Is new physics necessary for life phenomena?

Reflections on Schroedinger’s lesson

Alfredo IorioInstitute of Particle & Nuclear Physics

Charles University of Prague

3 December, 2008

•Conclusions

•Schroedinger’s lesson, part I

•Schroedinger’s lesson, part II

• A (almost alive) prototype

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•Home work

• Further reading

``[...] For example, an engineer only accustomed to thermal machines, after having analyzed an electric motor would expect it to function according to principles he still does not understand. He finds copper, familiar to him from copper boilers, used here in the shape of very long thin wires winding around coils; he finds iron, familiar to him from levers, bars and vapor cylinders, that here fills those coils of copper wires. He would be convinced that it is the same copper and iron, and that they follow the same laws of nature, and he would be right. [But] The difference in the construction [thermal machines vs electric motors] suffices to prepare him to a completely different functioning. [...]''

• Epilogue