Chance and Design Reminiscences of Science in Peace and War

As a student in Cambridge, Alan Hodgkin first became interested in the basis of nerve conduction, using single nerve fibers from a shore crab in his experiments. In 1963, he won the Nobel prize for his work on nerve conduction, and in 1970 became President of the Royal Society. Chance and Design is a fascinating chronicle of Hodgkin's life, providing a glimpse into the world of Cambridge undergraduates in the thirties, the motivation behind his research into nerve conduction, his work on centimeter radar during World War II, and his life as a Cambridge academic after the war. The book concludes with an account of the Nobel prize ceremony in 1963. This highly readable autobiography gives an insight into the working patterns and private life of an eminent scientist, and will appeal not only to scientists, but also to those interested in gaining an understanding of what inspires scientific research.

Alan Hodgkin believes that - contrary to popular conviction - chance plays quite as large a role as design in scientific discovery. This engaging autobiography charts the balance of the two in his own life. Beginning starts with an account of his childhood in an extended Quaker family. Not a great success at school, he nevertheless won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, and he writes informatively of the climate of university opinion in the thirties when he was an undergraduate and came to abandon the pacifist ideals of his upbringing. A chance observation on frog nerve led to a Trinity Fellowship and a year at the Rockefeller Institute in New York (where he met his future wife), to the Nobel Prize in 1963, and ultimately to the Presidency of the Royal Society. His experiments on nerve conduction seemed almost at the point of success when everything had to be abandoned on the outbreak of war in 1939, and for six years Hodgkin worked on the concept and design of airborne radar, described in the central section of the book as Flight Trials and Tribulations. The account of his return to civilian life and the resumption of experimentation includes two chapters of solid detail of Starting Again - for this is a book for any reader interested in the origin and development of a dedicated scientist.

Preface; Part I. Beginning: Part II. Flight Trials and tribulations: Part III. Starting Again: Notes; Bibliography; Index.

In this autobiography, the scientist Alan Hodgkin, charts the balance of chance and design in his own life. A chance observation on a frog nerve led him to a Trinity Fellowship in Cambridge and a year at the Rockerfeller Institute in New York, to the Nobel Prize in 1963, and ultimately to Presidency of the Royal Society.

Alan Hodgkin believes that -contrary to popular convinction - chance plays as large a role as design in scientific discovery. This engaging autobiography charts the balance of the two in his own life.