Remembering physicist Erwin Schrödinger who inspired many Nobel Laureates.
In 'What is Life?', from 1944, Schrödinger describes how living organisms differ from inanimate objects like crystals. After reading Schrödinger's book, an interest in DNA was sparked for Maurice Wilkins, James Watson and Francis Crick.
A grateful Crick wrote to Schrödinger on Schrödinger’s 66th birthday, 12 August 1953, to express his gratitude for being an influence. "Watson and I were once discussing how we came to enter the field of molecular biology, and we discovered that we had both been influenced by your little book 'What is Life?'" wrote Crick. "We thought you might be interested – you will see that it looks as though your term 'aperiodic crystal' is going to be a very apt one."
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