SOURCE: "Cultural Politics and the Irish Theatre: Samuel Beckett and the New Biology," in Theatre Research International, Vol. 18, No. 3, Autumn, 1993, pp. 215-21.

In the following essay, Armstrong discusses the influence of Erwin Schrodinger's theory of quantum biology on the dramas of Samuel Beckett.

Sweat and mirror notwithstanding they might well pass for inanimate but for the left eyes which at incalculable intervals suddenly open wide and gaze in unblinking exposure long beyond what is humanly possible.

Samuel Beckett, Imagination Dead Imagine,

(12-13)

Lawrence Stone, Princeton Professor Emeritus of History, has recently declared that 'every cultural enterprise, even science, is at least in part a social construction.'¹ Biologist Jay Gould vehemently agrees. 'Science', says Gould, 'is done by individuals, whose conclusions are influenced by the beliefs they bring with them.'² The contamination factor is unavoidable. On the other hand, Erwin Schrodinger, the renowned quantum physicist, brought to...