![]() Schrödinger believed that the same laws of physics that describe a star must account for the intricate processes of metabolism within a living cell. In 1943, he gave a series of lectures at Trinity College Dublin that would eventually be published in a tiny, but mighty, book called What Is Life? In it, he speculated on how physics could team up with biology and chemistry to explain how life emerges from inanimate matter. Physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s views were particularly interesting, as his audacious speculations and predictions in biology have been hugely influential. Notable scientists, including John von Neumann, Erwin Schrödinger, Claude Shannon and Roger Penrose, have entertained the idea that there could be insights to gather from looking at life and the universe in tandem. Similarly, to biologists, life is housed in a biosphere that is decoupled from the happenings of the grandiose universe. To cosmologists, complex systems like life seem of little consequence to the problems they are trying to solve, such as those relating to the big bang or the standard model of particle physics. This chain of events also led to us, although we often see life and the formation of the universe as separate, or “non-overlapping magisteria” to borrow biologist Stephen Jay Gould’s phrase. ![]() You can sign up for the Lost in Space-Time here.Īt the dawn of time, the universe exploded into existence with the big bang, kick-starting a chain of events that led to subatomic particles clumping together into atoms, molecules and, eventually, the planets, stars and galaxies we see today. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or two to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. ![]() The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter.
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