Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

From Leonard Bernstein to Rossini. Nobel scientist Max Perutz shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From June 2000.

Sue Lawley's castaway is Dr Max Perutz. When he left Austria in 1936 to study at Cambridge, his fellow students dismissed his ambition to decipher the structure of the protein haemoglobin as 'mad'. No-one had seriously attempted to map a molecule that was made up of 10,000 atoms.

Twenty-two years later he was successful. It was an achievement that earned him and his colleague John Kendrew the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962 - and has since contributed to the study of blood diseases like sickle cell anaemia and Huntington's disease.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2000.

45 minutes

Last on

Sun 13 Oct 201921:15

Broadcasts

  • Sun 13 Oct 201910:15
  • Sun 13 Oct 201921:15

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Articles

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.