Manfred Eigen (1927–2019) Observer of Fast Reactions in the Laboratory and in Life

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COMMENT OBITUARY Manfred Eigen (1927–2019) Observer of fast reactions in the laboratory and in life.

hemist Manfred Eigen challenges theoretical biologists. regarded received wisdom as From the early 1980s, he developed a challenge rather than a con- these concepts into evolutionary bio- Cstraint. His techniques for investigat- technology at the MPI. His colleagues ing ‘immeasurably fast’ reactions and built ‘evolution reactors’ that drove the their application to biological systems evolution of viruses and other replicat- opened up new avenues, in fields from ing molecules under controlled con-

fundamental kinetics to the forma- ditions to investigate how pathogens PLANCK SOCIETY BLACHIAN/MAX tion of protein complexes. This work, evade the immune system, or to search conducted in the 1950s at the Max for new drugs. Eigen helped to found Planck Institute (MPI) for Physical two companies to exploit this technol- Chemistry in Göttingen, won him ogy, Evotec Biosystems (now Evotec a share (with Ronald Norrish and AG) and DIREVO Biotech (bought George Porter) of the 1967 Nobel by Bayer Healthcare in 2008). Prize in Chemistry. He went on to Although he oversaw the design and develop theories to account for the location of the MPI for Biophysical self-organization of biological mole- Chemistry, Eigen declined the post of cules, and he was a creator of the new permanent director, instead heading field of evolutionary biotechnology. its Department of Biochemical Kinet- At a time when most institutes and ics until he retired in 1995. “His way of departments were split along discipli- solving problems with the best factual nary lines, Eigen argued that under- and transparent solution instead of standing organisms at the level of imposing his unquestioned author- their chemical interactions demanded ity shaped the spirit of the institute,” an interdisciplinary approach. After wrote MPI colleagues in an article cel- years of lobbying, he got his wish in 1971, leading physicists, including Nobel prizewin- ebrating Eigen in his 90th year (H. Jäckle et when the Max Planck Society (MPS) cre- ners Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Paul. al. Eur. Biophys. J. 47, 319–323; 2018). Eigen ated the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry in In 1953, after a doctorate on the specific remained active after retirement, dividing Göttingen. ‘It is not the research area that heat of heavy water, Eigen moved to the his time between Göttingen and the Scripps counts,’ ran the founding principle of the lab- recently founded MPI for Physical Chemistry Research Institute in La Jolla, California. oratory: ‘it is the excellence of the individuals’. to work with its director, Karl Friedrich Bon- Communication with the wider public was He was less successful at persuading the MPS hoeffer. In a standard textbook co-authored important to him. He published three books to found a institute for science and music. by his former supervisor, Arnold Eucken, aimed at the general reader: Laws of the Game Eigen was born in Bochum, Germany, Eigen found reactions described as “immeas- (1983), Steps Towards Life (1992) and From where his father was a cellist. By 15, he urably fast”. Refusing to accept such uncer- Strange Simplicity to Complex Familarity was himself a proficient pianist with the tainty, by 1954, he had developed a way of (2013). All were written jointly with his long- potential for a future solo career. He’d also disturbing the equilibria in chemical solutions standing scientific partner, Ruthild Winkler- developed an interest in chemistry, doing with pulses of intense electrical or ultrasonic Oswatitsch, who became his second wife. experiments in a lab at home. But, in 1942, energy, and using spectroscopy to time how He chaired the council of Europe’s life-sci- as allied bombers began to shift the balance long it took for equilibrium to be restored. ences organization EMBO through delicate against Germany in the Second World War, Such ‘relaxation techniques’ could determine negotiations to establish a base in Heidelberg his class was drafted to the anti-aircraft bat- the rate of a neutralization reaction that took in the early 1970s. And in his 12 years presid- teries defending the city; two years later, he place in nanoseconds — orders of magnitude ing over the German Academic Fellowship was conscripted into the German air force. faster than any previously measured. Foundation, he pushed for the advancement When Germany surrendered in May 1945, His success made it possible for scientists of young scientists through doctoral grants. 2 days before his 18th birthday, Eigen was sta- to study reactions catalysed by enzymes that He remained an impressive amateur pianist, tioned at Salzburg airport in Austria, which drive all processes of life. Eigen developed sometimes playing Mozart’s concertos after was occupied by US troops. Captured as pris- concepts to explain how replicating macro- scientific meetings. A man of great personal oners of war, Eigen and a friend managed to molecules on the prebiotic Earth might have elegance, with a taste for striking ties, his quest escape, and walked roughly 1,000 kilometres evolved into replicating organisms. In 1971, for elegant solutions widened the field of view back to Bochum over the next month. Hav- for example, he posed the paradox that with- for generations of researchers that followed. ■ ing not touched a piano for three years, he out error-correction enzymes, the length of decided to make his career in science. The a nucleic acid would be limited because, in Georgina Ferry is a science writer from University of Göttingen accepted him as a larger molecules, mutations would destroy Oxford, UK, specializing in the history of the student of geophysics — the only branch of the information content of subsequent gen- life sciences. Her books include biographies physics with room for him, when so many erations. But this maximum size (or error of the crystallographers Dorothy Crowfoot older students were returning from military threshold) was too small to encode an error- Hodgkin and Max Perutz. service. He studied with some of the country’s correcting enzyme. Eigen’s paradox still e-mail: [email protected]