Memoir Of A Thinking Radish: An Autobiography

227 Pages·1988·24.934 MB·English

by  Peter Medawar

MEMOIR OF A
THINKING RADISH
An Autobiography
PETER MEDAWAR
Oxford New York
OXFORD UNIVERSITY TRESS
1986
Oxf&td Universityfrtit, Vfirffo#Street, Oxford0X1*DP
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Oxford isa trademark ofOxford UniversityPress
©Peter Medau\ir1986
Allrights reserved. Nopartof thispublication maybe reproduced,
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electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, orotherwise, without
theprior permissionof Oxford University Press
Phis book J'J soldsubiectf(tthecondition that itshallnot,by way
of tradeorOtherwise, he lent, re-sold,hiredoutor circulated
Without thepublisher'spriorconsentin anyformofbindingorcotter
other thanthatin which itiifubliibiedand withoutasimilarcondition
includingthiscondition lutingimposed On thesubsequentpurchaser
British LibraryCataloguingin PublicationData
Medawar, P,B.
jV!fwr<jHrof Jthinking radish' an—autobiography.
7.Medawar, P.B.—1.Scientists Crc.U Britain
Biography
I. Title
fpf-i‘4
ISBN 0-19-2ijjjy-o
LibraryofOnnÿr<;jiCatalogingin Publication
Medawar, P B (Peter Brian),191f
Memoirofa thinkingradish,
Includesindex,
1. Medawar,—P. If. fPeter Brian),1915-
2. Immunologists Great Britain—Biography I, Title.
yj{!Hn.yi.MjfA)f, 1986 61f>,oyr9'0914 /B,1£j jft-SOv
ISBN Q-iy-zijji?™a
Set byHopeServices, Abingdon, Oxon.
Printedin GreatBritain by
Butler&Tanner Ltd.,
frame,Somerset
To
two s, two d
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MY secretary and literary assistant Mrs Joy
Heys gave me, as always, invaluable help in
preparingthis book for press.The help of my
wife and fellow-author Jean has been most
profound.
1
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*
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CONTENTS
ListofPlates xi
Introduction
3
VeryEarlyYears 5
School l6
Oxford
44
Early Research 6i
Flashbacks
91
Birmingham
102
University College London 123
The National Institute for
Medical Research
'44
Jean r8o
On Livinga Bit Longer r?6
Index
ioj
I
T
!
:
*
LIST OF PLATES
BETWEEN PACES 84 AND85
f. My mother’s mother with hersisters,1.1505
1. At Oxford,c.t939
3. Jean Shinglcwood Taylor,1338
4. Members of the Theoretical Biology Club at Magdalen College
Oxford, 1946
5. Leaving withJean to collect theCBE,1358
6, (luring a Ciha conference at Knyaumont in France, jure 1359
7. The Royal Society medallists, Decemlser 19J9
8, At a party held by the Ciba Foundation, December i960
9. The Nobel ceremony, December 1960
io, PBM receivingthe Nobel Prize
11. With the family reading the Nobel announcement
it, WithJean, 1980
H
'
The lives of scientists, considered as Lives. slirwsr always
makedull reading...Itcould hardlybeotherwise. Academics
car only seldom lead lives rh.it arc spacious or exciting in a
worldly seise. They need laboratories or libraries and the
company or other academics. Their work is in no way marie
deeper or more cogent by privation, distress or worldly
bufferings, Their private lives may he Unhappy, $trarely
mixed up or comic, but rot in ways that tell US anything
special aboutthenatureordirectionof their work. Academies
lie outside the devastation area of the literary convention
according to which the lives of artists and men of letters are
intrinsically interesting, a source of cultural insight in them¬
selves. Ifascientistweretocut hisearoff,nolinewould takeit
asevidence of a heightered sensibilityÿ if a historian were to
fail (as Ituskin did) to consummate bis marriage, we should
not Suppose [bat our understandingof historical scholarship
had somehow been enriched...
Peter Mcdawar, Hutil's Republic (Oxford, ipfia), ihj
ascientificautobiography belongstoamost awkward literary
genre, if [he difficulties facing a mail trying (O record hes life
—
are great—and few have overcome them Successfully they
arecompounded in the case of scientists, of whom many lead
monotonous and uneventful lives and who, besides, often do
not know how to write ,
Erwin Oiargaff,Science,clix (icjÿk).
A scientist's biographer deals with much duller materia!than
docsa chronicler of Kings...1 have found most biographies
ot scientists remarkably uninteresting and their autobiographies
even more so, . .
Salvador Luna