ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Conceiving Light: Linking the Life Sciences with Quantum Mechanics in 1920s Copenhagen

• In Event: New Perspectives on Collaboration in Science 1

English Abstract

In Bohr’s unexpected ‘Light and Life’ lecture in 1932, he used the concept of light to bridge new knowledge from quantum physics with the life-sciences, and noted that “light is our principal tool for observation.” What led Bohr to present an interdisciplinary analysis of light to a group of dermatologists? And how did he use light as an epistemological tool in his philosophy of quantum mechanics?
This cross-disciplinary treatment of light is a crucial, yet unresearched, key in the birth of quantum bio-physics. While the impact of Bohr’s lecture has been researched by historians, such as its influence on Delbrück’s biological research, there is no historical account of its genesis. Using drafts and letters from the Bohr archive, this paper focuses interdisciplinary collaboration in Copenhagen in the 1910s and 1920s. It points to the significance of several Danish chemists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, and surgeons who worked together with Bohr in two ways: first, this cohort of peers contributed to Bohr’s philosophical turn to biology in the late 1920s, shaping foundational concepts in quantum physics. Second, the group discussed ideas which led to initial foundational concepts of biophysics and quantum biology.

Author

• Mor Lumbroso, Utrecht University