The
Marxist
Volume: 17, No. 01
January-March
2001
[
The
author
is
an
experimental
scientist
,
who
specialises
in
instrument
building.
He
is
also
involved
in
science
teaching
and
popularisation]
The twentieth century is rightly called the century of scientific revolutions and the twenty-first century began with a bang : with the report that the first draft of the human genome map had been completed. This was achieved by astounding investments - with the monopoly business having a big stake in it. And there is no denying that they will reap the profits. But the results of this genome mapping experiment also meant a victory for the working class ideology for it showed that “life is beginning to cease to be a mystery” and could now be pictured and would become “practically a cryptogram, a puzzle, a code that can be broken”. This working model of life “while removing most of the mysteries of life will not reduce in the minds of the scientific biologists of today any of the appreciation of its complexity and beauty
These
were
the
words
of
J.D.
Bernal,
whose
hundredth
birthday
we
celebrate
this
year.
According
to
Dorothy
Hodgkin
(the
1964
Nobel
prize
winner,
in
chemistry
and
Bernal’s
student
and
colleague
in
science
and
public
activity)
many
of
Bernal’s
pioneering
ideas
were
the
foundations
of
“
our
understanding
of
the
structure
and
functions
in
physics,
chemistry
and
biology.”
This
interrelation
between
structure
and
function
remained
Bernal’s
recurrent
themes
.
On
social
questions
he
tried
to
explore
the
relations
between
the
functions
of
science
and
the
structure
of
the
society
in
which
it
operates.
This
brought
forth
the
scientists’
role
as
a
citizen.
Bernal
considered
that
a
scientist’s
duty
did
not
end
with
exploration
of
nature
and
its
interpretations
and
applications
but
also
lay
in
changing
the
social
functions
of
science
to
a
just
and
equitable.
Science,
to
him
was
to
satisfy
mankind’s
eternal
dream
of
“a
life
of
plenty
of
food
and
no
work
to
do”
(not
only
for
the
rich
and
princes)
so
that
all
citizens
of
the
globe
will
have
the
liberty
“to
see
the
world
and
enjoy
it
at
leisure”;
and
also
have
“
the
possibility
of
really
finding
out
what
one
would
like
to
do
and
doing
it”.
This
essay
is
an
account
of
the
life
and
works
of
Bernal.
Some
emphasis
is
given
here
on
his
exploits
in
natural
science
-
area
which
the
readers
of
this
journal
will
find
interesting
and
useful
-
also
giving
a
flavour
of
the
way
a
scientist
and
a
common
citizen
may
cooperate
in
addressing
the
problems
of
science
and
of
the
society.
Childhood
and
student
days:
John
Desmond
Bernal
was
born
on
10.5.1901
in
an
Irish
catholic
family,
who
were
formerly
Spanish
shepherdic
Jews
and
his
mother
was
an
American.
John
Desmond
was
a
precocious
child
.
He
even
tried
writing
an
autobiography
at
the
age
of
nine!.
He
tried
building
things.
Bernal’s
ideas
in
instrument
building
were
very
innovative
but
he
was
clumsy
with
his
hands.
He
once
nearly
electrocuted
himself
and
a
colleague,
while
setting
up
an
x-ray
tube.
Bernal,
in
later
life
would
show
great
foresight
as
one
who
could
give
ideas
about
new
instruments,
which
his
collaborators
would
build
-
often
with
most
inexpensive
objects,
like
broken
clocks,
cycle
tubes,
etc.
No
these
were
not
toys,
these
were
the
scientific
instruments
with
which
research
data
were
taken
and
published
before
the
international
community.
At
the
age
of
ten
Desmond
left
Ireland
for
England
to
join
a
school.
He
had
witnessed
the
Irish
independence
movement
and
had
sympathies
for
it.
He
had
also
seen
the
ruination
of
several
English
families
because
of
the
World
War
I.
Bernal
found
his
first
intellectual
satisfaction
when
he
came
to
study
in
Cambridge
for
here
he
could
meet
many
kinds
of
people,-
broken
soldiers,
workers,
students
of
several
disciplines,
intellectuals
and
so
on,-
whose
stories
and
experiences
stimulated
his
intellectual
process.
Mere
interpretation
of
the
world
did
not
satisfy
him
but
the
path
of
change
appeared
uncertain.
It
was
in
one
meeting
on
7th
November
1919
that
he
heard
from
a
friend
about
the
October
revolution
in
Russia
and
about
the
experiments
in
socialism
with
power
to
the
soviets.
That
opened
up
a
new
world
for
him.
Bernal
now
noted
how
narrow
his
Irish
patriotism
was.
It
indeed
impressed
him
that
to
change
the
world
one
need
not
wait
for
a
messaiah
to
appear
but
that
“It
was
the
people
that
would
sweep
away
all
things
that
I
hated.....
It
would
bring
the
scientific
world
state.”
This hope led Bernal to study the ideology on which the new soviet society was based i.e. Marxism-Leninism. He renounced catholicism and declared himself a communist. His family despatched a priest to bring Bernal back to the catholic fold. They argued at length but finally it was the priest who left the church! The second one involved a different kind of encounter. Some students thought that this young communist must be taught a lesson. They attacked Bernal one night in his room This combat group (which had links with a future admiral, Lord Mountbatten) got a severe beating from Bernal. They fled, though they outnumbered him. This was because of one tactical error they had made. They came in smoking cigarettes. Bernal simply switched off the light. They could not see him but he could see where they were and gave a huge punch on the face of everyone. By 1923, Bernal and his wife became members of the communist party. They actively mobilised workers for the 1926 general strike. After a decade or so he left the membership of the party but remained a communist. Informal yet deep links with the party still continued.
Scientific
contributions
Having
thus
gained
a
framework
and
a
world
view
Bernal
tried
to
gain
a
wider
vision
of
science
by
studying
different
courses
that
Cambridge
offered.
For
his
Tripos
he
read
such
diverse
areas
like
mathematics,
chemistry,
biology,
physics,
mineralogy
etc.
When
Dorothy
Hodgkin
met
him
for
the
first
time,
she
found
Bernal
to
be
well
informed
in
archaeology
(an
archaeologist’s
daughter
she
was!)
and
his
encyclopedic
knowledge
earned
him
the
nickname:
SAGE.
In
accepting
Marxism,
however,
Bernal
was
not
alone.
The
Cambridge
group
now
consisted
of
other
brilliant
scientists.
Joseph
Needham,
J.B.S.Haldane
were
in
this
group.
Like
Oparin
in
the
USSR,
Haldane
had
made
pioneering
work
on
the
theory
of
chemical
evolution
of
life
i.e.
life
consisted
of
inanimate
molecules.
To
this
Bernal
added
another
dimension
and
an
extremely
important
one
at
that,-and
said
that
it
was
not
merely
the
chemistry
of
molecules
but
also
the
arrangement
of
the
molecules
that
needed
to
be
seen.
The
question
thus
was:
how
does
the
structure
determine
the
function?
The
first
landmark
in
this
was
attained
by
Watson
and
Crick’s
determination
of
the
DNA
structure
in
195
3
i.e.
in
twenty
years,
Bernal’s
pioneering
ideas
had
become
the
accepted
methods
in
biology.
As
a
young
student
Bernal
had
gained
reputation
as
a
versatile
and
brilliant
personality,
who
excelled
in
physics
and
mathematics
and
could
have
taken
any
of
these
areas
as
his
research
field.
Though
physics
under
Rutherford
was
making
news,
Bernal
displeased
Rutherford
to
no
small
extent
by
not
doing
nuclear
physics
but
by
choosing
crystallography
(still
a
fairly
unfashionable
area
at
that
time)
as
his
area
of
research
and
worked
out
some
very
involved
mathematics
for
that.
He
finally
chose
the
area
of
biology
as
the
field
of
his
work.
Perhaps
he
thought
that
the
deepest
problems
of
science
were
there
in
biology
and
that
the
mystery
of
life
was
the
one,
which
could
unshackle
the
human
mind,
as
Darwinism
(inspite
of
its
limitations)
had
done
in
the
last
century.
Bernal
chose
this
field
also
because
biology
was
too
complex
to
be
solved
by
biologists
themselves
and
needed
inputs
from
other
areas
like
physics
and
chemistry.
It
was
he
who
established
x-ray
crystallography
as
an
important
tool
for
the
study
of
biology
and
later
developments
in
biology
owe
a
great
deal
to
this
and
many
other
contributions
from
Bernal,
which
may
be
difficult
to
enumerate.
These
include
formulation
of
the
Bernal
tables,
which
helped
early
crystallographers
(there
were
no
computers
in
those
days)
to
approximately
calculate
the
structures
of
crystals,
pioneering
works
on
sex
hormones,
proteins,
viruses,
structure
of
different
solid
phases
of
water
(for
example,
ice
,
snow
etc).
Later
he
gave
the
first
model
of
the
liquid
state
(called
the
Bernal
hard
sphere
model)
and
is
also
considered
a
pioneer
in
the
physics
of
composites.
Many
famous
biologists,
including
Nobel
Laureates
have
acknowledged
their
success
to
the
insight
that
Bernal
provided
in
the
decisive
phases
of
their
work.
Dorothy
Hodgkin
expressed
that
she
should
have
shared
her
Nobel
Prize
with
Bernal
instead
of
winning
it
alone.
Max
Perutz’s
and
John
Kendrew’s
work
on
the
structures
of
hemoglobin
and
myoglobin
and
Aaron
Klug’s
on
electron
microscopy
of
viruses
owe
a
lot
to
their
association
with
Bernal
and
led
them
to
their
Nobel
Prizes.
In
many
of
the
areas
Bernal
said
the
first
word
and
left
it
to
the
community
to
say
the
last
.
Bernal
never
got
the
Nobel
-
perhaps
for
his
politics
-
though
many
feel
that
he
could
have
wiped
away
a
dozen
of
them!
A
Universalists’
View
of
science:
As
a
student
of
science
four
aspects
of
Bernal’s
scientific
work
do
stand
out
and
deserve
analyses
by
sociologists.
First
is
his
role
as
a
great
catalyst
,
a
universalist
who
could
see
the
gaps
and
interconnections
between
disciplines
and
hence
succeeded
in
bringing
together
men
of
complementary
skills
from
different
branches.
The
second
is
his
ability
to
devise
simple
yet
sharply
focused
methods
for
tackling
scientific
problems
.
The
third
was
the
absence
of
bureaucratic
control
over
his
juniors.
And
lastly
he
showed
that
science
can
be
done
at
all
levels.
Some
illustrations
will
be
provided
in
support
of
these.
Bernal
was
indeed
a
pioneer
in
cross-disciplinary
science.
Modern
biology
was
apt
for
that
and
yet
Bernal’s
scientific
work
never
had
the
support
of
large
funds.
After
his
Cambridge
days,
he
moved
to
the
Birbecke
College.
This
college
where
he
taught
did
not
belong
to
the
aristocrats
but
was
meant
for
industrial
workers,
who
wanted
to
update
their
knowledge.
Bernal
considered
himself
happy
and
privileged
for
he
interacted
with
the
members
of
the
class,
which
according
to
him,
would
liberate
the
whole
mankind.
His
experimental
set
up
was
always
modest
but
the
output
was
deep
in
insight..
His
lab
was
popularly
called
‘The
Institute
for
the
study
of
Things’.
It
was
to
this
physically
modest
and
intellectually
stimulating
environment
of
the
working
class
college,
that
internationally
reputed
scientists
would
come.
The
problems
that
this
lab
dealt
with,
were
the
problems
of
life,
of
which
biology
formed
a
part.
Science
and
society
interactions:
It
was
indeed
not
biology
alone
but
LIFE
that
Bernal
and
his
collaborators
were
interested
in.
What
interrupted
their
total
attention
to
the
lab
were
the
events
outside
the
laboratory.
It
was
in
response
to
these
global
issues
that
Bernal
in
his
Cambridge
days
formed
the
Cambridge
Scientists’
Anti
War
Group.
It
focused
on
many
social
issues
like
the
economic
depression
of
the
30’s,
the
Nazi
horror
in
Hitler’s
Germany,
the
Spanish
civil
war,
Japanese
invasion
of
China
,
freedom
movements
in
the
British
empire
and
so
on.
In
this
gloomy
environment,
the
Soviet
Union
was
the
beacon
of
hope
and
Bernal
made
his
contact
with
the
Soviet
scientists
when
Bukharin
led
the
first
team
to
England
in
1931.
An
important
offshoot
of
these
debates
was
that
one
recognized
the
need
for
a
strong
movement
for
popularization
of
science.
A
leading
role
in
these
activities
was
taken
up
by
Haldane
(who
wrote
regularly
for
the
Daily
Worker),
the
journalist
Crowther
and
fellow
biologist
Lancelot
Hogben.
This
was
accompanied
by
theoretical
studies
on
scientific
developments
world
over
-
in
which
Bernal
took
the
lead.
Bernal’s
analysis
of
these
social
issues
are
found
in
his
work,
“The
Social
Function
of
Science”
which
created
a
stir
when
it
appeared
in
1939.
It
was
here
that
Bernal
analyzed
the
liberating
effect
of
the
socialist
revolution
in
the
Soviet
Union
and
considered
the
exploitative
nature
of
the
capitalist
system
to
be
a
hindrance
to
the
growth
of
science.
This
book
also
analyzed
briefly
the
science
in
colonial
India
and
commented
on
the
occasional
brilliance
and
extreme
unreliability
of
Indian
science.
Perhaps
the
most
incisive
statement
was
that
he
considered
that
the
main
social
forces
behind
the
development
of
science
in
India
were
not
the
scientists
themselves
but
the
political
agitators
behind
the
struggle
for
independence
from
colonial
rule.
A
large
part
of
the
above
book
contains
an
analysis
of
science
in
Nazi
Germany.
The
book
appeared
after
the
Dimitrov
thesis.
Bernal
saw
in
fascism
“
an
attempt
to
maintain
an
unstable
and
discredited
system
of
private
or
monopoly
production
by
a
combination
of
physical
force
and
mystical
demagogy”.
Historically
Germany
had
a
late
beginning
in
science
but
matured
exactly
at
a
time
when
German
industrialization
was
gaining
its
maturity.
In
fact
,
German
industry-university
link
was
what
made
both
flourish.
It
was
this
nexus
again
that
helped
fascist
ideas
to
penetrate
in
academic
circles,
after
the
demise
of
the
Weimar
republic.
By
that
time
the
German
war
industry
had
been
solidly
entrenched
in
German
chemical
enterprise
,which
began
with
Haber’s
(famous
for
industrial
synthesis
of
ammonia)
production
of
poison
gas
during
the
first
world
war.
Bernal
noted
that
one
of
the
reasons
why
Hitler
could
subvert
academic
life
was
the
complacence
(even
collaboration
by)
of
the
non
Jewish
intelligentsia
who
easily
accepted
the
fascist
view
of
patriotism.
They
considered
that
the
expulsion
of
the
Jewish
members
of
the
academic
faculty
gave
them
an
opportunity.
The
dangerous
features
in
Fascist
science
was
that
science
under
fascism
became
an
instrument
to
redefine
certain
reactionary
human
values
like
purity
of
race,
national
pride,
and
to
spread
the
message
:
that
peace
was
to
be
treated
as
a
preparation
for
war.
Under
fascism
science
ceased
to
become
a
discipline
for
the
discovery
of
truth
but
was
to
be
an
agency
to
popularise
the
ideas
of
national
socialism.
The
message
of
hope
was,
however,
given
by
the
French
intelligentsia.
They
gave
solid
resistance
to
French
fascism
and
mobilized
popular
opinion
for
the
anti
fascist
Popular
Front.
The
great
intellectuals
like
Frederich
and
Irene
Joliot
Curie,
Langevin,
Picasso,
Sartre
became
the
rallying
figures
behind
this
front,
of
which
the
French
communists
formed
the
backbone.
Bernal
concluded
that
the
Third
Reich
under
Hitler
would
unleash
a
World
War.
He
rallied
the
British
scientists
in
war
preparations
and
with
Solly
Zuckerman
studied
the
effects
of
aerial
bombing
on
civilian
population.
It
is
here
that
Bernal’s
role
as
a
communist,
a
scientist
(as
much
a
practical
one
as
a
theorist)
and
a
catalyst
come
to
the
fore.
The
threat
of
German
aerial
bombing
had
created
panic
in
London
(those
were
the
pre
radar
days)
and
even
trained
scientists
(including
his
friend
J.B.S.
Haldane)
could
not
predict
the
damage
potential
of
bombs
of
different
sizes.
It
was
clear
that
the
working
class
would
be
the
most
vulnerable
section
in
the
event
of
bombings.
Bernal
considered
it
his
duty
to
educate
the
citizens
about
the
possible
damages,
and
in
constructing
damage
proof
shelters.
He
sought
the
help
of
his
friend
Solly
Zuckerman
-
a
doctor,
turned
anatomist,
turned
curator
of
zoo
-
to
conduct
practical
experiments.
Some
abandoned
shelters
were
selected
in
the
countryside
.
Zuckermann
and
Bernal
brought
apes
and
pigeons
and
left
them
in
these
shelters.
They
contacted
the
police
department
for
incendiary
bombs
of
different
sizes.
With
the
official
sanction
the
bombs
were
exploded
at
different
distances
from
these
shelters
and
then
they
examined
the
damages
to
these
captive
animals.
In
a
later
experiment
the
two
friends
acted
as
their
own
“guinea
pigs”,
sitting
in
the
shelters
while
the
bombs
were
exploded
nearby!
These
simple
experiments
showed
that
the
believed
damage
potentials
of
most
of
the
bombs
were
highly
exaggerated.
Their
results
proved
invaluable
for
civil
defence,
particularly
in
working
class
areas
and
also
generated
more
confidence
amongst
the
citizens.
This
involvement
helped
Bernal
and
his
friends
in
gaining
acceptance
from
the
governmental
defence
establishments,
even
though
Bernal
was
a
communist,
i.e.
“as
red
as
the
fire
of
hell”.
His
one
time
enemy
Lord
Mountbatten
now
became
his
supporter,
for
the
most
committed
anti
fascists
were
the
Reds.
Bernal
was
one
of
the
pioneers
in
applying
operations
research
ideas
in
these
war
years
and
was
directly
involved
in
the
D-Day
landing
of
the
Allied
forces
in
Normandy.
His
special
attention
was
in
devising
aerial
photography
methods
to
photograph
the
shapes
of
waves
on
the
Normandy
beaches
under
different
conditions
of
wind.
From
the
patterns
of
these
waves
he
devised
methods
to
determine
the
inclinations
of
the
beaches
and
conclude
whether
they
could
withstand
the
landing
of
tanks
and
armoured
vehicles.
Before
the
Normandy
plan
had
matured
the
allied
plan
was
to
assault
from
the
frozen
arctics.
It
was
here
that
Bernal
put
his
own
research
work
into
use.
It
was
in
the
mid
1930’s,
while
stranded
in
Moscow
airport
that
Bernal
watched
the
surrounding
mist
and
decided
to
work
on
water.
He
discovered
later
that
water
is
not
so
simple
as
people
thought
it
to
be
and
that
ice
had
several
structural
phases.
It
struck
him
during
the
war
years
that
if
icebergs
be
packed
with
jute
fibres,
they
could
become
hard
and
strong
enough
to
carry
tanks
and
allow
landing
of
planes.
This
led
him
to
the
pioneering
work
on
composites.
Experiments
proved
Bernal
to
be
right.
This
plan
was,
however,
abandoned
because
the
Normandy
operations
proved
to
be
more
viable
than
those
from
the
arctics.
Cold
War
and
Scientists’
Response:
At
the
end
of
the
second
world
war
this
anti
fascist
alliance
was
broken
and
cold
war
took
over.
Bernal,
like
his
friend
Joliot
in
France
was
out
of
favour
with
the
establishment.
Moreover,
the
bombing
of
Hiroshima
and
Nagasaki
placed
a
special
responsibility
on
scientists
to
see
that
the
results
of
their
scientific
work
were
not
put
to
use
for
destructive
purposes.
It
was
at
this
stage
that
Bernal
involved
himself
in
organising
several
fora
to
contain
the
damages
of
the
cold
war.
These
were
the
Scientific
Workers’
Association,
The
Pugwash
Conference,
the
World
Peace
Council
etc.
It
is
necessary
to
note
the
commendable
support
that
Indian
scientists
(e.g.
M.N.Saha,
D.D.Kosambi,
S.S.Sokhe)gave
to
these
efforts.
Bernal
was
also
pivotal
in
mobilising
the
support
of
British
scientists
in
helping
the
newly
independent
colonies
in
their
scientific
planning
and
in
mobilising
support
for
the
UNESCO,
the
brain
child
of
the
UNESCO
being
his
fellow
Marxist,
Joseph
Needham.
Science
in
History:
Bernal’s
important
work:
Science
in
History
appeared
in
the
1950’s
and
one
entire
session
of
the
Soviet
Academy
of
Science
was
devoted
to
the
study
of
this
single
work
-
an
honour
never
given
to
any
other
scientist.
We
will
here
quote
only
one
of
his
many
significant
observations.
The
book
is
not
a
mere
chronological
history
of
science.
It
gives
a
method
to
analyse
the
role
that
science
has
played
in
history.
Science,
according
to
Bernal,
“will
not
fail
for
lack
of
human
capacity;
where
it
fails
will
be
for
lack
of
social
organisation
to
make
use
of
that
capacity”.
This
has
happened
because
the
imperialist
system
perpetuates
underdevelopment
and
has
stopped
the
entire
humanity
from
involving
itself
with
scientific
progress.
The
situation
was
deeply
accentuated
in
the
cold
war
days
-
particularly
with
the
escalation
of
threats
of
nuclear
war.
This
huge
manpower,
according
to
Bernal
could
be
released
for
human
progress
and
also
for
that
of
science
only
with
the
demise
of
imperialism
and
the
capitalist
system.
The
hope
according
to
Bernal
lay
with
the
socialist
system,
whose
scientific
progress
he
analyzed
in
great
detail.
The
collapse
of
socialism
in
Eastern
Europe,
to
some,
may
signify
the
demise
of
ideology.
Yet
any
serious
student
of
history,
would
agree
that
no
society
in
the
past
could
achieve
such
rapid
scientific
progress
as
these
socialist
societies
did
and
never
before
was
science
put
at
the
service
of
such
huge
mass
of
humanity
-
a
process
that
began
even
in
the
“dark
days
of
1918”.
What
baffled
the
world
was
that
science
in
these
societies
was
planned,
and
the
philosophy
of
dialectical
materialism
-
though
no
substitute
for
scientific
exploration
-
acted
as
guidance
“to
integrate
and
organize
different
branches
of
scientific
research
in
in
relation
to
one
another
and
to
the
social
processes
of
which
they
form
a
part”.
What
was
equally
impressive
was
the
way
the
scientific
manpower
was
created
and
harnessed
e.g.
by
reorganising
the
erstwhile
ceremonial
body
like
the
Russian
Academy
of
Science
to
the
new
Soviet
Academy,-
giving
it
powers
and
making
it
accountable
to
the
society.
With
the
abolition
of
classes
every
citizen
felt
a
stake
in
the
system
and
that
accounted
for
their
massive
participation
as
in
the
Stakhanovist
movement.
Bernal
noted
that
equally
commendable
was
the
Peoples’
Republic
of
China’s
success
in
wiping
out
illiteracy
from
sixty
million
children
in
mere
five
years.
Their
experiences
in
control
of
floods
showed
that
success
of
science
is
best
guaranteed
when
it
is
backed
by
supportive
participation
by
the
masses.
Bernal
had
concluded
that
the
future
of
science
in
these
societies
depended
as
much
on
their
internal
stability
as
also
on
cessation
of
hostilities
in
the
socialist
camp
and
in
these
societies’
ability
to
ward
off
external
threats
of
war,
including
nuclear
war.
Bernal
died
on
15.09.1971,
i.e.
twenty
years
before
the
collapse
of
Soviet
Union.
He
was
a
regular
visitor
there,
since
the
1950s
and
must
have
noticed
the
imperfections,
both
in
the
Stalin
and
post
Stalin
eras.
Since
he
never
denounced
either
Stalin
or
the
post
Stalin
leadership
of
the
USSR
it
is
not
clear
as
to
what
his
evaluations
were.
It
is
also
not
known
whether
he
had
warned
the
soviet
leadership
about
the
distortions
in
soviet
science
,
in
the
Lyshenko
era.
Bernal
maintained
good
relations
with
many
heads
of
state
like
Zhou
en
lai,
Krushchov,
Mao,
Nkrumah
and
Nehru.
He
closely
interacted
with
many
anti
imperialist
intellectuals
like,
Picasso,
Nazim
Hikmet,
Paul
Robeson
and
Pablo
Neruda.
The
main
thrust
of
these
actions
suggests
that
his
priority
was
to
develop
an
anti
imperialist
front.
Links
with
India
:
Bernal’s
close
links
with
India
deserve
a
special
mention
and
paid
several
visits
here.
His
friend
Blackett
came
to
India
many
times
as
a
scientific
adviser,
while
his
student
Dorothy
Hodgkin
had
many
students
from
India
as
her
collaborator.
Bernal’s
friend
J.B.S.Haldane
settled
in
India
in
the
fifties
and
became
an
Indian
citizen.
Bernal
himself
commended
the
Nehru-Mahalnabis
plan.
Indian
scientists
owe
gratitude
to
Bernal
on
account
of
two
other
things.
Bernal
was
responsible
in
no
small
measure
in
drawing
G.N.
Ramachandran’s
(unquestionably
the
greatest
Indian
scientist
in
the
postwar
era)
attention
to
some
outstanding
problems
in
protein
structure
.
They
met
in
a
conference
in
Madras
and
Bernal
told
Ramachandran
about
some
intriguing
features
in
the
protein
called
collagen
found
in
tendons
in
skin.
For
GNR(
he
died
on
07.04.01),
the
problem
was
:
where
would
he
get
the
samples
of
collagen
from?
Bernal
suggested
that
it
could
be
looked
for
at
the
Central
Leather
Research
Institute
i.e.
not
far
away
from
the
university
campus
and
it
so
happened
that
collagen
could
be
procured
from
there
with
no
great
effort.
That
turned
out
to
be
the
beginning
of
GNR’s
path
breaking
work
on
the
structure
of
collagen-
conducted
in
a
small
university
department.
The
lesson
here
for
Indian
science
is
clear.
The
breakthroughs
can
come
even
in
modest
environments
and
modest
investments.
Bernal’s
own
pioneering
work
on
the
structure
of
liquids
and
amorphous
solids
was
done
at
the
Birbeck
College,
only
with
steel
balls
procured
from
ball
bearings!
Bernal
thus
showed
that
there
was
a
space
for
doing
science
at
all
levels.
The
other
episode
relates
to
Kosambi.
Bernal
introduced
A.R.
Vasudev
Murthy
(a
chemist
and
sanskritist)
of
Indian
Institute
of
Science
to
D.D.Kosambi
(Bernal
uses
Kosambi’s
characterization
of
science
as
the
‘cognition
of
necessity’
in
Science
in
History)
during
the
Indian
Science
Congress
in
Poona
in
1950.
Kosambi
told
Vasudev
Murthy
that
he
intended
to
make
a
study
of
Indian
history
on
the
lines
given
in
Engels’
“Origin
of
the
family,
private
property
and
the
state”.
It
was
in
this
way
that
Kosambi’s
collaborations
with
the
scientific
community
in
Bangalore
began
and
stimulated
them
in
lively
debates
on
the
social
functions
of
science
and
the
culture
and
civilization
of
ancient
India,
the
outcome
being
Kosambi’s
widely
read
monographs
on
the
subject.
Science
for
international
cooperation
and
for
a
world
without
war:
Bernal,
the
catalyst
believed
that
scientific
cooperation
between
nations
would
help
to
mitigate
the
difficulties
caused
by
the
cold
war
and
lead
to
better
understanding
between
countries.
His
attention
was
directed
in
two
different
angles.
On
the
one
hand
he
sought
cooperation
between
the
soviet
bloc
and
the
west
on
scientific
projects.
This
had
only
limited
success.
On
the
other
Bernal
gave
special
attention
to
the
problem
of
building
science
in
newly
liberated
nations
.
It
is
maintained
by
some
scholars
that
his
understanding
of
the
scientific
needs
of
the
former
colonies
had
an
incompleteness
because
of
limited
study.
However,
what
he
argued
goes
as
follows
.
It
is
not
difficult
to
list
out
at
least
some
of
the
most
urgent
needs
like,
food
,health
and
education
and
see
in
what
way
science
can
be
geared
to
remove
some
of
the
most
urgent
ones.
Here
too
his
faith
in
the
new
governments
of
the
former
colonies
appear
to
be
misplaced,
e.g.
Bernal
considered
India’s
industrialisation
to
be
in
the
socialist
path.
However,
what
is
undisputed
is
the
fact
that
the
scientific
revolution
of
the
twentieth
century,
in
an
egalitarian
society
can
satisfy
most
of
the
basic
needs
of
the
people.
Bernal,
for
example
dreamt
of
a
situation
where
protein
deficiency
in
poorer
societies
could
be
solved
by
cheap
industrial
production
of
amino
acids
!
and
other
food
requirements
could
be
satisfied
by
cheaply
growing
algae
and
fungi
in
factories
under
artificial
lighting
rather
than
under
weak
sunlight!
The
scientific
revolution
in
the
twentieth
century,
which
was
triggered
by
a
crisis
in
the
realm
of
knowledge
(in
physics,
which
later
became
all
pervading)
has
expanded
the
boundaries
of
knowledge
to
such
a
prodigious
expanse
that
the
pre
war
concept
of
a
romantic
science
is
“irretrievably
lost”
and
that
science
has
become
an
enterprise,
deeply
established
now
in
the
affairs
of
the
state
and
a
scientist
is
to
be
truly
referred
to
as
a
scientific
worker.
Bernal
advocated
that
science
in
the
backward
countries
has
to
be
sponsored
by
the
state
.
This
will
be
backed
by
an
initial
process
of
learning
from
the
rest
of
the
world
while
building
their
own
self
reliant
path.
.
This
will
be
a
short
phase,
since
scientists
mature
fast,
as
was
in
the
Soviet
Union,
to
be
followed
by
a
social
process
which
can
produce
“scientists
who
can
appreciate
the
particular
needs
and
particular
genius
of
their
own
country
and
do
there
with
and
for
their
own
people
what
no
foreign
scientist
could
do”.
The
social
structure
that
will
facilitate
this,
is
what
concerns
us
most.