ReviewCell systems2021
Schrödinger's What Is Life? at 75.
Review in Cell systems, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- The entropic view of aging: from thermodynamics to biology.Life medicine · 2026Article
- Quantum biology: From mechanisms to medicine.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Phenomenological model of transthyretin stabilization.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Seeing with an extra sense.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
- Kinetically Controlled and Nonequilibrium Assembly of Block Copolymers in Solution.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2024Review
- Microbial life in slow and stopped lanes.Trends in microbiology · 2024Review
- "Molecular Biology"-Pleonasm or Denotation for a Discipline of Its Own? Reflections on the Origins of Molecular Biology and Its Situation Today.Biomolecules · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
2019 marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life?, a short book described by Roger Penrose in his preface to a reprint of this classic as "among the most influential scientific writings of the 20th century." In this article, I review the long argument made by Schrödinger as he mused on how the laws of physics could help us understand "the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism." Though Schrödinger's book is often hailed for its influence on some of the titans who founded molecular biology, this article takes a different tack. Instead of exploring the way the book touched biologists such as James Watson and Francis Crick, as well as its critical reception by others such as Linus Pauling and Max Perutz, I argue that Schrödinger's classic is a timeless manifesto, rather than a dated historical curiosity. What Is Life? is full of timely outlooks and approaches to understanding the mysterious living world that includes and surrounds us and can instead be viewed as a call to arms to tackle the great unanswered challenges in the study of living matter that remain for 21st century science.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.