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What Is Life?

With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches

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What Is Life?

By: Erwin Schrödinger, Roger Penrose - foreword
Narrated by: Bob Souer
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About this listen

Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the 20th 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. Schrödinger 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. They offer a fascinating fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings, making this volume a valuable addition to the shelves of scientist and layman alike.

©1967 Cambridge University Press (P)2019 Tantor Biological Sciences Philosophy Physics Science Mathematics Biography Popular Science

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An interesting read.

At times the author tends to drift into speculation about mechanisms of human evolution in particular that is based on a now dated view of natural selection: as being a process of 'perfecting' traits to an optimal form in an unchanging fitness landscape. This is reflecting views that were often held at the time of writing and of course without the benefit of the last 60 years of research to shape the authors arguments. That being said the book is very detailed and provides many interesting and thought provocing observations on life the universe and everything and in a very engaging manner. Well worth a read and I would suggest useful as part of further reading material for students of evolutionary biology.

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