Product Description

Science does not offer a quiet life. Imagination, creativity, ambition, and conflict are as vital and abundant in science as in artistic endeavours. In this delightful collection of essays, Nobel Laureate Max Perutz writes about the pursuit of scientific knowledge, which he sees as an enterprise providing not just a few facts but cause for reflection and revelation. This book contains detective stories, tales of conflict and battle, a woman's love affair with crystals, a man's gruesome fascination with poison gas, perils both phantom and real, and entertaining glimpses of Perutz's own long and exceptional life. Perutz views science as a passionate enterprise and the pursuit of knowledge as a sortie into the unknown: these essays explore a remarkable range of topics, both scientific and personal, with the lucidity and precision that he brought to his own pioneering work in protein crystallography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #493638 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 354 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Max Perutz is an extraordinary scientist. After training in chemistry at the University of Vienna during the 1930s, he went to Cambridge and became fascinated by biochemistry just as that discipline was becoming ripe for conquest by scientific heroes. He knew and worked with many of them--William Bragg, J D Bernal, Crick and Watson--and became one himself, through his discovery of the structure of haemoglobin, which led to his Nobel Prize in 1962.

Such are the credentials Perutz brings to this wonderful collection of essays; credentials which he uses always to illuminate, never to dominate. In prose that rolls by like countryside seen from the window of a train, Perutz takes the reader travelling through his own life and that of many other leading scientists, giving fresh insights into the workings of first-rate minds.

We meet such characters as Leo Szilard, the inventor of the atomic bomb who devoted his life to preventing its use, and the German chemist Fritz Haber, the very mirror-image of Szilard who became a real-life Faust. We also learn much about Perutz's own approach to science--including his involvement in a project to harness icebergs in the fight against the Nazis.

With its combination of choice of subject and light, often humorous style, this is one of the best collections of scientific essays to emerge for years. --Robert Matthews

From the Publisher
Science is no quiet life...
Imagination, creativity, ambition, and conflict are as vital and abundant in science as in artistic endeavours, as the author proves. In this collection of essays, Nobel Laureate Max Perutz explores a remarkable range of scientific topics with the lucidity and precision that he brought to his pioneering work in protein chemistry.

Included are detective stories, tales of conflict and battle, one woman's love affair with crystals, a man's gruesome fascination with poison gas, the phantom perils that have been conquered by silent heroes. Perutz proves that science is a passionate exercise and that the pursuit of knowledge is a sortie into the unknown.

The pages of this book are populated with some of the intellectual giants of twentieth century science - Pauling, Meitner, Medawar, Krebs, and Jacob, among others. In addition, Perutz's own life provides entertaining anecdotes, including his internment in the UK as an enemy alien, his involvement in a scheme to make ships of ice for refuelling aircraft in the North Atlantic during the War, and the sheer joy he took from his work.

'… a wholly captivating book; it has warmth, wit, and style, and not a dull sentence. I urge you to read, enjoy, and learn.' Walter Gratzer, Nature

About the Author
Max Perutz, FRS, was Director of the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Biology from its foundation in 1962 until 1979, and remained a member of the scientific staff there until his death in February 2002. In addition to many other awards and honours, he received, with John Kendrew, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1972 for the first solution of the structure of proteins.

Customer Reviews

A brilliant book that brings an era to life
This entertaining, enlightening and wittily-written book is always engaging and is highly informative. The reviews and narratives are thoughtfully written and well-researched wherever necessary. This book awoke a keen interest in the intriguing scientific period around the second world war, and inspired me to read many of the books Max Perutz commented on.