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
Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute (Russian: "Краткие сообщения по физике", "Kratkue Soobsheniya po fisike") is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of physics. The journal was established in 1970, and is published by the Lebedev Physical Institute (in Russian) a monthly basis. Springer publishes an English translation of the journal. It is edited by Oleg N. Krokhin. The online version is available since 2007. The "Bulletin" covers research results from Prokhorov General Physics Institute and the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences in addition to those of the Lebedev Physical Institute.