What is Life? Schrodinger, Erwin
03/2012, Letnik:
15
eBook
Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger'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 Schrödinger's autobiographical sketches, which offer a fascinating account of his life as a background to his scientific writings.
How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such ...research win widespread acclaim and support, while others do not?In Shaping Science with Rhetoric, Leah Ceccarelli addresses such questions through close readings of three scientific monographs in their historical contexts—Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), which inspired the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary biology; Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life? (1944), which catalyzed the field of molecular biology; and Edward O. Wilson's Consilience (1998), a so far not entirely successful attempt to unite the social and biological sciences. She examines the rhetorical strategies used in each book and evaluates which worked best, based on the reviews and scientific papers that followed in their wake.Ceccarelli's work will be important for anyone interested in how interdisciplinary fields are formed, from historians and rhetoricians of science to scientists themselves.
What is Life? Schrodinger, Erwin; Penrose, Roger
01/1992
eBook
Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. A distinguished physicist's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of ...biology, it was written for the layman, but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. The philosopher Karl Popper hailed it as a 'beautiful and important book' by 'a great man to whom I owe a personal debt for many exciting discussions'. It appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Schrodinger asks what place consciousness occupies in the evolution of life, and what part the state of development of the human mind plays in moral questions. Brought together with these two classics are Schrödinger's autobiographical sketches, published and translated here for the first time. They offer a fascinating fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings, making this volume a valuable additon to the shelves of scientist and layman alike.
The book offers an exploration of the relationships between epistemology and probability in the work of Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger, in quantum mechanics, and in modern ...physics as a whole. It also considers the implications of these relationships and of quantum theory itself for our understanding of the nature of thinking and knowledge in general. These implications are radical and controversial. While they have been seen as scientifically productive and intellectually liberating to some, Bohr and Heisenberg among them, they have been troublesome to many others, beginning with Schrödinger and, most famously, Einstein, who refused to believe that God would resort to playing dice, as quantum theory appeared to demand. The situation led to an intense debate, in particular the great confrontation between Einstein and Bohr, which began around the time of the discovery of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg and Schrödinger in 1920s and has overshadowed the history of the debate concerning quantum mechanics ever since. The controversy itself surrounding quantum theory and the intensity of the debate concerning it have remained undiminished. No end appears to be in sight. At the same time, in spite of the enormous and ever proliferating amount of commentaries in all genres (technical, philosophical, and popular), some of the deeper philosophical aspects of quantum mechanics and of the philosophical thought of the figures considered in this study often remain explored. The main aim of this book is to contribute to a better understanding of the nature of quantum-theoretical thinking and of the reasons for this extraordinary impact and controversy. Philosophically, the book pursues this task by bringing together in a new way the relationships between epistemology and probability in quantum theory and beyond. Historically, it does so by engaging comprehensively and in a mutually illuminating way with the work of all three key figures responsible for the birth of quantum mechanics - Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and, as concerns quantum epistemology, Bohr - which has not be previously done in literature on quantum mechanics. Among other key contributions of the book is an analysis of the role of mathematics in quantum theory and in the thinking of Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schrödinger, a new treatment of the famous experiment of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) and of the Bohr-Einstein exchange concerning it, and an exploration of the implications of the epistemological problematics considered by the book for new developments of quantum mechanics itself, such as quantum information theory, on the one hand, and, on the other, for higher-level physical theories, from quantum field theory to string/brane theories and new cosmological theories.
How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such ...research win widespread acclaim and support, while others do not? In Shaping Science with Rhetoric, Leah Ceccarelli addresses such questions through close readings of three scientific monographs in their historical contexts—Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), which inspired the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary biology; Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life? (1944), which catalyzed the field of molecular biology; and Edward O. Wilson's Consilience (1998), a so far not entirely successful attempt to unite the social and biological sciences. She examines the rhetorical strategies used in each book and evaluates which worked best, based on the reviews and scientific papers that followed in their wake. Ceccarelli's work will be important for anyone interested in how interdisciplinary fields are formed, from historians and rhetoricians of science to scientists themselves.
Erwin Schrödinger was a brilliant and charming Austrian, a great scientist, and a man with a passionate interest in people and ideas. In this, the first comprehensive biography of Schrödinger, Walter ...Moore draws upon recollections of Schrödinger's friends, family and colleagues, and on contemporary records, letters and diaries. Schrödinger's life is portrayed against the backdrop of Europe at a time of change and unrest. His best-known scientific work was the discovery of wave mechanics, for which he was awarded the Nobel prize in 1933. However, Erwin was also an enthusiastic explorer of the ideas of Hindu mysticism, and in the mountains of his beloved Tyrol he sought a philosophic unity of Mind and Nature. Although not Jewish, he left his prestigious position at Berlin University as soon as the Nazis seized power. After a short time in Oxford he moved to Graz, but barely escaped from Austria after the Anschluss. He then helped Eamon de Valera establish an Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin. It was here that he spent the happiest years of his life, and also where he wrote his most famous and influential book What is Life?, which attracted some of the brightest minds of his generation into molecular biology. Schrodinger enjoyed a close friendship with Einstein, and the two maintained a prolific correspondence all their lives. Schrödinger led a very intense life, both in his scientific research and in his personal life. Walter Moore has written a highly readable biography of this fascinating and complex man which will appeal not only to scientists but to anyone interested in the history of our times, and in the life and thought of one of the great men of twentieth-century science.
The philosopher's atom von Baeyer, Hans Christian
Discover (Chicago, Ill.),
11/1995, Letnik:
16, Številka:
11
Magazine Article
Though physicists have been able to glimpse the missing bridge between classical physics and quantum physics, no theory has yet reconciled the two satisfactorily. A class of objects known as Rydberg ...atoms has shed new light on the subject.
