CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by OIST Institutional Repository Manfred Eigen: the realization of his vision of Biophysical Chemistry Author Herbert Jackle, Carmen Rotte, Peter Gruss journal or European Biophysics Journal publication title volume 47 number 4 page range 319-323 year 2017-12-11 Publisher Springer International Publishing Rights (C) 2017 The Author(s). Author's flag publisher URL http://id.nii.ac.jp/1394/00000696/ doi: info:doi/10.1007/s00249-017-1266-y Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) European Biophysics Journal (2018) 47:319–323 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-017-1266-y REVIEW Manfred Eigen: the realization of his vision of Biophysical Chemistry Herbert Jäckle1 · Carmen Rotte1 · Peter Gruss1,2 Received: 27 August 2017 / Accepted: 11 November 2017 / Published online: 11 December 2017 © The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication Abstract Manfred Eigen turned 90 on May 9th, 2017. He celebrated with a small group of colleagues and friends on behalf of the many inspired by him over his lifetime—whether scientists, artists, or philosophers. A small group of friends, because many—who by their breakthroughs have changed the face of science in diferent research areas—have already died. But it was a special day, devoted to the many genius facets of Manfred Eigen’s oeuvre, and a day to highlight the way in which he continues to exude a great, vital and unbroken passion for science as well as an insatiable curiosity beyond his own scientifc interests. He continues to dismiss arguments such as, that scientifc problems cannot be solved because of a current lack of appropriate tools, or because of the persuasion of the community that certain things are immeasurable. He has lived up to and accepted only the highest scientifc standards with his fundamental contributions in widely difering research felds, for which he has received numerous prizes and honorary doctorates, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1967. Some of his outstanding contributions to science and technology are honored in the following chapters. Here, we will report some characteristic traits of Manfred Eigen, and his personal development. We highlight his visionary foresight regarding how multidisciplinary science should combine to study the complex processes of life and its evolution in establishing an institute that applied biological, chemical, and physical methods, and how his vision became sustained reality. Keyword Manfred Eigen Science or music? practicing piano playing to other meaningful activities. To the concern of his mother, he established a small laboratory Manfred Eigen grew up in a musical family. Concerts and at home, which he extensively used for experimentation: “It piano music were a characteristic part of his childhood. At was a real laboratory, which my mother was not at all happy pre-school age, he started to play the piano and practiced with, especially when something exploded yet again”, Man- intensively, but after a few years, he felt that his enthusiasm fred Eigen remembered, and so it was initially no problem for playing music faded, and admitted so to his father, a pro- for him to obey his father’s precept. fessional cellist of the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. Much However, Manfred Eigen’s passion for music was greater to his surprise, his father accepted his wish, but imposed two than he thought when making the agreement with his father, conditions. Firstly, he should give up piano playing entirely possibly also because he was constantly surrounded by because tinkling would not be tolerable for his father. music in his parents’ home where chamber concerts regu- Secondly, he should devote the time he would have spent larly took place. He met well-known artists not only at of- cial concerts, but closely and personally at home. These events increasingly strengthened his desire to continue with Special Issue: Chemical Kinetics, Biological Mechanisms and Molecular Evolution. music, and he secretly started again practicing to fnally surprise his father with a special birthday present—to play * Herbert Jäckle Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata together with him. His father [email protected] was so impressed by his son’s talent that he insisted on send- 1 Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am ing him to a frst-rate teacher for piano lessons. Manfred Faßberg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany Eigen did what he always does—he brought his piano play- 2 Present Address: Okinawa Institute of Science ing to perfection. As a 12-year-old child, he gave public per- and Technology, 1919‑1 Tancha, Onna, Kunigami, formances including piano concerts by Bach, Haydn, and Okinawa 904‑0495, Japan Vol.:(0123456789)1 3 320 European Biophysics Journal (2018) 47:319–323 Dittersdorf. His future was predetermined towards a career way to Göttingen to enroll there in physics and chemistry in as a pianist! 1945. The University of Göttingen was one of the frst Ger- The Second World War interrupted his dreams. Fifteen- man universities to open up again after the Second World year-old Manfred Eigen had to serve in an anti-aircraft unit War. The young student immediately had contact with out- with no chance to practice piano playing. When he returned standing scientists: he attended physics lectures by Werner from the war, he therefore decided to follow his second pas- Heisenberg and Wolfgang Paul; the former was already a sion—to the great beneft of science as it turned out later— Nobel Laureate, the latter would become one. and matriculated at the University in Göttingen, where he He completed his diploma thesis with Arnold Eucken, became a full-time student of physics. There was only lit- who was so impressed by his outstanding abilities that he tle time left to practice piano for some years until he again proposed that Manfred Eigen should enroll immediately as a devoted time to active piano playing in the late 50s by taking doctoral student. He efortlessly measured up to the expecta- lessons from Rudolf Hindemith, the younger brother of Paul tions placed upon him. He was only 24 years of age when Hindemith, and his wife Maria Landes-Hindemith. Many he successfully completed his PhD in physical chemistry, who participated in workshops and conferences with Man- subsequently becoming a research assistant at the Institute fred Eigen experienced his delightful piano interludes. Two for Physical Chemistry at the University of Göttingen. of his piano concerts of Mozart, accompanied by the New Orchestra of Boston under David Epstein and the Basler Measuring immeasurably fast reactions Kammerorchester under the direction of Paul Sacher, are immortalized on CD. “The rate of true neutralization reactions has proven to be In one of his concerts in Basel, Sydney Brenner was in immeasurably fast”. Manfred Eigen had found this quote in the audience, sitting next to a professional pianist. Sydney Arnold Eucken’s chemistry textbook Lehrbuch der chemis- asked what she thought about the quality of Manfred Eigen’s chen Physik while preparing for his PhD examination. This performance. “Not bad for a chemist” was the answer. That book was his “bible of physical chemistry”, but he was then evening, Manfred Eigen told Sydney his ideas about the of an age at which one accepts practically nothing without hypercycle, which he developed together with Peter Schus- asking critical questions. So he started to refect on just how ter, and his quasispecies model. “Not bad for a pianist…” fast an immeasurably fast reaction might be. In 1953, he was Sydney’s reaction. Not bad…! accepted a position as an assistant at the MPI for Physical Together with his friend Paul Sacher, Manfred Eigen tried Chemistry, with Karl Friedrich Bonhoefer as a supervisor to convince the Max Planck Society’s leadership to establish and mentor. He turned his attention to the study of extremely a kind of “Musik-Bauhaus”, which would connect research fast chemical reactions, focusing on “the immeasurable”. in art and science by bringing together renowned scientists At that time, chemical reaction rates could be measured and musicians in one institute. This idea was preceded by the down to a thousandth of a second. Convinced that nothing “Hinterzartener Kreis”, where he and leading natural scien- in chemistry was immeasurable and that the problem was tists of diferent research areas—including Werner Heisen- simply a matter of unsuitable experimental tools, Manfred berg, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Konrad Lorenz, Eigen successfully began to develop the so-called relaxation the philosophers Georg Picht and Theodor Adorno as well as measurement methods. He was fortunate: Leo De Maeyer, musicians like the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, the composer who later became a director at the new MPI for Biophysi- and conductor Pierre Boulez, and the futist Aurèle Nico- cal Chemistry, joined his group and it turned out that he let—met to discuss the concept. This project failed, since was essential for developing the necessary equipment for the Max Planck Society decided that Manfred Eigen’s idea measuring ultrafast reactions. The approach involves the should not be realized. Therefore, no surprise, he smiled perturbation of a system in chemical equilibrium, by sound when the society discussed much later his initial idea again wave, for example, to then measure the time the system and subsequently founded the Max Planck Institute (MPI) requires to return to its original state of equilibrium. Due for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt in 2012. Manfred to this “trick”, the “immeasurable” became measurable. Eigen’s proposal failed, fortunately for us, because he then Manfred Eigen presented his results to the British Faraday devoted all his eforts to establish our institute, the MPI for Society in 1954, showing that this method made it possi- Biophysical Chemistry.