Few scientists have thought more deeply about the nature of their
calling and its impact on humanity than Max Perutz (1914-2002). Born in
Vienna, Jewish by descent, lapsed Catholic by religion, he 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 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. In 1947, he founded the small 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
hemoglobin and his work, which won him a Nobel Prize in 1962, launched a
new era of medicine, heralding today's astonishing advances in the
genetic basis of disease. Max Perutz's story, wonderfully told by
Georgina Ferry, brims with life. It 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.
