Max Perutz And The Secret Of Life - Hardcover

Ferry, Georgina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701176954 ISBN 13: 9780701176952

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2007

Synopsis

Few scientists have thought more deeply about their calling and its impact on humanity than Max Perutz (1914-2002). In 1947 he founded the small Cambridge research group in which Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA: under his leadership it grew to become the world-famous Laboratory for Molecular Biology. Max himself explored the protein haemoglobin which won him a shared Nobel Prize in 1962, the same year as Crick and Watson. The work of his amazing team

launched a new era of medicine, heralding today's astonishing advances in the genetic basis of disease.

Born in Vienna, Jewish by descent, lapsed Catholic by religion, Max came to Cambridge in 1936, to join the lab of the legendary Communist thinker J.D. Bernal. There he began to explore the structures of the protein molecules that hold the secret of life. In 1940 he was interned and deported to Canada as an enemy alien, only to be brought back and set to work on a bizarre top secret war project.

Max Perutz's story brims with life. This biography has the zest of an adventure novel and is full of extraordinary characters. Max was demanding, passionate and driven but also humorous, compassionate and loving. Small in stature, he became a fearless mountain climber; drawing on his own experience as a refugee, he argued fearlessly for human rights; he could be ruthless but had a talent for friendship. An articulate and engaging advocate of science, he found new problems to engage his imagination until weeks before he died aged 88.

About this title

Review

`Elegant, adroit biography... delightful' -- Observer

'As a scientist, reading this well-written biography of a great
researcher was a treat.'
-- Sunday Telegraph

'Max Perutz, one of science's great ambassadors... has been given
a meaty biography by former New Scientist writer Georgina Ferry.' -- Jewish Quarterly

'another excellent biography' -- Cambridge Alumni Magazine

`A book suffused with intelligence and humanity... my advice would be to read it.' -- Telegraph

`Ferry's magisterial biography portrays science as a social
enterprise, built on webs of expertise.' -- Independent

`Ferry's story...proceeds with pace and clarity, explaining the science vividly and buoyed throughout by an infectious enthusiasm' -- Times Literary Supplement

`Georgina Ferry's biography captures not only the scientific advances made by Perutz but also his curious personal qualities'
-- Economist

`Marvellous biography of one of the least known of the twentieth century's great scientists.'
-- Nature

`the story will appeal to anyone who wants to know how... how exciting scientific research can be'
-- The Royal College of Pathologists Magazine

Book Description

The extraordinary story of the father of molecular biology, whose famous research team uncovered the structure of DNA.

'one of the twentieth century's greatest scientific minds'

Matt Ridley, author of Genome.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0701176954
• ISBN 13: 9780701176952
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368