Sarah Walker

Yeah, Schrodinger really tried to... to do what physicists try to do, which is explain things. And his attempt was to try to explain life in terms of non-equilibrium physics, because he thought that was the best description that we could generate at the time. And so he did come up with something really insightful, which was to predict the structure of DNA as an aperiodic crystal.

Yeah, Schrodinger really tried to... to do what physicists try to do, which is explain things. And his attempt was to try to explain life in terms of non-equilibrium physics, because he thought that was the best description that we could generate at the time. And so he did come up with something really insightful, which was to predict the structure of DNA as an aperiodic crystal.

And that was for a very precise reason that, you know, that was the only kind of physical structure that could encode enough information to actually specify a cell. We knew some things about genes but not about DNA and its actual structure. when he proposed that. But in the book, he tried to explain life as kind of going against entropy.

And that was for a very precise reason that, you know, that was the only kind of physical structure that could encode enough information to actually specify a cell. We knew some things about genes but not about DNA and its actual structure. when he proposed that. But in the book, he tried to explain life as kind of going against entropy.

And that was for a very precise reason that, you know, that was the only kind of physical structure that could encode enough information to actually specify a cell. We knew some things about genes but not about DNA and its actual structure. when he proposed that. But in the book, he tried to explain life as kind of going against entropy.

And so some people talked about it as like Schrodinger's paradox, how can life persist when the second law of thermodynamics is there? But in open systems, that's not so problematic. And really the question is, why can life generate so much order? And we don't have a physics to describe that. And it's interesting, you know, generations of physicists have thought about this problem.

And so some people talked about it as like Schrodinger's paradox, how can life persist when the second law of thermodynamics is there? But in open systems, that's not so problematic. And really the question is, why can life generate so much order? And we don't have a physics to describe that. And it's interesting, you know, generations of physicists have thought about this problem.

And so some people talked about it as like Schrodinger's paradox, how can life persist when the second law of thermodynamics is there? But in open systems, that's not so problematic. And really the question is, why can life generate so much order? And we don't have a physics to describe that. And it's interesting, you know, generations of physicists have thought about this problem.

Oftentimes it's like when people are retiring, they're like, oh, now I can work on life. Or they're like more senior in their career and they worked on other more traditional problems. And there's still a lot of impetus in the physics community to think that non-equilibrium physics will explain life. But I think that's not the right approach.

Oftentimes it's like when people are retiring, they're like, oh, now I can work on life. Or they're like more senior in their career and they worked on other more traditional problems. And there's still a lot of impetus in the physics community to think that non-equilibrium physics will explain life. But I think that's not the right approach.

Oftentimes it's like when people are retiring, they're like, oh, now I can work on life. Or they're like more senior in their career and they worked on other more traditional problems. And there's still a lot of impetus in the physics community to think that non-equilibrium physics will explain life. But I think that's not the right approach.

I don't think ultimately the solution to what life is, is there. And I don't really... think entropy has much to do with it unless it's entirely reformulated.

I don't think ultimately the solution to what life is, is there. And I don't really... think entropy has much to do with it unless it's entirely reformulated.

I don't think ultimately the solution to what life is, is there. And I don't really... think entropy has much to do with it unless it's entirely reformulated.

Yes. From randomness.

Yes. From randomness.

Yes. From randomness.

No. Physics hardly even acknowledges that the universe is random at its base. Yeah, absolutely. you know, he, he formulated laws that had initial conditions and, um, fixed dynamical laws. And that's been sort of become the standard canon of how people think the universe works and how we need to describe any physical system is with an initial condition and a law of motion.

No. Physics hardly even acknowledges that the universe is random at its base. Yeah, absolutely. you know, he, he formulated laws that had initial conditions and, um, fixed dynamical laws. And that's been sort of become the standard canon of how people think the universe works and how we need to describe any physical system is with an initial condition and a law of motion.

No. Physics hardly even acknowledges that the universe is random at its base. Yeah, absolutely. you know, he, he formulated laws that had initial conditions and, um, fixed dynamical laws. And that's been sort of become the standard canon of how people think the universe works and how we need to describe any physical system is with an initial condition and a law of motion.