Schrödinger'sWhat is Life?—The 75th Anniversary of a Book that Inspired Biology

In his book What is Life?-The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, Erwin Schrödinger gives a "naïve physicist's" answer to the question "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" Although his book was met with criticism from some of his colleagues, it has had a large impact and has served as profound inspiration for pioneers of molecular biology as well as for later generations of both scientists and laymen.