This week’s paper selection (6 – 13 Jan 2016)

Berg (1975) - Bacterial behaviour. On the tumble-and-swim behavior of bacteria.
Purcell (1977) - Life at low Reynolds number. On the physics of bacteria movements.
Wu et al (2016) - Substantial contribution of extrinsic risk factors to cancer development. Contradicts a previous Science paper claiming that cancer is just due to bad luck (my comment at the time).
Hodgkin (1939) - The relation between conduction velocity and the electrical resistance outside a nerve fibre. Hodgkin immerges an axon in oil to show that conduction velocity decreases, confirming the idea that the action potential propagates through local current loops involving the extracellular medium.
Schuetze (1983) - The discovery of the action potential. A pretty good historical paper.
Bernstein (1868) - Ueber den zeitlichen Verlauf der negativen Schwankung des Nervenstroms. Julius Bernstein describes the first electrophysiological recording of an action potential, using a sample-and-hold device with a galvanometer. 1868!
Elgeti et al (2014) - Physics of Microswimmers – Single Particle Motion and Collective Behavior. Self-explanatory.
Tu et al (2008) - Modeling the chemotactic response of Escherichia coli to time-varying stimuli. Self-explanatory.

Romain Brette