Branching Out:
On the relationship between physics and biology as investigated through water transport in trees
In the last century of scientific development, the fundamental connections between the major sciences have been cast in a whole new light. In this talk, we seek to investigate how physics underpins theory and phenomena observed in biology through investigating links present in dendrology, the study of trees. The application of theory in the fields of electricity and magnetism, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and kinematics to water transport in xylem structures will be discussed. Water transport in trees is one of the primary factors that make trees unique in their form and function, and we will discover that these characteristics are in many ways the direct result of physics.