J. D. Bernal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Desmond Bernal
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Bernal in 1949, photo by Wolfgang Suschitzky
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| Born | 10 May 1901 Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland
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| Died | 15 September 1971 (aged 70) London, England
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| Resting place | Battersea Cemetery, Morden (unmarked) |
| Education | Bedford School |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Known for | Bernal chart Bernal sphere Bernal stacking Bernal–Fowler rules Zone melting |
| Spouse(s) |
Agnes Eileen Sprague
(m. 1922) |
| Children | 4, including Martin |
| Awards | Royal Medal (1945) Guthrie lecture (1947) Stalin Peace Prize (1953) Grotius Gold Medal (1959) Bakerian Lecture (1962) Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | X-ray crystallography |
| Institutions | Birkbeck College, University of London |
| Doctoral advisor | William Henry Bragg |
| Doctoral students |
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| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service/ |
 Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1944–1945 |
| Rank | Lieutenant (RNVR) |
| Battles/wars | Second World War |
John Desmond Bernal (born May 10, 1901 – died September 15, 1971) was an important Irish scientist. He was a pioneer in using X-ray crystallography to study tiny parts of living things, which is called molecular biology. He also wrote many books about the history of science and popular science books for everyone to read. Bernal was also a communist activist and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Contents
Early Life and Schooling
John Desmond Bernal came from an Irish family with mixed Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian roots on his father's side. His father, Samuel Bernal, grew up in Limerick and later bought a farm in County Tipperary where John was raised. His American mother, Elizabeth Miller, was a journalist and a graduate of Stanford University.
Bernal went to school in England. He first attended Stonyhurst College but didn't like it. So, at age 13, he moved to Bedford School. He found this school "extremely unpleasant" and most of his classmates "bored him," but his younger brother Kevin was there, which helped.
In 1919, he earned a scholarship and went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, a famous university.
Studying at Cambridge University
At Cambridge, Bernal studied both mathematics and science. He earned his first degree in 1922. He then spent another year studying natural sciences. He taught himself about space groups, which are mathematical ways to describe how atoms are arranged in crystals. This knowledge helped him write an important paper on crystal structure, for which he won a prize. At Cambridge, his friends gave him the nickname "Sage," which means a very wise person.
Career and Scientific Discoveries
After graduating, Bernal started working with William Henry Bragg at the Royal Institution in London. In 1924, he figured out the structure of graphite, which is what pencil lead is made of. He also studied the structure of bronze. Bernal was very good at both analyzing data and doing experiments. He even invented a special X-ray machine called a spectro-goniometer.
Pioneering Molecular Biology
In 1927, Bernal became the first lecturer in Structural Crystallography at Cambridge. He later became the assistant director of the Cavendish Laboratory in 1934. Here, he began using his X-ray techniques to study organic molecules, which are the building blocks of life.
He started with oestrin and other sterol compounds like cholesterol in 1929. His work completely changed how scientists thought about these molecules. While at Cambridge, he also analyzed vitamin B1, pepsin (a protein), vitamin D2, and the tobacco mosaic virus.
Bernal also studied the structure of liquid water, showing its boomerang shape in 1933. Many famous scientists, like Dorothy Hodgkin and Max Perutz, worked in Bernal's research group. In 1934, Bernal and Hodgkin took the first X-ray pictures of protein crystals. This gave scientists one of the first clear looks at the tiny structures that make up living things.
In 1937, Bernal became a Professor of Physics at Birkbeck, University of London. He was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a great honor for scientists. After World War II, he started the Biomolecular Research Laboratory at Birkbeck. Scientists like Aaron Klug and Rosalind Franklin did important work on viruses there.
Contributions During World War II
When World War II began in 1939, Bernal joined the Ministry of Home Security. He worked with Solly Zuckerman to study how bombs affected people and buildings. Their research showed that bombing cities didn't stop production much unless factories were directly hit.
From 1942, Bernal and Zuckerman advised Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was in charge of special military operations. Bernal also helped with Project Habbakuk, a plan to build huge aircraft landing platforms out of ice. He even helped Max Perutz get out of internment so he could do experiments on ice for this project.
Helping with D-Day Landings
After a difficult military operation called the Dieppe raid, Bernal was determined to prevent similar mistakes during Operation Overlord, which was the plan for the Normandy landings. He showed how useful an artificial harbor would be at the Quebec Conference in 1943.
In June 1944, he became a temporary lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). His most important contribution to the Normandy landings was creating detailed maps of the beaches. He used his knowledge from research, past holidays to the area, and aerial surveys to do this without the Germans noticing.
Bernal landed in Normandy the day after D-Day. He wore a Royal Navy uniform and recorded how well the plans worked. He also helped boats that were stuck on rocks because he knew the area so well.
Important Books and Ideas
Bernal wrote many influential books.
Future Predictions and Science's Role
His 1929 book, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, was called "the most brilliant attempt at scientific prediction ever made" by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. In this book, Bernal was the first to suggest the idea of a Bernal sphere, which is a type of space habitat designed for people to live in permanently. The book also explored how human bodies and intelligence might change in the future and what impact this would have on society.
In The Social Function of Science (1939), Bernal argued that science was not just for individuals seeking knowledge. He believed that society should greatly increase its support for scientific research and development.
Science in History (1954) is a huge four-volume work where Bernal looked at how science and society have influenced each other throughout history. His book The Origin of Life (1967) discussed the latest ideas about how life began on Earth.
Political Involvement
Bernal grew up Catholic but became a socialist and an atheist while at Cambridge. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1923.
He became a well-known thinker in politics, especially in the 1930s. In 1931, he attended a famous meeting on the history of science where he met Soviet scientists. This meeting greatly changed his views, and he continued to support the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin.
After World War II, Bernal supported the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Poland in 1948. He warned that the US was preparing for "complete world domination." Because of his views, he was refused a visa to a peace conference in New York in 1949. However, he was allowed into France for another peace congress, where he became a vice-president. This organization later became the World Peace Council.
Bernal publicly supported Soviet agriculture and the ideas of Trofim Lysenko, even though many scientists disagreed with Lysenko's theories about plant genetics. This support caused some problems for Bernal and other British scientists who sympathized with the Soviet Union. Despite pressure during the Cold War, Bernal continued to defend the Soviet Union's scientific positions.
In 1950, the famous artist Pablo Picasso, who was also a communist, painted a mural in Bernal's apartment. This mural is now part of the Wellcome Collection.
Throughout the 1950s, Bernal believed that the Soviet Union was building a socialist scientific utopia. In 1953, he received the Stalin Peace Prize. From 1959 to 1965, he was the president of the World Peace Council.
Awards and Recognition
Bernal received many honors for his work. He was awarded the Royal Medal in 1945, the Guthrie lecture in 1947, the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, and the Bakerian Lecture in 1962.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1937. The Bernal Lecture and the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Lecture Medal and Lecture are named in his honor.
Legacy and Personal Life
The Bernal Building at the University of Limerick is named after him. He is also the namesake of the John Desmond Bernal Prize.
In 2023, Bernal's old brass microscope was restored on the BBC Television show The Repair Shop.
Bernal married Agnes Eileen Sprague in 1922. They had two children, Mike and Egan. He also had a son, Martin Bernal, with art collector Margaret Gardiner. Martin Bernal later became a professor at Cornell University. Bernal also had another child, Jane, with Margot Heinemann.
See also
In Spanish: John Desmond Bernal para niños
