Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature

Chargaff was a successful Austrian chemist, who is perhaps best known for his research on the nucleic acids, particularly "Chargaff's rule", which states that the number of Gs to Cs, and As to Ts, is equal in DNA. This was perhaps the single most important observation that led to Crick and Watson solving of the structure of DNA.
This biography, however, could not be much more different to those of Watson and Crick. It is less concerned with telling a story, or explaining scientific ideas, and more with a philosophic musing on the state of the world, science, and the human condition.
This book is not a translation, and Chargaff uses English with literary style, despite it not being his native tongue, and is rather quotable as a result. show more When he isn't being witty or sentimental, he is sardonic, a good example being his description of Crick and Watson, from when they met in Cambridge in 1952: “One, thirty five years old; the looks of a fading racing tout, something out of Hogarth's (“The Rake's Progress”)..... The other, quite underdeveloped at 23, a grin, more sly than sheepish.. “a gawky young figure, so reminiscent of one of those cobblers out of Nestroy's Lumpazivagabundus””. His life was not exceptionally interesting, except that he fled the Nazis to America, where he spent most of his career, and he did not get on well with people in general, but the quality of his thought more than compensates. He is a very readable writer, opinionated, and intellectually stimulating, and I would be happily surprised to find out if a better autobiography of a scientist exists. show less