John Desmond Bernal

Quotes

• “One of the questions on which clarity of thinking is now most necessary is that of the relation between the methods of science and of Marxist philosophy. Although much has already been written on the subject, yet there is still an enormous amount of confusion and contradictory statement.”
• “In the decade after the war Freud’s theories dominated the narrow circles of British intellectuals. His psycho-analysis was accepted warmly for many reasons. It was new and exciting, it was shocking, it debunked religion and morals, it promised an internal liberation from all restraints. Nevertheless, it was essentially a creed of escape into an inner world of complexes and repressions and away from social and economic realities.”
• “But if capitalism had built up science as a productive force, the very character of the new mode of production was serving to make capitalism itself unnecessary.”
• “Life is a partial, continuous, progressive, multiform and conditionally interactive self-realization of the potentialities of atomic electron states.”
• “The central industry of modern civilisation, tending, because of its control over materials, to spread into and ultimately incorporate older industries such as mining, smelting, oil- refining, textiles, rubber, building, and even agriculture in respect to fertilizers and food processing.”
• “If science were communism, was it also not possible that communism could itself become a science?”

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Key facts

Born

( 1901-05-10 ) 10 May 1901, Nenagh , County Tipperary , Ireland

Died

15 September 1971 (1971-09-15) (aged 70), London, England

Resting place

Battersea Cemetery, Morden (unmarked)

Education

Bedford School

Alma mater

University of Cambridge

Known for

Bernal chart , Bernal sphere , Bernal stacking , Bernal–Fowler rules , Zone melting

Spouse

Agnes Eileen Sprague ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1922 ) ​

Children

4, including Martin

Awards

Royal Medal (1945), Guthrie lecture (1947), Stalin Peace Prize (1953), Grotius Gold Medal (1959), Bakerian Lecture (1962)

Fields

X-ray crystallography

Institutions

Birkbeck College, University of London

Doctoral advisor

William Henry Bragg

Doctoral students

Dorothy Hodgkin Alan Mackay Max Perutz Alexander F. Wells

Allegiance

United Kingdom

Branch

Royal Navy

Service years

1944–1945

Rank

Lieutenant ( RNVR )

Conflicts

Second World War Operation Overlord Normandy landings

via Wikipedia infobox

Key dates

Born

10 May 1901

Died

15 September 1971

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Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Given name

John

Gender

male

Citizenship

United Kingdom

Place of birth

Nenagh

Place of death

London

Child

Martin Bernal

Occupation

naturalist

Educated at

Royal Institution

Employer

Royal Institution

Political party

Communist Party of Great Britain

Languages spoken

English language

Religion

atheism

Doctoral advisor

William Henry Bragg

Student of

William Lawrence Bragg

Doctoral student

Helen Megaw

Field of work

philosophy of science

Conflict

World War II

Military rank

lieutenant

via Wikidata · CC0