Quantum Explorers: Bohr, Jordan, and Delbrück Venturing into Biology

This paper disentangles selected intertwined aspects of two great scientific developments: quantum mechanics and molecular biology. We look at the contributions of three physicists who in the 1930s were protagonists of the quantum revolution and explorers of the field of biology: Niels Bohr, Pascual Jordan, and Max Delbrück. Their common platform was the defense of the Copenhagen interpretation in physics and the adoption of the principle of complementarity as a way of looking at biology. Bohr addressed the problem of how far the results reached in physics might influence our views about life. Jordan and Delbrück were followers of Bohr's ideas in the context of quantum mechanics and also of his tendency to expand the implications of the Copenhagen interpretation to biology. We propose that Bohr's perspective on biology was related to his epistemological views, as Jordan's was to his political positions. Delbrück's propensity to migrate was related to his transformation into a key figure in the history of twentieth-century molecular biology.