Gal Manella

Zuckerman Israel postdoctoral alum Gal Manella and Rona Aviram, were fellow graduates students studying biology at the Weizmann Institute when they discovered the impactful work on the history of molecular biology written by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in the 1940’s. His short volume, “What is Life,” laid the foundations for quantum mechanics and went on to influence an entire generation of biologists.
The book was never translated into Hebrew – until now. Manella and Aviram worked on the translation together, and the Hebrew edition was just published by Magness Press with an epilogue explaining the relevance of the book to modern science and philosophy by physicist and philosopher Avshalom Elizur, who served as science editor on the project.
“This was an inspiring and extremely interesting experience,” said Manella, who worked on a significant part of the project as a Zuckerman Israeli postdoc scholar. “I’ve learned a lot about the origins of the most fundamental ideas and thoughts in molecular biology, and the important role played by interdisciplinarity in the process of scientific progression. The Hebrew translation allows us to revisit those ideas, and expose them to new audiences.”
Read more (in Hebrew)