Memoir of a Thinking Radish: An Autobiography

by P. B. Medawar (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1986

  $3.25

  Sir Peter Medawar is a scientist of world renown, receiving among his many honours the Nobel Prize in 1960, for his work on immunology and organ transplantation. This modestly-titled book - deriving from Pascal's 'thinking reed' and Falstaff's 'forked radish' - is a fascinating autobiography of an exceptional man. An incisive and witty writer, he describes his life in Rio de Janiero, Malborough and Oxford, his family, his experiences in hospital after a series of major strokes, and much more.

• Used

  Paperback
  1988

  $3.40

  The self-deprecating image of man - an amalgam of Pascal's thinking reed and Falstaff's forked radish - that provides a title for Peter Medawar's autobiography stems from his belief that the professional lives of scientists usually make dull reading. Sir Peter Medawar is a scientist of world renown, a member of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the British Academy. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for work that formed the basis of modern immunology and organ transplantation. He also wrote a series of essays: Pluto's Republic , and two books: Advice to a young scientist and The limits of science . He was awarded the order of merit in 1981. He describes this autobiography, loosely modelled on Coleridge's Biographia Literaria , as a book of opinions which my life may be regarded as a pretext for holding . He covers his early years in Rio de Janeiro, Oxford in the 1930s, illness and recovery and his work in a wide variety of institutions around the world.