I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier: Essays on Science, Scientists and Humanity - Softcover

Perutz, M. F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019859027X ISBN 13: 9780198590279

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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

Review:

Review from previous edition Perutz introduces the giants of 20th-century science gracefully, writing with the lucidity and precision that he brought to his work on proteins. There is something for everyone here. (John L. Casti, Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, New Scientist, 29/05/99)

A splendidly varied and totally readable collection of articles, some new and some previously published elsewhere, but all the better for being drawn together in one volume ... I enjoyed the book straight through on a long flight; it would also be ideal for dipping into. Either way, the sort of book you are sorry to finish. (Ron Fraser, Microbiology Today, February 2000)

If you are interested in science and what makes scientists tick, you will find great enjoyment in this book ... What a wonderful bedside read. This is a book to treasure. (Food Technology in New Zealand, August 1999)

"I Wish I Made Your Angry Earlier" is a joy to read and captures some wonderful insights into the lives of a number of key scientists during their pursuit of knowledge. (Education in Chemistry, September 2000)

This is 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)

The essays are beautifully written, with flashes of wit and humour ... I read this as a bedtime book ... when I finally found that there was no more to read, I felt quite disappointed - no more chocolates in the box! (Nature Medicine)

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 019859027X
• ISBN 13: 9780198590279
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384