The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943 at Trinity College, Dublin. Schrödinger's lecture focused on one important question: "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an "aperiodic crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds. In the 1950s, this idea stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule and would give both Francis Crick and James Watson initial inspiration in their research.

    But man declared war on this cunning and powerful animal when cattle replaced the buffalo on the western plains, reducing the wolf's range to those few areas in the Far North where economic necessity did not call for its extinction.Between 1939 and 1941, Adolph Murie, one of North America's greatest naturalists, made a field study of the relationship between wolves and Dall sheep in Mount McKinley National Park (since renamed Denali National Park) which has come to be respected as a classic work of natural history. In this study Murie not only described the life cycle of Alaskan wolves in greater detail than has ever been done, but he discovered a great deal about the entire ecological network of predator and prey.The issues surrounding the survival of the wolf and its prey are more important today than ever, and Murie helps us understand the careful balance that must be maintained to ensure that these magnificent animals prosper. Originally available only in government publications which are long out-of-print, this account of a much maligned animal is now available in its first popular edition.