting your feet wet with molecular dynamics is less about setting up a system and more about doing smart analysis.

ultimately it can vary quite a bit, and how much math is involved is generally your decision. more importantly, start learning to program now. no matter what your major ends up being, being able to program will undoubtedly improve your life. don't waste any time-- here, get started http://www.codecademy.com/

once people know you can code (even if it's just a little) you stop being a burdensome undergraduate and start becoming a valuable asset. get involved in research at whatever school you go to right away, too. it pays and it is fun. sorry these aren't the questions you asked and this was three months ago so you've probably already changed your mind

I guess a textbook instead of journal articles would be a better start. I STRONGLY suggest Physical Biology of the Cell by Robert Phillips. (The Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Physical-Biology-Cell-Rob-Phillips/dp/0815344503)

The book covers most fields in biophysics, especially the molecular biophysics. I love the journal articles written by Robert Phillips, too. At the end of each chapter, there are some suggested readings (most of them are journal articles) with authors comments on each work and should serve perfectly as a beginning.

You could also try to google "biophysics journal club" and see what others are reading.

(https://pixabay.com/vectors/biceps-bodybuilding-hand-muscle-159681/)I was wondering how do we know that the biceps is flexed in this image and not just shortened? since the forearm can also be there without your biceps flexing.

(https://pixabay.com/vectors/biceps-bodybuilding-hand-muscle-159681/) I didn't know how to upload the image so I just copy pasted the link to it, is the biceps flexed or shortened or both of them in this case and why?

"However, part of the bicep helps stabilize your shoulder and elbow joint, so there are motor units firing" why does it have to stabilize your shoulder and elbow if the only force acting is gravity which is counteracted by your triceps? Stabilizing your shoulders isn't your biceps job?

If you want to learn about the biophysics behind protein structure, there’s a game called FoldIt that you can play, and learn about the physical mechanisms behind protein folding as you play:

https://fold.it

I think it could be a cool place to start, and you can compete online to help develop new medically relevant structures and stuff.

I recently bought this book for my own reading into biophysics. I haven't had the time to read through it yet due to school, but looking through the table of contents there are some pretty interesting topics like molecular machines, applications of thermodynamics, and cell physiology. It looks like a great introductory book to biophysics. The author is Philip Nelson and the book is titled Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life.

I also highly recommend learning Python. It makes data analysis so much easier and quicker once you understand how to code. It has helped me tons. Ill link an intro to python book that has helped me out. The first link is to the biophysics book and the 2nd link is for the intro to python book.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/057868702X?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691180571?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I’ve never taken a course and I learned the biology from reading papers in the biophysics fields I do research in...and I suspect that most physicists do this, which I admit is not the best way. So I can’t recommend any courses but I can recommend that you get / borrow a college (undergraduate) level text book on cellular biology, molecular cell biology. There are also a couple fantastic biophysics text books that I recommend.

Here is one that I have used https://www.amazon.com/Physical-Biology-Cell-Rob-Phillips/dp/0815344503

This is a collection of topics in biophysics with calculations to give students a physics perspective on biology. The three authors are all excellent researchers in their fields. Hope this helps.

Possibly my favorite book of all time, Life on the edge Not a textbook, just a novel. My favorite chapter is the one on Chlorophyll

I've read a couple books in the past and think this one by Andrew Leach is the best one, for use as a good intro and also as a reference. It's actually a surprisingly engrossing read.