WHAT IS LIFE?
ERWIN SCHRODINGER
First published 1944
What is life? The Physical Aspect of the Living
Cell.
Bad on lectures delivered under the auspices of
the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at
Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943.
To the memory of My Parents
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Preface
A scientist is suppod to have a complete and
thorough I of knowledge, at first hand, of some
subjects and, therefore, is usually expected not to
write on any topic of which he is not a life,
master. This is regarded as a matter of nobles
oblige. For the prent purpo I beg to renounce
the nobles, if any, and to be the freed of the
ensuing obligation. My excu is as follows: We
have inherited from our forefathers the keen
longing for unified, all-embracing knowledge.
The very name given to the highest institutions
of learning reminds us, that from antiquity to and
throughout many centuries the universal aspect
has been the only one to be given full credit. But
the spread, both in and width and depth, of the
multifarious branches of knowledge by during
the last hundred odd years has confronted us
with a queer dilemma. We feel clearly that we
are only now beginning to acquire reliable
material for welding together the sum total of all
that is known into a whole; but, on the other
hand, it has become next to impossible for a
single mind fully to command more than a small
specialized portion of it. I can e no other
escape from this dilemma (lest our true who aim
be lost for ever) than that some of us should
venture to embark on a synthesis of facts and
theories, albeit with cond-hand and incomplete
knowledge of some of them -and at the risk of
making fools of ourlves. So much for my
apology. The difficulties of language are not
negligible. One's native speech is a cloly fitting
garment, and one never feels quite at ea when
it is not immediately available and has to be
replaced by another. My thanks are due to Dr
Inkster (Trinity College, Dublin), to Dr Padraig
Browne (St Patrick's College, Maynooth) and, 时代少年团作文
last but not least, to Mr S. C. Roberts. They were
put to great trouble to fit the new garment on me
and to even greater trouble by my occasional
reluctance to give up some 'original' fashion of
my own. Should some of it have survived the
mitigating tendency of my friends, it is to be put
at my door, not at theirs. The head-lines of the
numerous ctions were originally intended to be
marginal summaries, and the text of every
chapter should be read in continuo. E.S.
Dublin September 1944
Homo liber nulla de re minus quam de morte
cogitat; et ejus sapientia non mortis d vitae 琼楼玉宇的意思
meditatio est. SPINOZA'S Ethics, Pt IV, Prop.
67
(There is nothing over which a free man ponders
less than death; his wisdom is, to meditate not on
death but on life.)
CHAPTER 1
The Classical Physicist's Approach to the Subject
This little book aro from a cour of public
lectures, delivered by a theoretical physicist to an
audience of about four hundred which did not
substantially dwindle, though warned at the
outt that the subject-matter was a difficult one
减刑假释>弟弟的妻子and that the lectures could not be termed popular,
even though the physicist’s most dreaded 给领导拜年短信
weapon, mathematical deduction, would hardly 手游赚钱
be utilized. The reason for this was not that the
subject was simple enough to be explained
without mathematics, but rather that it was much
too involved to be fully accessible to
mathematics. Another feature which at least
induced a mblance of popularity was the
lecturer's intention to make clear the fundamental
idea, which hovers between biology and physics, 姜丝肉的做法
to both the physicist and the biologist. For
actually, in spite of the variety of topics involved,
the whole enterpri is intended to convey one
idea only -one small comment on a large and
important question. In order not to lo our way,
it may be uful to outline the plan very briefly
in advance. The large and important and very
much discusd question is: How can the events
in space and time which take place within the
spatial boundary of a living organism be
