People of Science with Brian Cox - Venki Ramakrishnan on Max Perutz

[Music] hello I'm Brian Cox welcome to people of science [Music] so thank you could you describe who you are and what your area of research is yes I'm Vicky ramakrishnan I'm a molecular biologist and I'm also president of the Royal Society this is a theories about inspirational scientists from history so who is your person of science so the person I've chosen is Max Perutz who founded the field of structural biology and also founded one of the most successful institutes for molecular biology in the world if you could characterize his legacy as a scientist how would you characterize it well first of all he gave us our first glimpse of what a protein looks like and that has told us a huge amount about how biological molecules work how do enzymes work how do molecules recognize each other inside the cell modern pal should be unthinkable without Max's pioneering work could you describe his scientific career and particularly focusing on the the Nobel Prize he grew up and was educated in Austria and he says he wanted to know the secret of life and therefore he sought out the crystallographer working in Cambridge JD Bernal and when Max went to work for Brunel in the 30s the largest molecule that had been solved had about fewer than a hundred atoms I think and he wanted to solve hemoglobin which had over 20,000 atoms and as a result of that he acquired a graduate student who went on to become his colleague at John Kendrew and because they didn't have stable funding they built a hot over a bicycle shed in the courtyard of the Cavendish and that's where Max Perutz and John Kendrew worked and it took 23 years to solve hemoglobin but that work founded the whole field of structural biology this is a very focused story in a sense he said 20 years or more during which the second world war broke out when the war broke out the British government shipped him off to a in an internment camp as an enemy alien his mentor JD Bernal wanted him back to help him with the war effort and requisitioned him and the British government had to do a security check on him and the security check said he seems fine except he's been known to associate with that notorious communist JD / now not realizing that Brunel was the one who had requisitioned him he was often asked where did he feel he was from and he said my replies usually evasive because they would not understand if I tell them that I belong to the Royal Society and that is all I need and here is a collection of his essays is science necessary says here scientists have changed our way of life more drastically than television stars statesmen and Generals is right [Music] unusually I think for the only time in this series you knew personally oh yes perused I I knew him very well in fact I saw him every day practically for a number of years I could think of him as a sort of mentor and friend energy first meet him I first met max Perutz in the 80s but then I spent a year at the allenby which he had founded and the allenby was founded in max's vision it has almost no hierarchy so there's no sort of senior scientist table or faculty club or any of that and that's partly a reason for its success you know it won its 16th Nobel laureate last year with Richard Henderson that idea that he could also leave a legacy by building a research lab in His image he's interesting to me because not only is you have one of the great researchers here who wins a Nobel Prize but also as you said managed to generate further I don't have more than 10 at least Nobel Prizes as a result of imposing his vision of how science should be done yes he also must had tremendous initiative to persuade the Medical Research Council that there's a new way of looking at biology and it needed an institute of its own you know max came across as very eccentric but underneath that I think he had a will of Steel he was unafraid to be himself I could put it like that you [Music]

Channel: The Royal Society

Views: 96,887

Keywords: royal society, science, scientists, scientific research, science uk, science research, science education, science policy, venki ramakrishnan, sir venki ramakrishnan, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, brian cox, professor brian cox, people of science, max perutz, john kendrew, j.d. bernal, bernal, LMB, laboratory of molecular biology, nobel prize, crystallography, molecular biology, structural biology, second world war, ww2, haemoglobin, operation habakkuk

Id: IMnbB1jttCI

Length: 5min 4sec (304 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 05 2020