What Is Life? can be viewed as a well-reasoned theoretical prediction of what biologists should have been looking for during their search for genetic material. Both James D. Watson, and Francis Crick, who jointly proposed the double helix structure of DNA based on X-ray diffraction experiments by Rosalind Franklin, credited Schrödinger's book with presenting an early theoretical description of how the storage of genetic information would work, and each independently acknowledged the book as a source of inspiration for their initial researches. The book is based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Institute at Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943 and
Rosalind Franklin and DNA and B forms of DNA were composed of two helical chains. By then, James Watson and Francis Crick at the Cambridge University had built a correct double helical model of DNA, based on her experimental data. The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 is regarded as "the greatest and most important scientific discovery of the 20th Century". Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for the discovery. This discovery laid the foundation for modern biology, including medical and molecular researches. The discoverers earned a lasting worldwide fame. But