John Desmond Bernal
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{{Infobox Scientist
|name = John Desmond Bernal
|box_width =
|image =Replace_this_image_male.svg
|image_width =150px
|caption = John Desmond Bernal
|birth_date = [[10 May]] [[1901]]
|birth_place = [[Nenagh]], [[County Tipperary]]
|death_date = [[15 September]] [[1971]]
|death_place =
|residence =
|citizenship =
|nationality = [[Ireland]]
|ethnicity =
|field = [[X-ray crystallography]]
|work_institutions = [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College, University of London]]
|alma_mater =
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for =
|author_abbrev_bot =
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|influences =
|influenced =
|prizes = [[Lenin Peace Prize]] in 1953
|religion =
|footnotes =
|signature =
}}
'''John Desmond Bernal''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] ([[10 May]] [[1901]]—[[15 September]] [[1971]]) was an Irish-born scientist known for pioneering [[X-ray crystallography]].
==Career==
He was born in [[Nenagh]], [[County Tipperary]], Ireland. He was educated at [[Bedford School]] near London, and then at [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge| Emmanuel College, Cambridge University]]. At Cambridge he studied both mathematics and science for a B. A. degree in 1922, which he followed by another year of natural sciences. He taught himself the theory of [[space group]]s, including the [[quaternion]] method; this became the mathematical basis of later work on [[crystal structure]]. After graduating he started research under [[Sir William Bragg]] at the Davy-Faraday Laboratory in London. In 1924 he determined the structure of [[graphite]].
It was in his research group in [[Cambridge]] that [[Dorothy Hodgkin]] started her research. Together, in 1934, they took the first X-ray photographs of hydrated [[protein crystal]]s. Other prominent scientists who studied with him include [[Rosalind Franklin]], [[Aaron Klug]] and [[Max Perutz]].
He was later Professor of [[Physics]] at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College, University of London]] (where he became Master) and a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].
==Political activism==
Bernal was a public intellectual, very prominent in political life, particularly in the 1930s after having left the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] in 1933{{Fact|date=September 2007}}. According to biographer [[Maurice Goldsmith]], he did not so much withdraw from the CPGB, but lost his card and did not renew it. He had joined in 1923.
He attended the famous 1931 meeting on [[History of Science]], where he met the Soviets [[Nikolai Bukharin]] and [[Boris Hessen]], who gave an influential [[Marxist]] account of the work of [[Isaac Newton]]. This meeting fundamentally changed his world-view.
In 1939, he published ''The Social Function of Science'', probably the earliest text on the [[sociology of science]]. He was chairman of the [[World Peace Council]] from 1959 until 1965.
In 1948/9 he endorsed the "proletarian science" of [[Trofim Lysenko]].
He was awarded the [[Lenin Peace Prize]] in 1953.
==War work==
He is known also as joint inventor of the [[Mulberry Harbour]].
After helping orchestrate [[D-Day]], Bernal landed on [[Normandy]] on D-Day + 1. It was said that a letter of his went astray in early 1944, and this nearly led to the postponement of D-Day. (Source: film account by his younger colleague at Birkbeck College, Professor Alan Mackay FRS, who quoted Bernal on this fact). His extensive knowledge of the area stemmed from a combination of research in English libraries and personal experience having visited the area on previous holidays. The Navy had temporarily assigned him the rank of commander such that he wouldn't stand out as a civilian amongst the invasion forces. However, the members of his unit were less than convinced as he directed a vehicle using the terms "left" and "right" instead of "[[Port (nautical)|port]]" and "[[starboard]]."
He is also famous for having firstly proposed in 1929 the so-called '''[[Bernal sphere]]''', a type of [[Space colonization|space habitat]] intended as a long-term home for permanent residents.
==Family==
His family was [[Sephardic Jewish]] on his father's side,<ref name=memoir>{{cite journal
| last = Hodgkin
| first = Dorothy M. C.
| authorlink = Dorothy Hodgkin
| date = Nov 1980
| title = John Desmond Bernal
| journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
| volume = 26
| issue =
| pages = p17
| quotes = no
| issn =
| doi =
| id =
| url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4606%28198011%2926%3C16%3AJDB1M1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage
| accessdate = 2008-01-04
| month = Nov
| year = 1980
}}
</ref> though his father Samuel was a [[Catholic]]; his mother, nee Elizabeth Miller, was an American Catholic convert, a graduate of [[Stanford University]] and a journalist.
[[Martin Bernal]], author of ''[[Black Athena]]'', is his son with Margaret Gardiner<ref>{{cite web|title = Margaret Gardiner, obituary in The Guardian, 5 January 2005|url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jan/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
|accessdate = 2008-04-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title = Margaret Gardiner, obituary by Nchima Trust|url = http://www.nchimatrust.org/margaret-gardiner-obituary.htm|accessdate = 2008-04-06}}</ref>. He had three other children, two with Agnes Eileen Sprague whom he married in 1921, and one with [[Margot Heinemann]].
He also had a long term professional and, intermittently, intimate relationship with [[Dorothy Hodgkin]] whose scientific research work he mentored.
''Trivia:'' A fictional portrait of him appears in the novel ''The Search'', an early work of his friend [[C. P. Snow]], and another ("Tengal") in ''The Holiday'' by [[Stevie Smith]].
==Works==
*''The World, the Flesh & the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul'' (1929) [http://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/]
*''Aspects of Dialectical Materialism'' (1934) with [[E. F. Carritt]], [[Ralph Fox]], [[Hyman Levy]], [[John Macmurray]], [[R. Page Arnot]]
*''The Social Function of Science'' (1939)
*''Science and the Humanities'' (1946) pamphlet
*''The Freedom of Necessity'' (1949)
*''The Physical Basis of Life'' (1951)
*''Marx and Science'' (1952) Marxism Today Series No. 9
*''Science and Industry in the Nineteenth Century'' (1953)
*''Science in History'' (1954) four volumes in later editions, The Emergence of Science; The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions; The Natural Sciences in Our Time; The Social Sciences: Conclusions
*''World without War'' (1958)
*''A Prospect of Peace'' (1960)
*''Need There Be Need?'' (1960) pamphlet
*''The Origin of Life'' (1967)
*''Emergence of Science'' (1971)
*''The Extension of Man. A History of Physics before 1900'' (1972) also as ''A History of Classical Physics from Antiquity to the Quantum''
*''On History'' (1980) with [[Fernand Braudel]]
*''Engels and Science'', Labour Monthly pamphlet
*''After Twenty-five Years''
*''Peace to the World'', British Peace Committee pamphlet
==Quotation==
* "Life is a partial, continuous, progressive, multiform and conditionally interactive self-realization of the potentialities of atomic electron states." (Quote from Bernal on MSN Encarta)
==Footnotes==
<references/>
==References==
*''The Visible College'' (1978) Gary Werskey, on Bernal, [[J. B. S. Haldane]], [[Lancelot Hogben]], [[Hyman Levy]] and [[Joseph Needham]], 2nd edition 1988
*''Sage: A Life of JD Bernal'' (1980) Maurice Goldsmith
*{{cite book
| last = Brown
| first = Andrew
| title = J.D. Bernal: The Sage of Science
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| location =
| series =
| year = 2005
| isbn = 0198515448 }}
*Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Bernal, (John) Desmond (1901–1971)’,by Robert Olby, first published Sept 2004, 2870 words, with portrait illustration
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:14517357
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14517357
|last=Mackay
|first=Alan L
|publication-date=2003 Sep
|year=2003
|title=J D Bernal (1901-1971) in perspective
|volume=28
|issue=5
|periodical=J. Biosci.
|pages=539–46
}}
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:9886283
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9886283
|last=Surridge
|first=C
|publication-date=1999 Jan
|year=1999
|title=50 years of biomolecular structure at Birkbeck: Bernal's legacy
|volume=6
|issue=1
|periodical=Nat. Struct. Biol.
|pages=13–4
|doi = 10.1038/4879
|journal=Nature Structural Biology
}}
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:11616361
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11616361
|last=Breathnach
|first=C S
|publication-date=1995 Nov
|year=1995
|title=Desmond Bernal and his role in the biological exploitation of X-ray crystallography
|volume=3
|issue=4
|periodical=Journal of medical biography
|pages=197–200
}}
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:4885734
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4885734
|last=Bernal
|first=J D
|publication-date=1968 May
|year=1968
|title=The relation of microscopic structure to molecular structure
|volume=1
|issue=1
|periodical=Q. Rev. Biophys.
|pages=81–7
}}
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:5849048
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5849048
|last=Bernal
|first=J D
|publication-date=1965
|year=1965
|title=The structure of water and its biological implications
|volume=19
|issue=
|periodical=Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol.
|pages=17–32
}}
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:13047272
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13047272
|last=BERNAL
|first=J D
|publication-date=1953 Mar 11
|year=1953
|title=The use of Fournier transforms in protein crystal analysis
|volume=141
|issue=902
|periodical=Proc. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci.
|pages=71–85
}}
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:14947858
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14947858
|last=BERNAL
|first=J D
|publication-date=1952 Jun 14
|year=1952
|title=Phase determination in the x-ray diffraction patterns of complex crystals and its application to protein structure
|volume=169
|issue=4311
|periodical=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]
|pages=1007–8
}}
==External links==
*[http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/86 'Bernal and the Social Function of Science' A Masterclass by Chris Freeman, Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex] Freeview video provided by the Vega Science Trust.
*[[R. M. Young]], "THE RELEVANCE OF BERNAL'S QUESTIONS" ([http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper93h.html])
*[http://archives.lse.ac.uk/dserve.exe?dsqServer=lib-4.lse.ac.uk&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=overview.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo='bernal') Bernal papers at London School of Economics Archives (relating to his involvement with the peace movement)]
*[http://human-nature.com/science-as-culture/werskey.html Gary Werskey - The Marxist Critique of Capitalist Science: A History in Three Movements?]
*[http://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal Marxist Writers: John Desmond Bernal]
* Roy Johnston (1999) Century of Endeavour: J. D. Bernal and the 'Science and Society' Theme [http://www.iol.ie/~rjtechne/scihist/brnlwhit.htm]
*[http://bibliotraducciones.com/autores/bernal-john-desmond.html Bibliography in Spanish]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernal, John Desmond}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:British physicists]]
[[Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London]]
[[Category:Historians of science]]
[[Category:Old Bedfordians]]
[[Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Biophysicists]]
[[Category:People from County Tipperary]]
[[Category:Irish inventors]]
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