Book Bearings
Cover of What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell by Erwin Schrödinger

What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell

Erwin Schrödinger, Roger Penrose

  • 178 pages · about 3 hours
  • First published 1944
  • 40 editions
Buy on Bookshop.orgView on Open Library

Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.

1 About this book

What Is Life? is a 1944 non-fiction science book written for the lay reader by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943 at Trinity College, Dublin. Schrödinger's lecture focused on one important question: "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?"

In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an "aperiodic crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds. In the 1950s, this idea stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule and would give both Francis Crick and James Watson initial inspiration in their research.

Good for readers who want: evolution, philosophy, and a true life story.

  • Life
  • Human evolution
  • Biology
  • Molecular biology
  • Philosophy
  • Biography
  • Mind and body
  • Physicists, biography

2 About Erwin Schrödinger

1887–1961

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961) was an Austrian theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. In particular, he is recognized for devising the Schrödinger equation, an equation that provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time. He coined the term "quantum entanglement" in 1935.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

3 Similar books

Find a book that fits your moment