Nobel laureate Erwin Schroedinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. It was written for the layman, but proved to be one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of DNA. What is Life? appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Brought together with these two classics are Schroedinger's autobiographical sketches, which offer a fascinating account of his life as a background to his scientific writings.

The object of this course of seminar lectures is, in Professor Schrodinger's words, to develop briefly one simple unified standard method, capable of dealing, without changing the fundamental attitude, with all cases (classical, quantum, Bose-Einstein, Fermi-Dirac, etc.) and with every new problem that may arise. The interest is focused on the general procedure, and examples are dealt with as illustrations thereof. It is not a first introduction for newcomers to the subject, but rather a 'repetitorium'. The treatment of those topics, which are to be found in every one of a hundred textbooks, is severely condensed; on the other hand, vital points which are usually passed over in all but the large monographs are dealt with at greater length.

Nobel laureate's brilliant attempt to develop a simple, unified standard method of dealing with all cases of statistical thermodynamics (classical, quantum, Bose-Einstein, Fermi-Dirac, etc.). Discussions of Nernst theorem, Planck's oscillator, fluctuations, the n-particle problem, problem of radiation, much more.