What is Life - Erwin Schrödinger
Before I begin to discuss this fantastic book itself, I would like to start by introducing you to the author, Erwin Schrödinger. Schrödinger was an Austrian, Nobel prize winning quantum physicist who, through his work, undeniably changed the way we view the connection between physics and biology. He developed the basis of wave mechanics, and had a strong fascination for philosophy and theoretical biology, Schrödinger's cat .
In 1943, he began a series of lecture in Trinity College, Dublin which led to "What is Life?" being published in 1944. The book is an absolutely fascinating read which I would strongly recommend to anyone wishing to study Biology, Physics, Medicine or even Philosophy. Through his work, Schrödinger interlinks physics with biology, explaining how living things defy the 2nd law of thermodynamics ( entropy only increases in a closed system but living matter maintains positive entropy in an open system).Further explanation
Furthermore, he defied popular belief by suggesting that hereditary information is not passed on by proteins but instead by a "code script", leading him to introduce the idea of "aperiodic crystals". This fundamental idea acted as the foundations for Crick and Watson discovering the structure of DNA, arguably one of the most important scientific findings of the 20th century.
In the final chapter, Schrödinger takes a more philosophical approach, giving the book great variety.
