What Is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches

ISBN-13: 9781107604667 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 184 str.

Erwin Schrodinger

Opis

Nobel laureate Erwin Schrodinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. It was written for the layman, but proved to be one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of DNA. What is Life? appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Brought together with these two classics are Schrodinger's autobiographical sketches, which offer a fascinating account of his life as a background to his scientific writings.

Spis treści

Preface; 1. The classical physicist's approach to the subject; 2. The hereditary mechanism; 3. Mutations; 4. The quantum-mechanical evidence; 5. Delbruck's model discussed and tested; 6. Order, disorder and entropy; 7. Is life based on the laws of physics? Epilogue: on determinism and free will; Mind and Matter: 1. The physical basis of consciousness; 2. The future of understanding; 3. The principle of objectivation; 4. The arithmetical paradox: the oneness of mind; 5. Science and religion; 6. The mystery of the sensual qualities; Autobiographical sketches (translated from the German by Schrodinger's granddaughter Verena).

O autorze

Erwin Schrödinger, geboren 1887 in Wien, gestorben 1964 ebenda, gehörte zur Elite der Physiker des 20. Jahrhunderts. Mit der Entdeckung der nach ihm benannten Wellengleichung hat er wesentlich zur Entwicklung der gesamten Atomphysik beigetragen. Bahnbrechend waren auch seine Leistungen auf den Gebieten der Farbenlehre, der Thermodynamik, der statischen Mechanik und der Relativitätstheorie. 1933 erhielt er den Nobelpreis für Physik. 1938 musste er mit seiner Frau endgültig ins Exil gehen. Wenige Jahre vor seinem Tod kehrte er nach Österreich zurück.