Where Does Schroedinger's “What is Life?” Belong in the History of Molecular Biology?

Schrödinger E. , What is life? The physical aspect of the living cell (Cambridge, 1944).

Olby R. C. , “Schrödinger's problem: What is life?”, Journal of the history of biology, iv (1971), 119–48; idem, The path to the double helix (London, 1974).

Cohen S. S. , “The origins of molecular biology”, Science, clxxxvii (1975), 827–30, p. 828.

For further information about the work of the phage group, see Cairns J. Stent G. S. Watson J. D. (eds), Phage and the origins of molecular biology (New York, 1966); Mullins N. C. , “The development of scientific specialty: The phage group and the origins of molecular biology”, Minerva, x (1972), 51–82; Olby R. C. , The path to the double helix (ref. 2), 225–6, 238, 303, 320.

Cohen S. S. , Personal communication, 28 March 1975.

Teich M. , “A single path to the double helix?”, History of science, xiii (1975), 264–83, p. 276.

For a characteristic exposition of this point of view, see Crick F. H. C. , Of molecules and men (Seattle, 1966), 10–14.

The date of publication is taken from the English catalogue of books, 1942–1947, xv (London, 1949).

I have consulted what I take to be a virtually complete collection of review notices compiled by the Cambridge University Press, which amounts to sixtyfive items from the years up to 1948. I am very grateful to Brenda Stones for her help in locating these reviews, of which a full list is given in Yoxen E. J. , “The social impact of molecular biology” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1977).

For this bibliographical information, see Scott W. T. , Erwin Schrödinger: An introduction to his writings (Amherst, 1967), 151. Scott gives the date of the second English edition as 1952, which is contradicted by the review notice in Plant breeding abstracts (see text above) and by information in the 1969 paperback edition.

Haldane J. B. S. , “A physicist looks at genetics”, Nature, clv (1945), 375–6; Polanyi M. , “Science and life”, Manchester guardian (26 January 1945); Delbrück M. , [Untitled review], Quarterly review of biology, xx (1945), 370–2; Darlington C. D. , [Untitled review], Discovery, vi (1945), 126; Muller H. J. , “A physicist stands amazed at genetics”, Journal of heredity, xxxvii (1946), 90–92; idem, “The gene—Pilgrim Trust lecture”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B, cxxxiv (1947), 1–37; [lecture delivered 1 November 1945].

Manton I. , “Comments on chromosome structure”, Nature, clv (1945), 471–3; Butler J. A. V. , “Life and the second law of thermodynamics”, Nature, clviii (1946), 153–5. Professors Manton and Butler have both written to me of the considerable impact of this book on their thoughts at the time in letters dated 28 May 1975 and 3 June 1975 respectively.

Stern K. G. , “Nucleoproteins and gene structure”, Yale journal of biology and medicine, xix (1947), 937–49; for a discussion of this article, see Olby R. C. , op. cit. (ref. 2), 216–18.

Stern K. G. Chambers R. , “Protoplasm”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, xviii (London, 1948), 617–19.

Interview with Dr A. Peacocke, Dean of Clare College, Cambridge and research student in Hinshelwood's laboratory from 1946, on 21 March 1976. From the evidence of his published work Hinshelwood seems to have drawn on Schrödinger's ideas in his own discussions of biological organization; see Hinshelwood C. H. , The chemical kinetics of the bacterial cell (Oxford, 1946), 3, 206, 264–74. This is discussed in more detail in Section 3 below.

Reitz J. R. , personal communication, 13 June 1975. The article referred to in the text is Reitz J. R. Longmire C. , “Living matter and physical laws”, Physics today, iii (1950), 15–19.

For a representative review from the political weeklies in Britain, see Roberts H. , “A difficult question brilliantly un-answered”, New statesman and nation, xxix (issue of 3 March 1945), 146; for an example from the American press, see Wharton J. F. , “Probing the ultimate mystery”, Saturday review of literature, xxix (issue of 9 February 1946), 7–9. An exposition of What is life? was given in a talk by Dr Waterfield, broadcast on BBC radio on 19 February 1945, as also in a talk from Dublin by Rev H. J. Gill S.J. , on 30 April 1945. The latter demanded an apology from Schrödinger for having compromized the Institute for Advanced Studies, with his mystical epilogue. It was also discussed in the Weekly book summary (n.s., no. 10), 13 February 1945 by Michael Roberts of the BBC European Service. This information is taken from the review files of Cambridge University Press, see ref. 9.

The theological furore in Dublin created by the pantheistic epilogue is described briefly in [Anon.], “Professor O'Rahilly refutes a scholar”, Catholic herald (9 March 1945).

[Unsigned review], Plant breeding abstracts, xix (1948), 121.

Lysenko T. D. , Soviet biology: A report to the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (London, 1948), 13; idem, The situation in biological science (New York, 1949), 23.

Oparin A. I. , “The problem of the origin of life”, Modern quarterly, vi (1951), 135–46. These criticisms are repeated in Oparin A. I. , Life, its nature, origins and development (English translation, London, 1961), 24.

Schrödinger E. , “Quantisierung als Eigenproblem”, Annalen der Physik, Series 4, lxxix (1926), 361–76; ibid., lxxix (1926), 489–527; ibid., lxxx (1926), 437–90; ibid., lxxxi (1926), 109–39.

Schrödinger E. , “Ueber das Verhältnis der Heisenberg-Born-Jordan-schen Quantenmechanik zu der meinen”, ibid., lxxix (1926), 45–61. For an introduction to Schrödinger's work, see Scott , op. cit. (ref. 10); also Forman P. Raman V. V. , “Why was it Schrödinger who developed De Brogue's ideas?”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, i (1969), 291–314; for a detailed technical history of wave mechanics, culminating in Schrödinger's work of 1925–26, see Gerber J. , “Geschichte der Wellenmechanik”, Archive for history of exact sciences, v (1968–69), 145–83.

Jammer M. , The conceptual development of quantum mechanics (New York, 1966).

For an account of the practice of physics in Berlin, and brief comments on Schrödinger's activities in Berlin and Oxford, see Mendelssohn K. , The world of Walter Nernst: The rise and fall of German science (London, 1973).

Schrödinger's individualism is emphasized in the obituary notice by Heitler W. , Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vii (1961), 221–9.

The misappraisal of the political situation in Austria, where the Schrödingers returned in 1936, which led on the one hand to his writing a public letter of self-humiliation after the Anschluss and on the other to their rapid departure to avoid arrest in September 1938, has been described by Anne-Marie Schrödinger; see transcript of interview deposited in the Archive for History of Quantum Physics. For details of this and other materials relating to Schrödinger's career, see Kuhn T. S. Heilbron J. L. Forman P. Allen L. , Sources for history of quantum physics: An inventory and report (Philadelphia, 1967). In Britain the appearance of this letter produced an acid condemnation in Nature; see [Anon.], “Professor E. Schrödinger and the University of Graz”, Nature, cxxxxi (1938), 929. He was nonetheless invited to join the Royal Society in 1949.

The extent of the changes in physics can be judged by comparing the information given in Mendelssohn K. , op. cit. (ref. 25), in Slater J. C. , “Quantum physics in America between the wars”. Physics today, xxi (1968), 43–51, and in Weiner C. , “Physics in the Great Depression”, Physics today, xxiii (1970), 31–38, with that in Weiner C. , “Physics today and the spirit of the forties”. Physics today, xxvi (1973), 23–29.

Butler J. A. V. , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Lewis G. N. , The anatomy of science (New Haven, 1926); Needham J. , “Life and thermodynamics”, in Time: The refreshing river (Essays and addresses, 1932–1942) (London, 1943), 207–32.

Reitz J. R. Longmire C. , op. cit. (ref. 16).

Quastler H. (ed.), Essays on the use of information theory in biology (Urbana, Illinois, 1953).

Kendrew J. C. , “Information and conformation in biology”, in Rich A. Davidson N. (eds), Structural chemistry and molecular biology (San Francisco, 1966), 187–97. This essay is the revised text of his Herbert Spencer lecture in the University of Oxford, 1965; see also idem, “How molecular biology started”, Scientific American, ccxvi (issue of March 1967), 141–4; idem, “Some remarks on the history of molecular biology”, in Goodwin T. W. (ed.), British biochemistry: Past and present (London, 1970), 5–10.

Brillouin L. , “Life, thermodynamics and cybernetics”, American scientist, xxxvii (1949), 559–68. Wiener's ideas are set out in Cybernetics: Or Control and communication in the animal and the machine (New York, 1948).

Shannon C. E. , “A mathematical theory of communication”. Bell system technical journal, xxvii (1948), 379–423; Shannon C. E. Weaver W. , The mathematical theory of communication (Urbana, Illinois, 1949); Wiener , op. cit. (ref. 34); idem, I am a mathematician (London, 1956).

Brillouin L. , Wave propagation in periodic structures, electric filters and crystal lattices (New York, 1946); idem, “Maxwell's demon cannot operate: Information and entropy”, Journal of applied physics, xxii (1951), 334–7.

In the Archive for History of Quantum Physics there are three letters from Brillouin to Schrödinger in 1956, on Microfilm 37. For catalogue details see Kuhn et al., op. cit. (ref. 27).

Lady Simon has stated in a personal communication that she remembers discussions on the topic took place between Schrödinger and her late husband after the war. The extant correspondence indicates that they met and talked in Cambridge; see text below, and ref. 40.

Schrödinger E. , What is Life? The physical aspect of the living cell (Cambridge, 1948), 79–80. This is an addendum to ch. 6, “Order, disorder and entropy”.

Letter from Simon to Schrödinger, 19 December 1946, in the Simon papers at the Royal Society, File FS14/3/5, Correspondence Box No. 29. I am grateful to Lady Simon for allowing me access to these letters and am indebted to the Librarian of the Royal Society and his staff for their help in locating them.

Gamow G. , Mr. Tompkins learns the facts of life (Cambridge, 1953).

Gamow G. Ycas M. , Mr. Tomkins inside himself: Adventures in the new biology (Cambridge, 1968).

Kaempffert W. , Explorations in science (London, 1953), 126–7.

Darlington C. D. , The facts of life (London, 1952).

Ibid., 204, 390.

Reitz Longmire , op. cit. (ref. 16); Brillouin , op. cit. (ref. 34); Infeld L. , “Visit to Dublin”, Scientific American, clxxxi (issue of October 1949), 11–14.

Wilkins M. H. F. , “The molecular configuration of nucleic adds”, in Les prix Nobel en 1962 (Stockholm, 1963), 126–54, p. 126. In an interview on 2 May 1974 Prof. Wilkins confirmed that the section of the argument What is life? concerned with the gene as a crystal had a deep impact on him after the war. However it was only after Sir John Randall had moved to King's College, London, where he began to establish a biophysics laboratory, and had repeated his offer of a job to his former junior colleague that Wilkins decided to move into biology.

Crick F. H. C. , “Recent research in molecular biology: An introduction”, British medical bulletin, xxi (1965), 183–6.

Letter from Crick F. H. C. to Olby R. C. , 15 January 1970, quoted in Olby R. C. , op. cit. (ref. 2), 146.

Stent G. S. , “Introduction: Waiting for the paradox”, in Cairns J. Stent G. S. Watson J. D. (eds), Phage and the origins of molecular biology (New York, 1966), 3–8, p. 4.

Kendrew J. , “How molecular biology started”, Scientific American, ccxvi (issue of March 1967), 141–4. This article is a review of the Festschrift edited by Cairns Stent Delbrück (ref. 50). Carlson E. A. , “An unacknowledged founding of molecular biology: H. J. Muller's contributions to gene theory”, Journal of the history of biology, iv (1971), 149–70.

Stent G. S. , “That was the molecular biology that was”, Science, clx (1968), 390–5.

Olby , op. cit. (ref. 2), 246–7; Stent G. S. , Molecular genetics: An introductory narrative (San Francisco, 1971).

Stent G. S. , The coming of the golden age (New York, 1969). For an interesting comparative study of this book, see Glass B. , “Science: Endless horizons or golden age?”, Science, clxxi (1971), 23–29.

Carlson E. A. , The gene: A critical history (London, 1966), 165, 232. This book contains a very useful exposition of the target theory utilized by Timoféef-Ressovsky, Zimmer and Delbrück and reproduced by Schrödinger in What is life?.

Fleming D. , “Emigré physicists and the biological revolution”. Perspectives in American history, ii (1968), 176–213, reprinted in Fleming D. Bailyn B. (eds), The intellectual migration: Europe and America, 1930–1960 (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), 152–89.

Waddington C. H. , “Some European contributions to the prehistory of molecular biology”, Nature, ccxxi (1969), 318–21.

Ibid., 321.

Olby R. C. , “Schrödinger's problem: What is life?”, Journal of the history of biology, iv (1971), 119–48.

Olby , op. cit. (ref. 59), 132. What precisely Olby means to say here about Schrödinger's reasoning is not clear. On the one hand he asserts that Schrödinger “deliberately ignored” the concept of the covalent bond, which implies that he knew of its existence but chose not to utilize it in his analysis of living matter. Yet in the next sentence, Olby writes as if Schrödinger knew nothing of the covalent bond. The manuscript notes to What is life?, which are discussed in the text below, do not throw any light on this issue.

This claim is repeated in Olby's later study, The path to the double helix (ref. 2), esp. pp. 240–7.

Yoxen , op. cit. (ref. 2).

Hermann A. , “Erwin Schrödinger: Eine Biographie”, in Hermann A. (ed.), Die Wellenmechanik (Dokumente der Naturwissenschaft, Abteilung Physik, Band 3; Stuttgart, 1963). For additional biographical information, see Heitler , op. cit. (ref. 26); Scott, op. cit. (ref. 10); Anne-Marie Schrödinger, op. cit. (ref. 27).

For details of Schrödinger's notebooks, see Kuhn op. cit. (ref. 27). It occurred to me that Schrödinger might have drawn the idea of a hereditary codescript from the work of Richard Semon, who held the view that the properties of organisms constituted and were transmitted between generations as enduring patterns or ‘engrams’. Having examined Semon's work The mneme (English translation, London, 1911) this seems an unlikely possibility. It does illustrate however, firstly the vintage of Schrödinger's interest in biological organization, and secondly that the movement in the twentieth century has been from conceptions or organization based on the organism as a whole to conceptions centred around a specific entity, the gene. This movement was one that Hinshelwood, for example, tried to resist (see text below).

That Schrödinger had written is the inference drawn from a letter from K. Przibram to Schrödinger, 24 September 1932; see Archive for History of Quantum Physics, Microfilm 34, Schrödinger scientific correspondence, Post-1930, Section 11.

This is again an inference from Przibram's reply; K. Przibram to Schrödinger, 28 November 1932, Archive for History of Quantum Physics, Microfilm 37, Section II. The article referred to is Jordan P. , “Die Quantenmechanik und die Grundprobleme der Biologie und Psychologie”, Die Naturwissenschaften, xx (issue of 4 November 1932), 815–20.

Letter from Schrödinger to Max Born, 13 October 1947 in Born papers, Archives of Churchill College, Cambridge, File 3/6.

Schrödinger E. , “Warum sind die Atome so klein?”, Forschungen und Fortschritte, ix (1933), 125–6. This is an abstract of the talk to the Academy. I have been unable to locate the manuscript for this talk in the Schrödinger papers in the Archive for History of Quantum Physics.

Schrödinger E. , op. cit. (ref. 1), 4–6. This section is entitled “Why are the atoms so small?”.

Schrödinger E. , “Indeterminism and free-will”. Nature, cxxxviii (1936), 13–14; Donnan F. G. , “Integral analysis and the phenomena of life”, Acta biotheoretica, ii (1936), 1–10.

Schrödinger E. , Science and the human temperament (London, 1935).

Schrödinger E. , “The law of chance: The problem of causation in modern science”, in Schrödinger, op. cit. (ref. 71), 39–51.

Bohr N. , “Light and life”. Nature, cxxxi (1933), 421–3, 457–9; Jordan , op. cit. (ref. 66).

Schrödinger E. “Varia ex 1942 (III) Biologica I (Auch Literaturnotizen)” [notebook], Archive for History of Quantum Physics, Schrödinger scientific papers, post-1928. Microfilm 42, Section 10.

Schrödinger's letters to Donnan, and related correspondence by each of them, are to be found in the Donnan papers held in the library of University College, London.

Schrödinger's letters to Born from 1935 to 1960 are to be found in the Born papers in the Archives of Churchill College, Cambridge. I am very grateful to the Archivist of Churchill College for having abstracted these letters for me from the rest of the material and to the Born family for having allowed me access to them.

Letter from Schrödinger to Donnan, 26 October 1942, Donnan papers, Box 3, Item 11, Correspondence 1941–43. This letter accompanies one written the previous day to Prof. E. I. Conway of the Biochemistry Department, University College, Dublin, whom Schrödinger had consulted about What is life?.

Letter to Schrödinger, to Donnan , 7 September 1939, Donnan papers, Box 3, File 7, Correspondence 1936–40.

Schrödinger E. , “Was ist ein Naturgesetz”, Die Naturwissenschaften, xvii (1929), 9–17; reprinted in translation in Schrödinger E. , op. cit. (ref. 71), 133–47. The debt to Exner is acknowledged here on pp. xvii, xx. For a discussion of the significance of Schrödinger's and Exner's views on causality, see Forman P. , “Weimar culture, causality and quantum theory, 1918–1927: Adaptation by physicists and mathematicians to a hostile intellectual environment”. Historical studies in the physical sciences iii (1971), 1–115.

Schrödinger E. , “Irreversibility”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, liiia (1950), 189–95. The ideas in this paper were discussed in an earlier talk at Trinity College, Dublin. The undated notes for this lecture are “Time's arrow: On the reversible model of irreversibility”. Archive for History of Quantum Physics, Schrödinger E. , Popular writings, Microfilm 44, Section 3, Item 4.

Sinnott E. W. Dunn L. C. , Principles of genetics (third ed., London, 1939); Haldane J. B. S. , New paths in genetics (London, 1941); Darlington C. D. , The evolution of genetic systems (Cambridge, 1939); Sherrington Sir Charles , Man on his nature: Gifford lectures, 1937–8 (Cambridge, 1940); Timoféef-Ressovsky N. W. Zimmer K. Delbrück M. , “Ueber die Natur der Genmutation und Genstruktur”, Göttingen Nachrichten, mathematische-physikalische Klasse, Fachgruppe 6, i (1935), 189–245. This material is listed on p. 65 of “Biologica I” (ref. 74).

Sinnott Dunn , op. cit. (see ref. 81), 331; Darlington , op. cit. (ref. 81), 83. Haldane J. B. S. , op. cit. (ref. 81), 43–45. The same idea is to be found in idem, “Quantum mechanics as a basis for philosophy”, Philosophy of science, i (1934), 78–98, pp. 84–85.

Letter from Schrödinger to Sir Charles Sherrington, 25 September 1947, Archive for History of Quantum Physics, Microfilm 44. Robinson N. H. Dr , Librarian of the Royal Society, has very kindly searched the papers of Sir Charles Sherrington held there for any earlier correspondence and has found nothing.

Sherrington , op. cit. (ref. 81), 163.

Letter from Schrödinger to Born, 4 November 1942; Born Papers, File 3/5, Correspondence 1939–1943.

Personal communication from Prof. Ewald, 20 January 1975.

Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 55), 161–3.

[Anon.], “The living cell and the atom”, Irish times (6 February 1943); “What is life: Quantum theory of biology”, Irish times (13 February 1943); “X-rays harmful to the race”, Irish times (20 February 1943).

Letter from Schrödinger to Born, 10 March 1943, Born papers, File 3/5. Elsewhere in their correspondence at this time Schrödinger implied that he might well get a second Nobel prize for his unified field theory.

Olby , op. cit. (ref. 2), 122.

Schrödinger E. , “Xmas 1948 etc” [Notebook], Archive for History of Quantum Physics, Microfilm 43, Section 3. There are six pages of notes, dated 9 March 1949.

Hartmann M. , “Was ist Leben?”, Philosophia naturalis, vi (1970), 125–40.

Teich , op. cit. (ref. 6).

Yoxen , op. cit. (ref. 9).

Freundlich H. , “Kolloidchemie und Biologie”, Die Naturwissenschaften, xxii (1924), 233–9.

This idea was suggested to me by the late Dr Sigurd Zienau, to whom I am indebted for discussions about Schrödinger's work and career.

Holorenshaw H. , “The making of an honorary Taoist”, in Teich M. Young R. M. (eds), Changing perspectives in the history of science (London, 1973), 1–20.

Needham J. , Chemical embryology (3 vols, Cambridge, 1931).

Olby , op. cit. (ref. 2), 253.

Werskey P. G. , “British scientists and ‘outsider polities’, 1931–1945”, Science studies, i (1971), 61–84; idem, “The Visible College: A study of left-wing scientists in Britain, 1918–1939” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1974). See also Wersky P. G. , The visible college (London, 1978).

Needham J. , “Integrative levels: A revaluation of the idea of progress”, in Time: The refreshing river (ref. 30), 233–72.

Waddington , op. cit. (ref. 57).

Needham J. , Order and life (New Haven, 1935).

Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 51).

Needham J. , “Evolution and thermodynamics”, in Time: The refreshing river (ref. 30), 207–32.

Ibid., 209. This term is taken from the collected works of Willard Gibbs, published after his death and edited by Donnan F. G. , whose name appears amongst Needham's acknowledgements.

Ibid., 226–7.

Personal communication, 11 December 1974.

Hinshelwood C. H. Dean A. C. R. , Growth, function and regulation in bacterial cells (London, 1966).

Hinshelwood C. H. , The chemical kinetics of the bacterial cell (Oxford, 1946).

Ibid., 3, 210. See Section 1 above and ref. 15.

Ibid., 268.

Hinshelwood C. H. , The structure of physical chemistry (London, 1951), 454.

Hinshelwood , op. cit. (ref. 111), 184.

Monod J. , “The man who didn't find time to write his autobiography”, New scientist, lvi (1972), 280–1.

Brillouin , op. cit. (ref. 34).

Jacob F. , The logic of living systems: A history of heredity (London, 1974), 247.

Ibid. 245, 250–4, 259.