Peter Medawar was an extremely succesful scientist who won the Nobel Prize in 1960. Nine years later, at the age of 54, he was crippled by a cerebral haemorrhage. This is his widow's story of her life with Sir Peter. It provides an insight into the life of a significant 20th-century scientist, and is an interesting companion to his own autobiography, "Memoir of a Thinking Radish".

A VERY DECIDED PREFERENCE: LIFE WITH PETER MEDAWAR

Medawar, Jean

Biographies & Memoirs

Oxford Paperbacks

Offers in-depth profiles of the talented Jewish scientists who fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's rise to power and assesses the seminal role these scientists played in turning the tide of World War II to the Allies favor and in transforming the evolution of twentieth-century science and technology. 17,500 first printing.

Hitler's Gift: The True Story of the Scientists Expelled By the Nazi Regime

History

Pyke, David

Americas

Arcade Publishing

Between 1901 and 1932, Germany won a third of all the Nobel Prizes for science. With Hitler's rise to power and the introduction of racial laws, starting with the exclusion of all Jews from state institutions, Jewish professors were forced to leave their jobs, which closed the door on Germany’s fifty-year record of world supremacy in science. Of these more than 1,500 refugees, fifteen went on to win Nobel Prizes, several co-discovered penicillin—and more of them became the driving force behind the atomic bomb project. In this revelatory book, Jean Medawar and David Pyke tell countless gripping individual stories of emigration, rescue, and escape, including those of Albert Einstein, Fritz Haber, Leo Szilard, and many others. Much of this material was collected through interviews with more than twenty of the surviving refugee scholars, so as to document for history the steps taken after Hitler’s policy was enacted. As one refugee scholar wrote, “Far from destroying the spirit of German scholarship, the Nazis had spread it all over the world. Only Germany was to be the loser.” Hitler’s Gift is the story of the men who were forced from their homeland and went on to revolutionize many of the scientific practices that we rely on today. Experience firsthand the stories of these geniuses, and learn not only how their deportation affected them, but how it bettered the world that we live in today.

Hitler's Gift: The True Story of the Scientists Expelled by the Nazi Regime

Europe

Arcade

Drawing on interviews with more than 20 surviving refugee scholars, the authors give a moving account of the scientific diaspora which resulted from Hitler's policy of dismissing Jewish scientists. The irony is that they went on to help win the war for the Allies. "If the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of contemporary German science, then we shall do without science for a few years!" With these words Hitler closed the door on Germany's 50-year record of world supremacy in science. The subsequent exodus of German and Austrian scientists caused critical damage to Germany's scientific output and brought invaluable gains to the West. The Third Reich's losses included Einstein, and also Leo Szilard, who became the driving force behind the atomic bomb project. As one refugee remarked: "Far from destroying the spirit of German scholarship, the Nazis had spread it all over the world. Only Germany was to be the loser." This book recounts how Britain played a significant role in rescuing the scientists and how, within weeks, leading British academics had set up an agency to support the exiles and help them to find jobs. Of the 1,500 refugees they rescued, 15 went on to win Nobel Prizes.

Hitler's Gift

Science & Math

R.Cohen Books

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