Ervin Bauer (1890-1938), a Martyr of Science
Ervin Bauer (1890-1938), a Martyr of Science

Summary/Abstract: What is life? This remains a perennial question which has received and receives hundreds of different answers. These depend on the developmental state of science at any given time and on the beliefs of the person giving it. Ervin Bauer raised this question in the first third of the last century and tried not only to give a convincing answer but also to develop from first principles a consistent theoretical framework that would account for all known manifestations of life. A friend of his, Boris Petrovich Tokin, who did so much later to keep Bauer’s name alive, said that "Bauer’s dream of theoretical biology was similar to Einstein’s goal in physics to create a single equation that encompasses the “Essence of Nature,” from which all physical phenomena can be derived." The sentiment is topical in this Year of Physics, when we celebrate the centennial of the publication of Einstein’s seminal papers that changed our view of the World.[...]

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