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

In this collection of essays Nobel Prize-winning protein chemist 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 as is a painting or poem. This work includes detective stories tales of conflict and battle a womans love affair with crystals a mans gruesome fascination with poison gas Nobel Laureates geriatric illusions about cancer cures an onslaught on social relativists the anticlimactic homecoming of a war hero that led to a Nobel prize phantom perils that threaten us and real perils that have been conquered by silent heroes. Perutz seeks to convince us that science is a passionate enterprise and the pursuit of knowledge a sortie into the unknown. He combines potraits of 20th-century giants such as Pauling Meitner Medawar Krebs and others with glimpses of his own life: his flight from Vienna in the 30s internment in Britain as an enemy alien in World War II rescue from the sea after a U-boat attack and more. His observations on abortion issues nuclear fuel reprocessing and human rights reflect a lifelong concern for social justice and scientific integrity.