This book is a translation of Emil Fischer’s autobiography published in 1922 by Verlag von Julius Springer, Berlin, Germany. It is the first translation of this work into English, guiding the reader through the life of a man who was one of the greatest chemists of all time. Emil Fischer published very important papers on sugars, purines, and peptides. His proof of the stereo chemistry of glucose remains one of the great intellectual and practical achievements of science. The book is of great benefit to the current and future generations of chemists, giving them the chance to get to know Emil Fischer's life story.
In these memoirs, written after the author's dramatic emigration to Switzerland in 1939, Richard Willstätter (1872-1942) recounts his childhood in a Jewish family in Karlsruhe, his developing interest in chemistry, and his studies under Adolf von Baeyer, his mentor at the University of Munich. Willstätter writes only briefly about the tragic early deaths of his beloved wife and of his young son, but describes in detail his work as a leading organic chemist tackling difficult problems in plant pigments, chlorophyll, enzymes and more (in Zurich, Berlin and Munich where he succeeded his mentor) and his training of dozens of young chemists. In 1924, he resigned from the University of Munich in face of increasing antisemitism. The book offers candid portraits of major fellow chemists, including Willstätter’s close friend Fritz Haber, also a Nobel prize laureate, and describes life in German research universities before the Nazis' persecution of Jewish scholars decimated them. “The book goes far beyond a chronicle of events in Willstätter’s life; it is a valuable contribution to the history of chemistry...” — Nature “[Willstätter’s] story is a reflection of the glory and the tragedy that is modern German history... These memoirs, which are truly an inside story of German chemical scholarship, are filled with delightful personal reminiscences and interesting anecdotes about the great chemists Willstätter was associated with during the course of his remarkable career.” — David H. Kenny, Journal of Chemical Education “This autobiography is one of the outstanding books printed in Germany in recent years and it [provides] an insight into the thinking and working methods of a great scientist...” — The Chemist “Great scientists are rare, but great writers among them are almost unique. Willstätter’s autobiography, published posthumously and edited by his former student, Arthur Stoll, is an extremely moving book... This wonderful book... could, with profit, be made adjunct reading in an advanced organic chemistry course.” — Record of Chemical Progress “[Willstätter’s] knowledge of chemistry and chemical problems was encyclopedic, and as unlimited as the kindness he showed me... At a meeting of the [Munich] university senate some time in 1928 a discussion had arisen about the appointment of a mineralogist. A candidate was proposed, a front rank mineralogist by the name of Goldschmidt. As soon as the name was mentioned a murmur arose in the meeting and someone remarked: ‘Wieder ein Jude!’ (another Jew). Without saying a word Willstätter rose, collected his papers and left the room. He never crossed the threshold of the university again... Although his reputation was immense, and he was a Nobel prize winner, he was modest, unassuming and retiring in character; he often reminded me of the old-time venerable type of great Jewish Rabbi. For a long time Willstätter refused to understand what was taking place in Germany... to my repeated and insistent pleas that he leave Germany and come to us in Palestine, he turned a deaf ear. He came to the opening of the [Daniel Sieff Research, later Weizmann] Institute [in Rehovot] and returned to Germany (in 1934!). He still felt that he was protected by his reputation and by the devotion of the Munich public... His last word on the subject was: ‘I know that Germany has gone mad, but if a mother falls ill it is not a reason for her children to leave her. My home is Germany, my university, in spite of what has happened, is in Munich. I must return.’” — Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error
A fascinating introduction to the research into, and theories, of exceptional achievement. Topics covered include the arguments around personal dynamics and biological processes, the IQ issue, and how family and learning experiences are related to achievement.
Scientific Elite is about Nobel prize winners and the well-defined stratification system in twentieth-century science. It tracks the careers of all American laureates who won prizes from 1907 until 1972, examining the complex interplay of merit and privilege at each stage of their scientific lives and the creation of the ultra-elite in science. The study draws on biographical and bibliographical data on laureates who did their prize-winning research in the United States, and on detailed interviews with forty-one of the fifty-six laureates living in the United States at the time the study was done. Zuckerman finds laureates being successively advantaged as time passes. These advantages are producing growing disparities between the elite and other scientists both in performance and in rewards, which create and maintain a sharply graded stratification system.
This biography of Fritz Haber, now abridged by the author and translated into English, illuminates the life of one of the most gifted yet controversial figures of the twentieth century. Haber, a brilliant physical chemist, carried out pioneering research in electrochemistry and thermodynamics and won the Nobel Prize for his synthesis of ammonia, a process essential for synthetic fertilizer — and for the explosives Germany needed in World War I. An ardent patriot, Haber also developed chemical weapons. Believing them to be no worse than other types of warfare, he directed the first true gas attack in military history from the front lines in Ypres, Belgium, in 1915. His nationalism also spurred his failed attempt to extract gold from seawater, in hopes of paying off Germany’s huge war reparations. Yet Haber, a Jew by birth, was exiled from his homeland in 1933 by the Nazis, and died the following year never knowing the full dire effects of his work, as Zyklon B, a gas studied in his institute around 1920, was used to murder prisoners in concentration camps, including members of Haber’s own family. With the help of previously unpublished documents and sources, Dietrich Stoltzenberg explores Haber’s personal life, the breakdown of his two marriages, his efforts to develop industrial and political support for scientific study in Germany, his directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm (now Max Planck) Institute, his ethical struggles in times of war, and more. “A much needed and fine new biography of Haber” — Oren Harman, The New Republic “This exhaustive biography, first published in Germany in 1996, captures Haber’s complexity well. Based on diligent research, it offers significant detail on Haber’s professional life for both specialists and generalists... Stoltzenberg’s work is perhaps as rich a biography as can be written on Haber’s achievements... This is an excellent biography... [based on] extensive primary research... The result is a work that brings to light important facets not just of the life of Fritz Haber but of several decades of evolution of the German scientific milieu.” — Guillaume P. De Syon, H-Net Reviews of the German edition, winner of the Author’s Prize of the German Chemical Society: “[An] excellent biography” — Max Perutz, The New York Review of Books “Stoltzenberg has written a fine biography of this deeply flawed individual... [This] sympathetic and comprehensive account... should appeal to general readers as well as to historians and all those interested in the social responsibility of science.” — David Cahan, Nature “[S]ucceeds admirably in enlivening the many facets of this remarkable man and his extraordinary career as a creative academic, a leading member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, a shrewd businessman, and an influential advisor to various governments in Berlin. But Stoltzenberg is equally adept at presenting Haber the private man, who had to fight prejudice, endure two broken marriages, and, finally, emigration when the Nazis came to power in 1933... Stoltzenberg’s superb biography, which leaves little to be desired, is the remarkable achievement of a professional chemist turned historian.” — Peter Alter, Ambix “The book demonstrates Haber’s versatility as well as his enormous but not inexhaustible vitality... [T]he most detailed, best documented portrait we have of a remarkable and still controversial scientist.” — Jeffrey A. Johnson, Isis “Haber has finally found his ideal biographer in Dietrich Stoltzenberg, who possesses impeccable credentials for the task... [A] product of exemplary scholarship.” — George Kauffman, Annals of Science
Scientific Elite is about Nobel prize winners and the well-defined stratification system in twentieth-century science. It tracks the careers of all American laureates who won prizes from 1907 until 1972, examining the complex interplay of merit and privilege at each stage of their scientific lives and the creation of the ultra-elite in science. The study draws on biographical and bibliographical data on laureates who did their prize-winning research in the United States, and on detailed interviews with forty-one of the fifty-six laureates living in the United States at the time the study was done. Zuckerman finds laureates being successively advantaged as time passes. These advantages are producing growing disparities between the elite and other scientists both in performance and in rewards, which create and maintain a sharply graded stratification system.
