What Is Life? published in 1944. At that time DNA was not yet accepted as the carrier of hereditary information, which only was the case after the Hershey–Chase experiment of 1952. One of the most successful branches of physics at this time was statistical physics, and quantum mechanics, a theory which is also very statistical in its nature. Schrödinger himself is one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics. Max Delbrück's thinking about the physical basis of life was an important influence on Schrödinger. However, long before the publication of "What is Life?", geneticist and 1946 Nobel-prize winner H. J. Muller had in
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research and review articles on any aspect of physical chemistry, chemical physics, and biophysical chemistry. It is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry on behalf of eighteen participating societies. The editor-in-chief is Seong Keun Kim (Seoul National University). The journal was established in 1999 as the results of a merger between "Faraday Transactions" and a number of other physical chemistry journals published by different societies. The journal is run by an Ownership Board, on which all the member societies have equal representation. The eighteen