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
Channelling (physics) Channelling (physics) Channelling is the process that constrains the path of a charged particle in a crystalline solid Many physical phenomena can occur when a charged particle is incident upon a solid target, e.g., elastic scattering, inelastic energy-loss processes, secondary-electron emission, electromagnetic radiation, nuclear reactions, etc. All of these processes have cross sections which depend on the impact parameters involved in collisions with individual target atoms. When the target material is homogeneous and isotropic, the impact-parameter distribution is independent of the orientation of the momentum of the particle and interaction processes are also orientation-independent. When the target material is monocrystalline,