Although John Desmond Bernal was highly instrumental in the pioneering stages of x-ray crystallography and microbiology, he is perhaps most well-known for his philosophical studies of the social aspects of science. Marxist in thinking and communistic...

John Desmond Bernal (1907–1971), an eminent X-ray crystallographer and pioneer in the field of social studies of science and the movement for social responsibility in science, was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, on May 10, and died in...

1901-1971 British physicist who made major contributions to the determination of molecular structures using X-ray crystallographic methods. Bernal is regarded as one of the founders of X-ray crystallography. He was a professor at the University of...

J. D. Bernal: A Life in Science and Politics, ed. Brenda Swann and Francis Aprahamian. Verso, 324 pp., $35.00. This volume is a worthy substitute for the as-yet-to-be written major biography of Bernal (1901-1971), physicist and crystallographer, sometime Communist Party member and life-time...

J.D. Bernal: The Sage of Science BY ANDREW BROWN OXFORD, pounds 25, 562 pp T pounds 23 ( pounds 1.25 p&p) 0870 428 4115 A mixture of envy and prudence makes many scientists chary about praising the most brilliant of their...