HoSystems, 8 (1977) 161 @ Efsevier/North-HolIand Scientific
Publishers,
161
Ltd.
LARS ONSAGER f 1993-4976) T& scientific cant utions of Lam Onsager are fundamental and immortal. His interest in scienw was not fettered by boundaries between disciplines. Indeed, a full appreciation of his impact on intellectual activity requires considerable time in reading his works, comparable to his own extensive reading of science, history, and other subjects (Shedlovsky and Montroll, 1963). What did not require much time from a colleague was to learn that here was an unusually kind and thoughtful personality. The contributors to this issue, in the prefatory correspondence, have repeatedly emphasized those human qualities that, in their degree and balance, uniquely characterized Lars Onsager. In his last years, Onsager performed with thoroughness and conscientiousness as an editor of BioSystem.s. Lars recognized, probably more fully than any other, that his contributions to physical theory were highly relevant to “biological systems”. He saw that the neuron, or in general the cell, itself a many-component particle, is composed af smaller particles subject to the laws of physics and chemistry, and is capable of “molecular interactions of exceptional specificity ‘. He sensed early that irreversible thermodynamics was appropriate to i;he processes of the cell and of organismic evolution. The papers in this issue are a tribute to the memory of Lnrs Onsager. Rut the science and the man were not and are not separable. The former will continue to grow; the memory
Photograph provided by the Center for Theoretical Studies, University of Miami.
of the latter has reazked a resting place of both love and admiration.
eference Shedlovsky, T. and Montroll, E., 1963, Proceedings of -conference on irreversible thermodynamics and tht! statistical mechanics of phase transitions, 5. Myth. Physics 4, two pages preceding 147. Sidney W. Fox
Publishers,
161
Ltd.
LARS ONSAGER f 1993-4976) T& scientific cant utions of Lam Onsager are fundamental and immortal. His interest in scienw was not fettered by boundaries between disciplines. Indeed, a full appreciation of his impact on intellectual activity requires considerable time in reading his works, comparable to his own extensive reading of science, history, and other subjects (Shedlovsky and Montroll, 1963). What did not require much time from a colleague was to learn that here was an unusually kind and thoughtful personality. The contributors to this issue, in the prefatory correspondence, have repeatedly emphasized those human qualities that, in their degree and balance, uniquely characterized Lars Onsager. In his last years, Onsager performed with thoroughness and conscientiousness as an editor of BioSystem.s. Lars recognized, probably more fully than any other, that his contributions to physical theory were highly relevant to “biological systems”. He saw that the neuron, or in general the cell, itself a many-component particle, is composed af smaller particles subject to the laws of physics and chemistry, and is capable of “molecular interactions of exceptional specificity ‘. He sensed early that irreversible thermodynamics was appropriate to i;he processes of the cell and of organismic evolution. The papers in this issue are a tribute to the memory of Lnrs Onsager. Rut the science and the man were not and are not separable. The former will continue to grow; the memory
Photograph provided by the Center for Theoretical Studies, University of Miami.
of the latter has reazked a resting place of both love and admiration.
eference Shedlovsky, T. and Montroll, E., 1963, Proceedings of -conference on irreversible thermodynamics and tht! statistical mechanics of phase transitions, 5. Myth. Physics 4, two pages preceding 147. Sidney W. Fox
