The Noisy and Marvelous Molecular World of Biology

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Review for

The noisy and marvelous molecular world of biology

Felizx Ritort

This is a short review/essay article in commemoration of Prof. Wagneberg.  The review is on some of the recent developments in the role of noise in biological systems, touching on the second law, nonequilibrium conditions, and the new experimental techniques that are being used to measure such fluctuation forces, which are ubiquitous in biological systems.  The paper is written in a pedagogical way and would make a great starting paper for people just starting out in physics or beginning a research topic in biological physics systems to get an overview of why this subject is so fascinating and also very deep at the same time in terms of complexity and information. The paper points out some of the basics of biological systems from a physics point of view. It highlights some basics about Brownian motion and new measures as well as how entropy, information, and plasticity come into play.  I find the paper very well written and enjoyable to read, and I think it makes a nice contribution and would be very useful for students.  The author also provides a number of useful references. A few other references that could fit in well on noise in nonequilibrium systems relevant to biological systems could be

"Ratchet effects in active matter systems",
C.J. Olson Reichhardt and C. Reiachhardt
Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics 8 51 (2017).

 "Active Brownian particles in complex and crowded environments",
Clemens Bechinger, Roberto Di Leonardo, Hartmut Lowen, Charles Reichhardt, Giorgio Volpe, and Giovanni Volpe
Reviews of Modern Physics 88 045006 (2016).

Author Response

I am glad to hear that the paper has been enjoyed by the reviewer. I acknowledge the reference suggestions by the reviewer on active matter that have been now included in this  resubmitted version

Reviewer 2 Report

The text is a very qualitative, popularization stlye, description of the challenges encountered in applying thermodynamics to biological systems. I assume this is what is expected of a contribution to this special issue

Author Response

I wish to thank the reviewer for his/her referral of the manuscript. The tone was mainly pedagogical and introductory, mainly addressed to a broad audience of newcomers in the field.  Indeed, as already guessed by the reviewer, this is a contribution to a special issue on thermodynamics of the 21st century

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I am happy with the changes.