What is life? The physicist who sparked a revolution in biology

Insights from biology and computing built upon Schrödinger’s genius, changing our view of life forever. Photograph: Rick Sammon/AP

Matthew Cobb
Seventy years ago, on 5 February 1943, the Nobel prizewinning quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger gave the first of three public lectures at Trinity College, Dublin. His topic was an unusual one for a physicist: “What is Life?” The following year the lectures were turned into a book of the same name.

Cloning and stem cell Nobel for Gurdon and Yamanaka

This year's Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to John Gurdon at the University of Cambridge and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan. They rewrote biology textbooks by showing that mature cells could be reprogrammed into embryonic cells that could then turn into all other tissues of the body.

Cat Physics: The Science Behind Why Cats Always Land on Their Feet

Destin at Smarter Every Day answers everything you ever wanted to know about why cats (almost) always land on their feet, but were too afaird to pick up and drop your own cat multiple times from varying heights to find out.