Publications

Selected Works

APS News
Lectures in Les Houches
Recent Review

Publication List

Books and edited volumes

2022 Bialek et al Physics of Life. A Consensus Study. W Bialek, B Carragher, I Cisse, MM Desai, OK Dudko,́ DI Goldman, J Kondev, PB Littlewood, AJ Liu, ME Moxon, JN Onuchic, MJ Schnitzer, and CM Water-man (National Academies Press, Washington DC, 2022). Interactive guide available at https://nap.edu/physicsoflife.

2012 Bialek Biophysics: Searching for Principles. W Bialek (Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 2012). Reviews include:A Ma, Contemporary Physics 54,212 (2013).SJ Hagen, Physics Today67,47 (2014).

1997 Rieke et al Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code. F Rieke, D Warland, R de Ruyter van Steveninck, and WBialek (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1997). Japanese edition translated by T Yamazaki and H Kurashige (Morikita Publishing, Tokyo, 2025).Reviews include:A King,The London Times Higher Education Supplement17 October 1997, p. 35. A Zador,Science277,772 (1997).LF Abbott,Neuron19,5 (1997). M Abeles,Trends in Neuroscience20,496 (1997).

1992 Bialek Princeton Lectures on Biophysics. W Bialek, ed (World Scientific, Singapore, 1992)

1985 Lewis et al The Vertebrate Inner Ear. ER Lewis, EL Leverenz, and W Bialek (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1985).

Reviews and perspectives

2025 Meshulam and Bialek Statistical mechanics for networks of real neurons. L Meshulam and W Bialek, Reviews of Modern Physics 97,045002 (2025); arXiv:2409.00412.

2025a Bialek The emergence of brains. W Bialek,PRX Life3,037002 (2025)

2024 Thome and Bialek A brief tutorial on information theory. T Thome and W Bialek, inLes Houches Sum-mer School Lecture Notes: Theoretical Biological Physics 2023, A–F Bitbol, T Mora, I Nemenman, and AMWalczak, edsSciPost Phys Lect Notes 87(2024); arXiv:2402.16556

2024a Bialek Ambitions for theory in the physics of life. W Bialek, inLes Houches Summer School LectureNotes: Theoretical Biological Physics 2023, A–F Bitbol, T Mora, I Nemenman, and AM Walczak, edsSciPost Phys Lect Notes 84(2024); arXiv:2401.15538

2023a Bialek Opinion: Biological physics comes of age. W Bialek,APS News32(4) April (2023).

2018 Bialek Perspectives on theory at the interface of physics and biology. W Bialek,Reports on Progress inPhysics81,012601 (2018); arXiv:1512.08954

2016 Tkacik and Bialek ˇInformation processing in living systems. G Tkacik and W Bialek,ˇAnnual Review ofCondensed Matter Physics7,89–117 (2016); arXiv:1412.8752

2011b Stephens et al Searching for simplicity in the analysis of neurons and behavior. GJ Stephens, LCOsborne, and W Bialek,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA)108(Suppl 3), 15565–15571 (2011); arXiv:1012.3896.

History

2025b Bialek Forward. W Bialek, in HC Berg, Random Walks in Biology. Expanded Edition, Princeton Sci-ence Library, pp ix–xii (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2025)

2024b Bialek Moving boundaries: An appreciation of John Hopfield. W Bialek, arXiv:2412.18030[physics.hist–ph] (2024)

2023b Bialek, Keith Brueckner (1924–2014). W Bialek, Biographical Memoirs of National Academy of Sciences(2023); arXiv:2308.16411

2020 Zierler and Bialek Oral history interview with David Zierler. Niels Bohr Library and Archives, AmericanInstitute of PhysicsOH 46349 (2020)

Articles

2026 Lawson and Bialek When many noisy genes optimize information flow. N Lawson and W Bialek,PRX Lifeto appear (2026); arXiv:2512.14055

2026 Gordiychuk et al Searching for sequence features that control DNA flexibility. M Gordiychuk, J Park,A Basu, T Ha, W Bialek, and Y Zhang,PNAS Nexus5,pgag167 (2026); bioRxiv 2025.01.02.631081.For a preliminary account with the same title see arXiv:2012.06127

2026 Di Carlo et al Extended mean-field theories for networks of real neurons. L Di Carlo, F Mignacco, CWLynn, and W Bialek,Physical Review Lettersto appear (2026); arXiv:2504.15197.

2026 Edelson et al The FlEye camera: Sampling the joint distribution of natural scenes and motion. CJEdelson, P Smith, S Setayeshgar, W Bialek, and RR de Ruyter van Steveninck,Physical Review E113,044412 (2026); arXiv:2412:21081

2026 Ramirez et al Probabilistic models, compressible interactions, and neural coding. L Ramirez, W Bialek,SE Palmer, and DJ Schwab,PRX Life4,023008 (2026); arXiv:2112.14334v2.This combines and extends Palmer et al (2020) and Ramirez and Bialek (2021).

2026 Mayer et al How different are self and nonself? A Tiffeau–Mayer, JA Levine, CJ Russo, Q Marcou, WBialek, and BD Greenbaum,PRX Life4,013027 (2026); arXiv:2212.12049

2025 Bauer and Bialek Ambiguous signals and efficient codes. M Bauer and W Bialek, arXiv:2512.23531[physics.bio–ph] (2025).

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Full List of Publications