Erwin Schrödinger was one of the foremost physicists of our time, responsible for the theory of atomic motion known as wave mechanics or quantum mechanics. He is important to biology because of a slim volume he published in 1944 called What Is Life" In this book, he set out to apply the laws of quantum mechanics to the molecules of living cells. From his rigorous analysis, he deduced that genetic mutations must take place because of a change in a molecule. He also first described the chromosome fiber as a message written in code. Schrödinger's little book laid the groundwork for future breakthroughs in genetics. He was the first physicist to apply his field to biology, and thus was also the precursor of much recent work in biophysics.

Schrödinger was the only child of a well-to-do Viennese family. His father had studied chemistry...