Schr\"{o}dinger's "What is Life?" at 75

TL;DR

This paper revisits Schrödinger's 'What is Life?' on its 75th anniversary, emphasizing its enduring relevance as a manifesto for ongoing scientific challenges in understanding living matter.

Contribution

It offers a reinterpretation of Schrödinger's work as a timeless call to address fundamental questions in biology, beyond its historical influence.

Findings

Schrödinger's book remains a relevant scientific manifesto.

The work continues to inspire 21st-century biological research.

It highlights ongoing challenges in understanding living systems.

Abstract

2019 marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Erwin Schr\"{o}dinger's "What is Life?", a short book described by Roger Penrose in his preface to a reprint of this classic as "among the most influential scientific writings of the 20th century." In this article, I review the long argument made by Schr\"{o}dinger as he mused on how the laws of physics could help us understand "the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism." Though Schr\"{o}dinger's book is often hailed for its influence on some of the titans who founded molecular biology, this article takes a different tack. Instead of exploring the way the book touched biologists such as James Watson and Francis Crick, as well as its critical reception by others such as Linus Pauling and Max Perutz, I argue that Schr\"{o}dinger's classic is a timeless manifesto, rather than a dated historical curiosity. "What is Life?" is full of timely outlooks and approaches to understanding the mysterious living world that includes and surrounds us and can instead be viewed as a call to arms to tackle the great unanswered challenges in the study of living matter that remain for 21$^{st}$ century science.