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What is Life? is a non-fiction book on science for the lay reader written by physicist Erwin Schrödinger (ISBN 0521427088). Francis Crick cited What is Life? as the best theoretical description, before the actual discovery of DNA, of how genetic storage would work. In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an "aperiodic crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds. This idea both stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule and could be seen (in retrospect) as having been a well-reasoned theoretical prediction of what biologists should have been looking for during their search for the genetic material.