What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell

This pioneering work by physicist Erwin Schrödinger examines the fundamental question of how living organisms maintain order and organization in apparent defiance of the second law of thermodynamics. Originally delivered as lectures at Trinity College Dublin in 1943, the text applies principles from quantum mechanics and statistical physics to biological phenomena, marking a crucial interdisciplinary moment in twentieth-century science.

Schrödinger addresses the paradox that while physical systems tend toward disorder and increased entropy, living organisms create and maintain highly organized structures across generations. He proposes that life feeds on "negative entropy," extracting order from its environment to counteract the natural tendency toward chaos. This process requires genetic information storage in what he terms "aperiodic crystals" - stable molecular structures that can encode vast amounts of information in their irregular patterns, anticipating the later discovery of DNA's double helix structure.

The work engages implicitly with mechanistic and vitalistic debates about life's nature. Against vitalists who posit special non-physical forces animating living matter, Schrödinger maintains that life operates entirely within physical laws, though in ways that challenge conventional physics. He suggests that organisms exhibit "new physics" not through violation of natural laws but through their exploitation of quantum mechanical principles at the molecular level. This position has implications for discussions of divine action and design, as it neither requires nor excludes transcendent causation while emphasizing nature's inherent capacity for self-organization.

Schrödinger's epilogue ventures into philosophical territory, discussing consciousness and free will. He suggests that the apparent unity of consciousness poses difficulties for purely materialist accounts, hinting at connections between quantum mechanics and mental phenomena. While stopping short of explicit theological claims, he acknowledges that science cannot fully explain the subjective experience of being a unified self that observes the world.

The text's significance for God debates lies in its demonstration that life's complexity emerges from physical processes without requiring supernatural intervention, while simultaneously acknowledging explanatory limits regarding consciousness. This nuanced position influenced subsequent discussions about emergence, information theory in biology, and the relationship between physical and mental properties. Schrödinger's work thus provides a sophisticated framework for examining how natural processes generate order and complexity, contributing to ongoing debates about design, purpose, and the need for transcendent explanation in understanding life's phenomena.