Prof. Rob Phillips (CalTech)

Abstract

2019 marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of  Erwin Schrodinger's ``What is Life?'', a short book hailed by Roger Penrose as ``among the most influential scientific writings'’ of the 20th century'’. In this talk, I will briefly review the long argument made by Schrodinger as he mused on how the laws of physics could help us understand  ``the events in space and time which takes place within the spatial boundary of a living organism.''   Though often chronicled for its influence on some of the titans of the rise of molecular biology,  my talk takes a different tack. I pivot to the idea of Schrodinger’s  classic as a timeless manifesto.  Rather than a dated historical curiosity, I argue that ``What is Life?'' is  full of stylish approaches to understanding the mysterious living world around us and instead, might be viewed as a call to arms to tackle the…