Abstract
PROF. NIELS BOHR, of Copenhagen, has brought together a collection of articles dealing in a rather general way with modern physics, under the title “Atomtheorie und Naturbeschreibung” (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1931. 5.60 gold marks). Reference is made in several of the articles to the question of the relation between the development of quantum theory and the formulation of the fundamental problems of biology. The point of view which is taken is that a consideration of the new ideas and methods of physics, often essentially foreign to ordinary conceptions and experience, may indicate how the discussion of the place of living organisms in our scheme of things should be approached. Prof. Bohr directs attention to the existence of a natural limit to the investigation of life in the inevitable death of an organism which is subjected to a complete physical investigation of its atomic constitution. A recognition of the importance of such matters is perhaps becoming rather general, as we find Dr. P. A. M. Dirac grouping the problem of life with the relativistic formulation of quantum mechanics and the nature of atomic nuclei—as a “more difficult” problem in the introduction to a paper on quantised singularities in the electromagnetic field, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society for last September, but it can scarcely be irrelevant to refer here also to Samuel Butler's ingenious treatment of a similar topic in “The Book of the Machines”, sixty years ago, in “Erewhon”.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Biology and Quantum Theory. Nature 129, 343 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129343b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129343b0