September 12, 2018

• After the cat: Celebrating Schrödinger’s 75-year influence on biology

  

  Erwin Schrödinger delivered his landmark lecture in 1943

  Wolfgang Pfaundler/Science Photo Library

  In 1943, physicist Erwin Schrödinger gave a lecture in Dublin that kick-started modern biology. A star-studded conference last week celebrated his legacy

  By Graham Lawton

  “I’m a neuroscientist, and we have a technical expression in the field,” quips consciousness researcher Christoph Koch. “My brain is full.”

  I know how he feels. After 24 talks delving deep into some of the most exciting ideas in science, mine is fit to burst. Over the past two days, I’ve met six Nobel prizewinners, plus some good bets for future invitees to Stockholm. All are here in Dublin to celebrate the 75th anniversary of one of the most famous lectures in science.

  In 1943, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger stood in the physics lecture theatre at Trinity College Dublin and delivered his three-part lecture What Is Life?. Later published as a book, his ideas are widely credited with inspiring the molecular biology revolution. At the time, the molecular basis of life was unknown. Within 10 years, the structure of DNA had been discovered, and the genetic code was cracked eight years after that.

  Schrödinger moved to Dublin in 1939 after fleeing Nazi Germany and Austria. He was 53 and had already done the work that made him famous, including his eponymous wave equation and his infamous cat. He won a share of the 1933 physics Nobel prize for his work in quantum mechanics, but, as an outspoken critic of the Nazis, he was dismissed from his position at the University of Graz in Austria. He fled to Italy, the UK, and then Belgium.

  In 1940, he received a speculative offer from the Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera – a former mathematician – to become the director of the planned Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Luckily for de Valera, Schrödinger was an admirer of the Irish physicist William Hamilton, whose reformulation of Newtonian mechanics inspired his own work. He was glad to escape to neutral Ireland and stayed there until 1956.

  As director of the institute, it was Schrödinger’s duty to deliver annual public lectures. Like many a Nobel prizewinner, he used his academic freedom to think outside his subject. In What Is Life?, he used his knowledge of physics and atomic theory to speculate that life would turn out to be based on some sort of “aperiodic crystal”. He also floated the idea of a genetic code.

  James Watson and Francis Crick famously sent their 1953 Nature paper on the structure of DNA to Schrödinger, saying “we thought you might be interested in the enclosed reprints – you will see that it looks as though your term ‘aperiodic crystal’ is going to be a very apt one”.

  “As a feast of information, the event served as an excellent crash course in modern life science”

  Watson himself made a rare public appearance at the meeting, having seemingly put recent controversies around racist remarks behind him. He declined to speak to any journalists.

  But it wasn’t just scientists and journalists in attendance – the celebration was open to the general public. Given how productive the life sciences are right now, with daily advances in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, bioengineering, gerontology and related disciplines, this added up to a mouth-watering prospect. Dublin’s 1200-seater National Concert Hall was packed full for the duration of the conference.

  As a feast of scientific information, the event succeeded brilliantly, serving up an excellent crash course in modern life science. But as an exercise in futurology, it was less satisfying. Most of the speakers dwelt firmly in the present, or replayed their greatest, Nobel prizewinning hits.

  That was always likely. Twenty-five years ago, Dublin hosted a similar conference to mark the 50th birthday of What Is Life?. It attempted to recapture Schrödinger’s spirit of speculation but, according to Mike Murphy of the University of Cambridge, who organised both conferences, it failed. “One of our goals for the 2018 conference is to encourage the speakers to look to the future and to take risks in speculating on future challenges and predictions,” he said.

  Sadly the conference, on 5 and 6 September, didn’t quite manage it. But who can blame scientists for declining to speculate? Back at the 1993 meeting, nobody could have predicted some of the recurring highlights of this meeting: gene editing, optogenetics, cancer immunotherapy, ancient DNA sequencing, memory research and theories of consciousness.

  In fact, even Schrödinger himself was a reluctant crystal-ball gazer, admitting in the preface to his book that his speculations were based on “second-hand and incomplete knowledge” and that he was risking making a fool of himself.

  I hope I’m still around in 25 years to attend Schrödinger at 100 and refill my brain with the science no one dared predict this time.

  This article appeared in print under the headline “Biology’s greatest hits pull a crowd”

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