Exercises marked with (*) require further reading/search beyond the suggested texts.
6. (*) What is Schroedinger's What is life? and what was its impact?
Answer:
"What is life" is a 1944 book written by Erwin Schroedinger that tried to summarize the knowledge on molecular biology at the time from a physicist's point of view, and presented an early theoretical description on the storage of genetic information. James D. Watson and Francis Crick, co-discoveres of the structure of DNA, said that his book inspired them to undertake their initial investigations.
The book also inspired a whole generation of professionals, mainly physicists, to attack the relevant problems in molecular biology.
© 2015 Joao Meidanis