Incorporating biophysics experiments into your advanced lab

Biophysics experiments in the undergraduate advanced lab course are a great way to broaden students’ perspectives on physics and prepare students for real-world problem solving. However, what biophysics experiments should an advanced lab instructor select, particularly if their own background is limited to physics? Here I will present on four cornerstone biophysics experiments: 1) tracking motion, 2) building an optical microscope, 3) taking spectroscopic data, and 4) measuring the Brownian motion of microscopic particles. These labs are simple, affordable, versatile, and have a lot of great interdisciplinary science.