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OCR for page 103
WALTER M. ELSASSER
March 20, ~ 904-October ~ 4, ~ 991
BY HARRY RUBIN
WALTER ELSASSER WAS TRAINED as a theoretical physicist
ant! macle several important contributions to funcia-
mental problems of atomic physics, inclucling interpreta-
tion of the experiments on electron scattering by Davisson
en cl Germer as an effect of cle Broglie's electron waves and
recognition of the shell structure of atomic nuclei. Circum-
stances later turned his interests to geophysics, where he
had important insights about the radiative transfer of heat
in the atmosphere and fatherec} the generally accepted cly-
namo theory of the earth's magnetism. He clevotect a major
part of the last fifty years of his life to (developing a theory
of organisms, concentrating on the basic features that clis-
tinguish between living and inanimate matter, and he pro-
clucecl four books on the subject. While his contribution to
biology was not wiclely acknowlecigecI, he felt it wouIcI even-
tually be seen as his major scientific achievement.
BACKGROUND AND YOUTH
Walter was born in Mannheim, Germany, the oIcler of
two children of Maurice and Johanna Elsasser. His sister,
Maria, was three years younger than him. His grandparents
were prosperous Jewish merchants, but his father was a law-
103
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04
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
yer who was caught up in the great wave of assimilation and
both parents became nonpracticing Protestants. Walter was
confirmed! in the Evangelical Church and had no iclea of
his Jewish ancestry until the age of fifteen when an ac-
quaintance unexpectecITy askocl him about it. His father gave
evasive answers when he inquired about his ancestry, ant! it
took about a year to learn the truth. Up to this time he had
no notion of Jews as a separate group, but his Jewish iden-
tity was to prove a crucial factor for him in the rising title
or anusem~sm that culminated in the Hitler regime. One
of the first manifestations of that antisemitism occurred in
his last year of high school, when he applied to join a fra-
ternity at the urging of his father who thought it would
help turn his son from somewhat of an ociciball into an
ordinary good German citizen. His application was rejectee!
on the grounds of the so-called! Nurnberg articles acloptec!
in 1919 by a national organization of fraternities which speci-
fiec! that persons of Jewish crescent were inadmissible.
Up to the age of thirteen Walter had a congenial up-
bringing, although there were severe foot! shortages be-
cause of WorIcl War I. His father, then in his forties, was
callecl into the German army and because he was a lawyer
was given a desk job at the headquarters of the Swiss bor-
cler guard. Since he had earlier clevelopecI a severe ulcer,
which was exacerbated by barracks foocl, he obtained per-
mission to have his family join him. When headquarters
were shifted from a small town to a Konstanz, the food
shortage became more severe. His father's illness became
so bad he was mustered out of the army and shortly after
was promoter! to a judgeship at the Superior Court of Heidel-
berg.
Walter attendee! Gymnasium, which hac! a nine-year cur-
ricuTum, roughly equivalent to the fourth through twelfth
gracles in America. The emphasis was on classical subjects
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
105
such as Latin, Greek, mathematics, history, and religion
with only a smattering of physics and chemistry. This was in
contrast to the alternative RealschuTe, which appeared in
the nineteenth century en cl emphasized science, mathematics,
ant! modern languages. He felt that the unpragmatic im-
mersion into a past florid tended to bring out introverted]
features that he already possessed. In any case, Germans
preclominantly thought of science as a philosophical enter-
prise, and Walter maintained a strong interest in the philo-
sophical aspects of science throughout his career.
THE ROAD TO SCIENCE
Walter's first encounter with natural science came from a
journal of popular science to which his father subscribed.
The journal also issued a series of small books clearing with
various subjects of scientific research, which he peruser!
from the age of thirteen or fourteen. These were mono-
graphs covering all branches of science by carefully chosen
authors who knew their fielcis well and hac3 a knack for
popular interpretation. He was particularly attracted to the
books clearing with the mysteries of the discoveries of atoms
and molecules, a curiosity that never left him. His math-
ematics teacher around the eighth gracle took an intensive
interest in him when he discovered Walter's interest in sci-
ence and mathematics. They took Tong walks in the wooded
hills arounc! Heidelberg ant! discussed everything concerned
with science and the nature of scientific inquiry. In the
ninth gracle, mathematics was chiefly concerned! with solicl
geometry, which his teacher thought Walter could learn in
a fraction of the time clevoted to it. He then suggested
Walter get a book of calculus problems ant! do them in lieu
of solid geometry. Walter worker! through these elaborate
problems one by one and thereby acquired an extensive
working knowlecige of calculus long before graduating from
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06
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Gymnasium. He also had a fairly good intuitive understand-
ing of avant garde thought in physics from the monographs
on atoms and crystals, light and X rays, and stars and galax-
ies, which he read twice if not more often.
Walter also found books of a philosophical character in
his father's library, among them Ernst Haeckel's enormously
popular The Riddles of the Universe. He already recognized
the book as a statement of a very coarse rationalism or
straight materialism. Although he disliked Haeckel's crude
philosophy, the shock he received from it opened his eyes
to genuine problems in the philosophy of science, which
occupied much of his thinking in later years. Under pres-
sure of antisemitism he began to identify with his forebears,
the authors of the Bible. These men were unanimous about
one thing that the understanding of nature, man, or God
was not a wholly intellectual matter. This stood in contrast
to Haeckel, whose world was nothing but Haeckel-like intel-
lects trying to understand the world intellectually.
Stimulated by such quasi-philosophy Walter started thinking
about philosophy, in particular Hegel's dictum that, when
quantitative differences in some field become pronounced,
they tend to turn into differences in quality. This contrasts
with the view of the great philosophers of science, that the
scientist in his methods has no place for qualities: they
pertain to philosophy proper, usually expressed as meta-
physics. An example is the notion of heat, which first ap-
pears to our perceptions as a quality but which physicists
have shown is motion of molecules that can in all detail
account for the properties of warm and cold bodies.
Philosophical thinking eventually led Walter to the real-
ization that the purpose of the scientific method, which is
to structure the multifarious data of experience, is neither
simple nor obvious. This is apparent in the example that
for thousands of years wise men studied the motions of
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
107
stars and clevelopecl complicates! mathematical descriptions
for them. Arounc! 300 B.C. Aristarchos proposed that the
earth rotates about itself and moves in an orbit around the
sun, as did the other planets. This view was ignored as idle
speculation for eighteen centuries up to Copernicus. Walter
grew to realize that acceptance of scientific ideas clepencis
on whether they harmonize with the prevailing icleas of
society. These ideas are controlled by unconscious tenclen-
cies and cannot be controlled by rational volition. He con-
siclered "the current unrelieved and brutal dominance of
pragmatism in science, often clothed in terms such as po-
litical or other 'relevance'," a frightening development.
Walter tried his hanc! briefly at the commercial enter-
prise left by his grandparents. He was surprised at how much
he likes! the work, primarily because it provided a frame-
work for his activities. However, he had become deeply com-
mittec! to scientific activity and die! not wish to abandon the
sense of intellectual adventure fount! in any scientist of an
inquisitive mind. He therefore returned to science with a
renewed determination to become a physicist. He entered
the University of Heiclelberg, where the professor of phys-
ics was Phillip Lenarc3, who hacl received the Nobel Prize
several years earlier. While still in high school Walter had
occasionally skipped class to attend Lenard's lectures with
their admirable demonstration experiments. Lenard was
actively involved in right-wing politics and was later to re-
tire from his professorship to devote himself entirely to the
Nazi party, ending up as president of the Nazi Academy of
Sciences. But in 1922 politics was far from Walter's mind
when he enterer! the large lecture room for his first physics
class. Every seat was taken as Lenard walked in wearing an
impeccably tailorect suit bearing an enormous silver swas-
tika. This was unusual as Germany was still a place of law
anti order, and professors were not expected to brandish
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08
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
symbols of political extremism in class. But the students
gave him the longest, louclest, and most cleclicated ovation
Walter ever witnessed either before or after. They had clearly
voted for the swastika, ant! Walter, who knew what this meant
for Jews, was cleeply disturbed. A number of people acivisecl
him to leave after his first year, as he would then have to
enter the laboratory where Lenarc! was as likely as not to
grab him by the scruff of the neck anti throw him out bodily.
He therefore clecidecI in the fall of 1923 to move to Munich,
by far the best university in southern Germany.
There were two kingdoms of physics in Munich, one heaclec!
by the noted experimentaTist Wilhelm Wien and the other
by the theoretician Arnold SommerfelcI. Walter clict consid-
erable experimental work in Wien's institute and enjoyed it
very much. During his third semester he worked assiclu-
ously on such complicated matters as the Millikan oil drop
experiment and the electrostatic quadrant electrometer. But
the chief influence on him was SommerfelcI, who was as
brilliant a teacher as he was a research man. Walter consict-
ered Sommerfeld's classes the best he ever attended. In
aciclition, he participated in Sommerfelct's weekly seminar
on contemporary atomic physics attended by his assistants
en c! a small number of students. The seminar stimulatecI
Walter to read some scientific literature on his own. He
particularly rememberer! a paper by James Franck of
Gottingen on spectral lines that involved highly excited states
of gaseous atoms. Calculations inclicatect orbits of the elec-
trons that were incomprehensible from a simple mechani-
cal point of view. This proviclec! an unexpected glimpse into
a different orcler of nature in the minute dimensions of the
atom that wouIcl soon be expressed in the mathematical
language of quantum mechanics.
In Munich Walter overIappecl for one semester with Werner
Heisenberg, who then obtained his Ph.D. and went on to
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
109
Gottingen. On several occasions he heard Heisenberg say
that doing physics was fun. This came as a great revelation
to Walter, who hac! grown up in the stolid environment of
the German micictle class and who conic! think of scientific
research only as a matter of duty or personal ambition or
just to make money. The insight of cloing science for the
fun of it left Walter exhilarates! ant! cleeply impressed.
Walter became fond of traveling and hiking during his
..~ .. .
years in southern Germany. While in Munich he took many
weekend trips to the fore-Alps, staying in the numerous
inexpensive youth hostels and hiking on the innumerable
traits to the top of the mountains, often 2 kilometers high.
He clecidect to become an experimental physicist, but early
in his third semester in Munich an assistant professor ap-
proached him with the advice that every single member of
the faculty of Wien's institute asicle from the director ant!
himself were card-carrying members of the Nazi party. It
was, of course, in Munich in November 1923 that the abor-
tive beer hall putsch by Hitler and Luclendorff, the former
chief of staff of the German army cluring World War I, took
place. Munich wouIc3 therefore not be a favorable place for
Walter to continue to work toward his Ph.D. He suggester!
that Gottingen was not only very good but "full of Jews."
Walter asked Sommerfelct to write a letter of introduction
to James Franck, whose work had so intrigued him, and he
at once acceclec! to Walter's visit. When he arrivecl in
Gottingen early in 1925, Franck accepted him almost im-
mecliately as one of his Ph.D. cancliclates.
THE WORLD OF GOTTINGEN
Walter cleveloped a close relationship with James Franck,
whom he admired greatly. Franck kept his office open, and
Walter often founc! himself sitting on one end of an old
battered sofa in lively discussion with Franck at the other
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
end. Franck's main interest was in the study of atoms and
molecules by the simplest means possible, electrons and
light. He hacl already shown that electrons transfer energy
strictly in lumps or packages and hacI received the Nobel
Prize for this achievement in 1925 along with his younger
collaborator Gustav Hertz. Walter received for his thesis the
subject of fluorescence, whereby one quantum of light is
absorbed while another slightly different energy is emitted.
While he was making technical preparations for this thesis
work he would drop in now and then to Franck's office to
question him about atomic physics, ant! Walter came to
regard Franck as his main teacher of science.
Max Born, the theoretician, was also a professor in
Gottingen and the growing international reputation of Born
anct Franck attracted many foreign students, among them
Robert Oppenheimer, Robert Brocle, H. P. Robertson, and
Patrick Blackett. Paul Dirac was a frequent visitor. Walter
also hac! close interactions with German students in the
institute ant! developer! close friendships with Fritz
Houtermans ant! Wolfgang Harries. There were many inter-
esting lectures in physics, especially theoretical physics. One
course was a seminar titled "The Structure of Matter," which
playecl a germinal role in the (levelopment of quantum
mechanics. Although the seminar was Tong listecI under the
name of Davis! Hilbert, the famous mathematician, he was
no longer active en cl its conduct was left to Max Born. Walter
was a regular attendant at the seminar throughout his stay
· ~ ·- -
~n ~ott~ngen.
One of the earliest presentations in this seminar was by
Born's student, Friecirich HuncI, who later made major con-
tributions to the theory of atomic spectra. The report was
about an experiment of Davisson and Kunsman, two physi-
cists at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. They shot
electrons at a platinum plate and observed how they were
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
111
scattered back. They found that the intensity of the distri-
bution of the electrons varied with the angle of scattering,
showing maxima and minima. This was a mysterious and
quite surprising result, but the source was unimpeachable.
Born tried to explain the result by the variable deflection
of the extraneous electrons by shells of electrons that were
of different densities. Without calculations it was impos-
sible to know whether this suggestion was correct. One clay
in May 1925 Walter found in the library two recent papers
by Einstein on the effect of quantum theory on gases. Einstein
shower! that certain gases behaved like assemblies of waves
rather than particles. Twenty years earlier Einstein hac! noted
that light, which everyone thought to be of wave motion,
also had particle properties and that light was emitted and
absorbect in packets called quanta. Coming from Einstein
this was highly significant news. Einstein then noted a the-
sis of Louis cle Broglie, which Walter found in the univer-
sity library. The thesis contained de Broglie's basic iclea
that all primary components of matter have wave proper-
ties ant! presented a simple formula connecting the wave
length with the particle's velocity. Walter wonclerecl whether
Davisson and Kunsman's maxima and minima were cliffrac-
tion phenomena similar to those produced by X rays pen-
etrating crystals but produced by a slight penetration and
reflection of the electrons. He easily calculated the energy
of the electrons required for the maxima, en cl it came out
just right. Since the experiments were still crucle, his sur-
mise was only a guess but an exceptionally interesting and
promising one.
Walter talked with Franck about the problem and was
encouraged by his opinion that the idea was interesting
though speculative. Franck suggested Walter think it through
carefully and write to Naturwissenschaften. A few weeks later
he ctic! so and, after receiving Franck's approval, sent it off.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
He later learner! that the paper was reviewer! by Einstein,
who incticated that he was not sure how literally the idea of
waves associated with electrons should be taken but thought
the paper shouIcT certainly be publishecI, which it was shortly
thereafter. In print it became a note about half a page in
the folio-sized volume. Heisenberg wrote to Wolfgang Pauli
about the importance of Walter's note, and it was repro-
cluced by Max von Laue in 1944 in a book on matter waves.
In 1927 the decisive publication of Davisson and Germer
appearec! which clemonstratecT the wave character of elec-
trons without a doubt. The authors referrer! to Schroclinger's
famous papers of 1926 but not to Walter's note. Born pub-
lishecI an article in 1926 in which he treated the collision of
an electron with an atom as the scattering of a cle Broglie
wave and then developecl a whole mathematical machinery
for wave scattering. In this article Born introduced the no-
tion of probability for the first time in quantum mechanics;
he proposed that the wave function was a statistical guide
for the particles in the sense that the amplitude of the wave
specifies a probability for the particle to travel in certain
ways. At the end of the paper Born quoted Walter's note
saying he hacI correctly interpreted the experimental re-
sults of Davisson and Kunsman.
Publication of his note turned Walter's head anc! he asked
Fran ck if he could experiment with the scattering of elec-
trons by metal surfaces. This was quite foolish because that
type of experiment is technically very clifficult, and Walter's
skill was not up to it. Franck agrees! as Tong as he wouic} do
it on his own, since Franck wouIcl not allow his group to
engage in highly speculative exercises. Walter tried it for
three months before he realized how silly it was for an
inexperienced! young man to undertake such formiciably
difficult experiments on his own.
Among Franck's six or eight graduate students, Walter
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
113
felt he was the least successful at buiTcling apparatus, a skill
that was essential to an experimental physicist of those days.
He also recognized that he was the most passionately inter-
estecl in ant! most knowledgeable about physical theory.
This was apparently recognized by Max Born, who, in the
summer of 1926, asker] Walter if he wouicI consider becom-
ing a theoretical physicist en c! doing a thesis with him. Af-
ter consulting with Franck he decided to accept the offer
and undertook an uncomplicated study of the collision of
an electron with a hydrogen atom. This involves! straight-
forward mathematical techniques with a large pile of for-
mulas and offered few difficulties to Walter. He had few
opportunities to discuss his work with Born, who worker! at
home ant! exhibited little interest in seeing students. Walter
was fortunate at this stage to have the help of Robert
Oppenheimer, who couIcl steer him to the proper place in
a mathematical book when difficulties dicl arise. One con-
versation with Born Walter rememberer! well. Born, who
was a mathematical virtuoso, told Walter that he was not
outstanding in mathematics but strong in conceptual thought,
where Born felt less secure. A common iclea is that concep-
tual thought precedes precise mathematical analysis: mod-
els ant! patterns emerge out of the primal chaos of data
and thoughts of human experience and often cannot be
preclictecI. Walter had aIreacly recognized that his great
strength lay in conceptual thought, ant! his self-confidence
grew stronger with age, so he fearer! no competition in this
area.
Walter chose astronomy and mathematics as his required
minors in the Ph.D. program. The astronomy, which was
mainly astrophysics, confirmed! the icleas of the uniformity
of atomic physics anc! its laws. Mathematics in Gottingen
involved some of the great men of the fielcI. It had been
establisher! there by Carl Friecirich Gauss, one of the most
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BIOGRAPHICAL
EMOIRS
the maintenance of information is so powerful that many
species do not change their species-specific characteristics
for millions of generations.
These thoughts lee! Walter to formulate a holistic set of
principles to represent the living state. These principles are
not scientific laws in the usual sense since they are not
clerivable from the mathematics of quantum mechanics. They
define that which is in the form of regularities but not
determined by atomic en cl molecular physics. The basic as-
sumption in his holistic interpretation is that "an organism
, ~
Lor a cell] is a source (or sometimes a sink) of causal chains
which cannot be traced beyond a terminal point because
they are lost in the unfathomable complexity of the organ-
ism for cells." The basic principles of organisms as listed in
his 1987 book are the following:
1. The first principle is orclerec! heterogeneity. Combina-
torial analysis shows that the number of structural arrange-
ments of atoms in a cell is immense; that is, much greater
that 10~°°, a number that is itself much larger than the
number of elementary particles in the universe (108°~. But
biology shows us there is regularity in the large where there
is heterogeneity in the small, hence artier above heteroge-
neity. This concept of ordered heterogeneity was first intro-
cluced by the molecular biologist Rollin Hotchkiss, system-
atized by the embryologist Paul Weiss, but given quantitative
definition and set in a general theory by Walter.
2. The second principle is creative selection. A choice is
macle in nature among the immense number of possible
patterns inferred in the first principle. The availability of
such a choice is consi(lered the basic and irreplaceable cri-
terion of holistic or nonmechanistic biology. The term "cre-
ative" refers to phenomena that, like everything in biology,
are compatible with the laws of physics but are not uniquely
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
157
determined by them. No mechanism can be specified by
whose operation those selected differ from those not se-
lectecI. He points out that the number of different patterns
is also immense in the physical science of statistical me-
chanics, but in that case the variation of structure from
pattern to pattern averages out. The patterns of inorganic
systems repeat themselves over and over again ace infinitum,
while those of each organism are unique. The selection of
a relatively small number of organisms from the immense
number of possibilities allowed by quantum mechanics is a
primary expression of biological order and is the scientific
counterpart of the term "creativity" used in ordinary lan-
guage.
3. The third! principle is holistic memory. It provides the
criterion for choice not expressed in the second principle.
That criterion is information stability. The term "memory"
in a generalized sense indicates stability of information in
time or, as in the case of heredity, the reproduction of
information in an emplrlca sense, that IS, Wit rout our ~now-
ing the full mechanism of reproduction. The creative selec-
tion of the second principle means the organism has many
more states to choose from than are actually neeclecI. The
thirc! principle says the organism uses this freedom to cre-
ate a pattern that resembles earlier patterns. Walter bor-
rowec! the term "memory without storage" from the phi-
losopher Henri Bergson, who was considering the memory
function of the brain in his book Matter and Memory. Walter
consiclere(1 holistic memory an epistemological innovation
that was the touchstone of his theoretical scheme but real-
izect that it might seem like black magic to many of his
readers. However, he noted that the concept is free from
internal contradiction while it obviously runs counter to
habitual thought. In that formal sense it is no different
from the concept of the antipodes, which wouicl have been
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58
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
inconceivable before Newton since the people in Australia
should have fallen off the earth. Memory without storage is
consiclerecl as transmission of morphological features through
time without a material memory crevice, just as relativity is
based on the transmission of signals through space without
a materia carrier.
4. Holistic memory requires a fourth principle, operative
symbolism, to indicate that a material carrier of informa-
tion is needled, namely DNA, but this acts as a releaser or
operative symbol for the capacity of the whole organism to
reconstruct a complete message that characterizes the aclult
of the next generation. Walter was sketchy and superficial
about the fourth principle and consiclerec! it in the nature
of a specific cletail. In other words, operative symbolism is
not necessary to the clevelopment of the postulational sys-
tem of the first three principles that can c30 away with the
conceptual clifficulties and internal contradictions that al-
ways appear in any purely mechanistic interpretation of or-
ganic life. The informational system of organisms is there-
fore postulated to be clualistic; on one level it is mechanistic
in the operation of the genetic code; on the other level it is
holistic, involving the entire cell or organism.
Walter's epistemological revision for the life sciences has
been ignores] by most biologists and attacked by some. The
coo} en cl sometimes downright hostile response of the bi-
ologists is probably relater! to the challenge presenter! to
the basic preconceptions, often subconscious, that underlie
their present moclus operancli. The most pervasive of these
preconceptions is that biology is ultimately an extension of
physics and chemistry and can be stuclied in an analogous
manner. Walter's theoretical innovations require a novel
experimental approach that is just beginning to take shape
to clear with the holistic aspects of cell ancl organismic be-
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
159
havior. Despite the difficulties, his thought has found strong
support from a few outstanding biologists such as Leslie
Foulds and Paul Weiss. It has also met with approval from
some notables among theoretical physicists, including Pauli
and Wigner, and from the information theorist L. Brillouin.
Perhaps his strongest support has come from Frederick Seitz,
a student of Wigner's in the early 1930s and a founder of
modern solid-state physics. Seitz spent a decade as presi-
dent of the Rockefeller University, where he was in continu-
ous contact with many of the most creatively active indi-
viduals in molecular and cell biology and was impressed
with their ingenuity. However, he was struck by the com-
parative rigidity of their molecular concepts and their enor-
mous confidence (or overconfidence) that reductionism
To
would lead to an understanding of all aspects of living sys-
tems. Flying in the face of these attitudes was the fact that
the picture of such systems that was evolving at the molecu-
lar level was becoming ever more complex with each new
major phase of development. Seitz felt that the outlook of
the molecular biologists was somewhat reminiscent of the
attitude of some nineteenth-century physicists who believed
that the universe was a gigantic clockwork governed by the
laws of classical physics. Ironically, Seitz's own work pro-
vides the theoretical foundation for the currently fashion-
able field of structural biology. While musing on the situa-
tion in biology he came upon Walter's work, which he
considered a "profound analysis of the status of biological
systems in the physical world." He felt that the biological
community had "to a substantial degree lost sight of the
forest for the trees and presumably will continue to do so
until it is forced to reexamine its own foundations either
through the appearance of obvious paradoxes or because it
becomes enmeshed in unresolvable complexity or both."
When that time comes, he is "certain that the profoundness
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60
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
of Walter's work will be appreciated and will form a signif~-
cant part of the cornerstone of unclerstancling of living sys-
tems by the biological community."
Walter's work has aIreacly formed the cornerstone of my
own unclerstancting of living systems through its effect on
my clay-to-day work with cells in culture. A major feature of
the behavior of cells dissociatecl from the organism and
from one another is their radical heterogeneity in a large
variety of behavioral anc! physico-chemical properties. This
was anticipate<] in Walter's principle of ordered heteroge-
neity but appeared experimentally at the cellular level rather
than the molecular level which most concerned him. An-
other feature of these cells in Walter's terms is their fragil-
ity, so they change their growth behavior in a striking ant!
encluring fashion in response to small physiological cliffer-
ences in their environment. These responses are foreshac3-
owe(1 in Walter's principle of creative selection, which ~
moclif~ed to progressive state selection to image cellular be-
havior. Paracloxically, the behavior of some cells, clepend-
ing on their initial state, is extremely stable, so that both
fragility and stability are subsumed in the same system, as
full consideration of Walter's theory would suggest. This
goes along with his insight that there are no "yes/no" or
purely arithmetic answers in the behavior of living systems.
All clepends on the initial state of the cells and the pertur-
bations to which they are subjected. On a personal note,
his philosophical analysis liberated me from the recluction-
ist strictures that clominate biological thought anc! allowecl
me to acknowlecige and organize the actual behavior of
cells as seen every clay before my own eyes rather than
sweep the frequently inconvenient behavior under the rug.
There is no doubt in my mind that Walter was correct in
the evaluation he left with his own collected papers in the
Johns Hopkins library that, although he was best known for
OCR for page 161
WALTER M. ELSASSER
161
his work in geophysics, his controversial ideas in theoretical
biology were what historians would want to study. ~ believe
his ideas will play a central role in the future clevelopment
of biology.
WALTER ELSASSER S Memoirs of a Physicist in the Atomic Age was the ma-
jor source of information used here in describing his life up to
1974. His sister, Maria Lindberg, and Eugene Parker of the Univer-
sity of Chicago provided some personal insights. Peter Olson of
Johns Hopkins provided a description of Walter's work on geomag-
netism and plate tectonics. Frederick Seitz, formerly president of
Rockefeller University, contributed his thoughts on Walter's bio-
logical work. Most of the section on that work was derived from
Walter's published biological writings and from his extensive corre-
spondence with me between 1981 and 1991. My wife, Dorothy Rubin,
helped in every phase of preparing this memoir.
NOTE
1. The Chemistry of Organic Compounds, 2nd ea., Ch. 20. New York:
MacMillan, 1947.
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62
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
HONORS
1932 Research Prize of the German Physical Society
1957 Member, National Academy of Sciences
1971 John A. Fleming Medal, American Geophysical Union
1972 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1977 Gauss Medal, Braunschweig, Germany, (200th Anniversary
of Gauss's birth)
1979 Penrose Medal (USA)
1987 National Medal of Science
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ATOMIC AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS
1925
Bemerkungen zur Quantenmechanik
Naturwissenschaften 13:711.
1928
163
frier Elektronen.
Interfernzerscheinungen an Korpuskularstrahlen. Natunvissenschaften
16:720.
1933
A possible property of the positive electron. Nature 131:674.
1935
Energies de laison des noyaux lourdes. [. Phys. (Paris) 6:473.
Theorie de la capture selective des neutrons rents par certains noyaux.
J. Phys. (Paris) 6:194.
1937
The self-consistent field and Bohr's nuclear model. Phys. Rev. 51:55.
GEOPHYSICS
1938
New values for the infrared absorption coefficients of atmospheric
water vapor. Mon. Weather Rev. 68:175.
1942
Heat Transfer by Infrared Radiation in the Atmosphere. A Monograph.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
1947
Induction effects in terrestrial magnetism, III. Phys. Rev. 72:821.
1950
The earth's interior and geomagnetism. Rev. Mod. Phys. 22:1.
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164
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1955
With H. Takeuchi. Non-uniform rotation of the earth and geomag-
netic drift. Trans. Am. Geophys. Union 36:584.
1956
Hydromagnetism, II. A Review. Am. J. Phys. 24:85.
1959
With H. C. Urey and M. G. Rochester. Note on the internal struc-
ture of the moon. Astrophys. jr. 129:842.
1968
The mechanics of continental drift. Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 112:344.
THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
1958
The Physical Foundation of Biology, An Analytical Study. New York:
Pergamon Press.
1966
Atom and Organism, A New Approach to Theoretical Biology. Princeton,
Nisi.: Princeton University Press.
1969
Acausal phenomena in physics and biology; a case for reconstruc-
tion. Am. Sci. 57:502-16.
1970
The role of individuality in biological theory. In Towards a Theoreti-
cal Biology, vol. III, ed. C. H. Waddington. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
1975
The Chief Abstractions of Biology. New York: Elsevier.
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WALTER M. ELSASSER
165
1981
Principles of a new biological theory: a summary. {. Theor. Biol.
89:131-50.
A form of logic suited for biology. Prog. Theor. Biol. 6:23-62.
1982
The other side of molecular biology. [. Theor. Biol. 96:67-76.
1984
Outline of a theory of cellular heterogeneity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
U.S.A. 81:5126-29.
1987
ReQections on a Theory of Organisms. Frelighsburg, Quebec: Orbis Pub-
lishing.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
1978
Memoirs of a Physicist in the Atomic Age. New York: Neale Watson
Academic Publications, Inc.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
quantum mechanics
