" The existence of life must be considered as an elementary fact that cannot be explained, but must be taken as a starting point in biology, in a similar way as the quantum of action, which appears as an irrational element from the point of view of classical mechanical physics, taken together with the existence of elementary particles, forms the foundation of atomic physics. The asserted impossibility of a physical or chemical explanation of the function peculiar to life would be . . . analogous to the insufficiency of the mechanical analysis for the understanding of the stability of atoms. "

― John Gribbin , Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution