Editing J. D. Bernal

{{short description|Irish scientist, pioneer of X-ray crystallography in biology (1901–1971)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name             =John Desmond Bernal
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100%|FRS}}
|image            =John Desmond Bernal.jpg 
|caption          =Bernal in 1949, photo by [[Wolfgang Suschitzky]]<ref>[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp05080 Images of Bernal at the National Portrait Gallery]</ref>
|birth_date       ={{Birth date|1901|5|10|df=yes}}
|birth_place      =[[Nenagh]], [[County Tipperary]], Ireland
|death_date       ={{Death date and age|1971|9|15|1901|5|10|df=yes}} 
|death_place      =London, England
|resting_place    =Battersea Cemetery,<br/>[[Morden]] (unmarked)<ref name="Goldsmith 1980 238">{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|p=238}}</ref>
|field            =[[X-ray crystallography]]
|work_institutions=[[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College, University of London]]
| education = [[Bedford School]]
|alma_mater       =[[University of Cambridge]]<!--Emmanuel College, Cambridge doesn't award degrees-->
|doctoral_advisor =[[William Henry Bragg]]<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=122657 |title = William Bragg - the Mathematics Genealogy Project}}</ref>
|spouse = {{marriage|Agnes Eileen Sprague|1922}} 
|children = 4, including [[Martin Bernal|Martin]]
|thesis_title=
|thesis_url=
|thesis_year=
|doctoral_students={{Plainlist|
* [[Dorothy Hodgkin]]<ref name=dphd>{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|url=http://ulmss-newton.lib.cam.ac.uk/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=35884|title=X-ray crystallography and the chemistry of the sterols|first=Dorothy Mary Crowfoot|last=Hodgkin|website=lib.cam.ac.uk|publisher=University of Cambridge|year=1937|id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.727110}}|access-date=30 November 2017|archive-date=13 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613085029/https://ulmss-newton.lib.cam.ac.uk/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=35884|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Alan Lindsay Mackay|Alan Mackay]]<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=185698 |title = Alan Mackay - the Mathematics Genealogy Project}}</ref>
* [[Max Perutz]]<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=158581 |title = Max Perutz - the Mathematics Genealogy Project}}</ref>
* [[Alexander F. Wells]]}}
|known_for        =[[Bernal chart]]<br/>[[Bernal sphere]]<br>[[Bilayer graphene#Structure|Bernal stacking]]<br/>[[Bernal–Fowler rules]]<br>[[Zone melting]]
|prizes           ={{Nowrap|[[Royal Medal]] (1945)<br/>[[Guthrie lecture]] (1947)<br/>[[Stalin Peace Prize]] (1953)<br/>Grotius Gold Medal (1959)<br/>[[Bakerian Lecture]] (1962)<!--<br/> [[Fellow of the Royal Society]]-->
}}
| module = {{Infobox military person | embed=yes
   |nickname=
   |allegiance= {{flag|United Kingdom}}
   |branch= {{navy|United Kingdom}}
   |serviceyears= 1944–1945
   |rank=[[Lieutenant (naval)|Lieutenant]] ([[Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve|RNVR]])
   |unit=
   |commands=
   |battles=[[Second World War]]
*[[Operation Overlord]]
*[[Normandy landings]]
   |awards= 
   |relations=
   |signature = }}
}}

'''John Desmond Bernal''' {{post-nominals|size=100%|FRS}}<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1=Hodgkin | first1=D. M. C. | author-link=Dorothy Hodgkin| doi=10.1098/rsbm.1980.0002 | title=John Desmond Bernal. 10 May 1901-15 September 1971 | journal=[[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume=26 | pages=16–84 | year=1980 | doi-access=free }}</ref> ({{IPAc-en|b|ər|ˈ|n|ɑː|l}}; 10 May 1901&nbsp;– 15 September 1971) was an Irish scientist who pioneered the use of [[X-ray crystallography]] in [[molecular biology]]. He published extensively on the [[history of science]]. In addition, Bernal wrote popular books on science and society. He was a [[communist]] activist and a member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CPGB).

==Education and early life==
His family was Irish, with a mix of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and [[Sephardic]] Jewish on his father's side<ref>Bevis Marks Records, Vols 1–6 of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation, London; Miriam Rodrigues Pereira, ed.</ref> (his grandfather Jacob Genese, properly Ginesi, had adopted the family name Bernal of his paternal grandmother around 1837).<ref name="frs"/> His father Samuel Bernal had been raised as a [[Catholic]] in [[Limerick]] and after graduating from [[Albert Agricultural College]] spent 14 years in Australia before returning to [[County Tipperary]] to buy a farm, ''Brookwatson'', near [[Nenagh]] where Bernal was brought up. His American mother, née Elizabeth Miller, whose mother was from [[Antrim, County Antrim|Antrim]], was a graduate of [[Stanford University]] and a journalist and had converted to Catholicism.<ref>{{cite book |author=Brown, Andrew |title=J. D. Bernal: the sage of science |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |year=2005 |isbn=0-19-851544-8 }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|pp=1–3}}</ref> Elizabeth was raised Protestant and would send John to a Protestant school in his youth.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q4XIEatYlQEC&q=protestant|isbn = 978-0-19-851544-9|title = J. D. Bernal: The Sage of Science|date = 24 November 2005|publisher = OUP Oxford}}</ref>

Bernal was educated in England first for one term at [[Stonyhurst College]], which he hated and so was moved to [[Bedford School]] at the age of 13. A pupil at the school from 1914 to 1919, according to Goldsmith he found it "extremely unpleasant" and most of his fellow students "bored him", but his younger brother Kevin, who was also there, was "some consolation",<ref>{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|p=24}}</ref> while Brown claims that "he seemed to adjust easily to life" there.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=9}}</ref> In 1919, he went to [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]], with a scholarship.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|p=26}}</ref><ref name=boy>{{cite book|last=Boylan|first= Henry |year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|pages=25|location=Dublin|publisher= Gill and MacMillan|isbn= 0-7171-2945-4}}</ref>

At Cambridge, Bernal read both mathematics and science for a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in 1922, which he followed by another year of [[natural science]]s. He taught himself the theory of [[space group]]s, including the [[quaternion]] method, which became the mathematical basis of a lengthy paper on [[crystal structure]] for which he won a joint prize with [[Ronald G.W. Norrish]] in his third year. At Cambridge, he also became known as "Sage", a nickname given to him about 1920 by a young woman working in [[Charles Kay Ogden]]'s Bookshop at the corner of [[Bridge Street, Cambridge|Bridge Street]].<ref>{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|p=27}}</ref>

==Career and research==
After his graduation, Bernal began research under [[William Henry Bragg]] at the Davy Faraday Laboratory at the [[Royal Institution]]<ref name="Oxon">{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Scientists|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=0-19-280086-8|editor-last=John Dintih|location=Oxford|editor-last2=Derek Gjertsen}}</ref> in London. In 1924 he determined the structure of [[graphite]] (the Bernal stacking describes the registry of two graphite planes) and also did work on the crystal structure of [[bronze]].<ref name ="Oxon"/> His strength was in analysis as much as experimental method, and his mathematical and practical treatment of determining crystal structure was widely studied, but he also developed an X-ray spectro-[[goniometer]].<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=55,61}}</ref>

In 1927, he was appointed as the first lecturer in Structural Crystallography at Cambridge, becoming the assistant director of the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] in 1934. There, he started applying his crystallographic techniques to organic molecules, starting with [[oestrin]] and sterol compounds including [[cholesterol]] in 1929, forcing a radical change of thinking among sterol chemists.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=94}} Goldsmith reports Zuckerman and Crowther were surprised Bernal was not awarded a Nobel for that since it corrected the structure for which the 1928 award had been made.</ref> While at Cambridge, he analysed [[vitamin B1|vitamin B<sub>1</sub>]] (1933), [[pepsin]] (1934), [[vitamin D2|vitamin D<sub>2</sub>]] (1935), the [[sterols]] (1936) and the [[tobacco mosaic virus]] (1937).<ref name="Oxon"/>

He also worked on the structure of liquid water, showing the boomerang shape of its molecule (1933). It was in Bernal's research group that after a year working with Tiny Powell at Oxford, [[Dorothy Hodgkin]] continued her early research career.<ref name=dphd/> Together, in 1934, they took the first X-ray photographs of hydrated [[X-ray crystallography#crystalization|protein crystal]]s using the trick of bathing the crystals in their mother liquor, giving one of the first glimpses of the world of molecular structure that underlies living things.<ref name="ODNB">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7746 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]</ref> [[Max Perutz]] arrived as a student from [[Vienna]] in 1936 and started the work on [[haemoglobin]] that would occupy him most of his career.

However, Bernal was refused fellowships at Emmanuel and Christ's and tenure by [[Ernest Rutherford]], who disliked him,<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|pp=90,146,187}}</ref> and in 1937, Bernal became Professor of [[Physics]] at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College, University of London]], a department that had been brought to the first rank by [[Patrick Blackett]]. The same year, he was elected as a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref name="frs"/> After World War II, he established Birkbeck's Biomolecular Research Laboratory in two Georgian houses in Torrington Square with 15 researchers. It was there that [[Aaron Klug]] and [[Rosalind Franklin]] worked on [[tobacco mosaic virus]], and [[Andrew Donald Booth]] developed some of the earliest computers to help with the computation.

His [[Guthrie lecture]] of 1947 concentrated on proteins as the basis of life, but it was Max Perutz, still at Cambridge, who developed the X-ray structural analysis of globular proteins in Britain. In the early 1960s, Bernal returned to the subject of the origin of life, analysing meteorites for evidence of complex molecules, and to the topic of the structure of liquids, which he talked about in his [[Bakerian lecture]] in 1962.<ref name="bakerian">The structure of liquids.  Bakerian Lecture. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 280, 299-322.</ref>

===Ministry of Home Security===
In the early 1930s, Bernal had been arguing for peace, but that changed after the [[Spanish Civil War]] started. With the outbreak of [[World War II]] in 1939, Bernal joined the [[Ministry of Home Security]], where he brought in [[Solly Zuckerman]] to carry out the first proper analyses of the effects of enemy bombing and of explosions on animals and people. Their subsequent analysis of the effects of bombs on [[Birmingham]] and [[Kingston upon Hull]] showed that city bombing produced little disruption and production was affected only by direct hits on factories. A supper for scientists organised by the [[Tots and Quots]] in [[Soho]] generated a multi-author book ''Science in War'' produced in a month by [[Allen Lane]], one of the guests, arguing that science should be applied in every part of the war effort.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|pp=198–9, 176}}</ref>

From 1942, he and Zuckerman served as scientific advisers to [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Lord Louis Mountbatten]], the Chief of Combined Operations.<ref name="Oxon"/> Bernal was able to argue on both sides of [[Project Habbakuk]], [[Geoffrey Pyke]]'s proposal to build huge aircraft landing platforms in the North Atlantic made of ice. He rescued Max Perutz from internment, getting him to perform experiments on ice related to Habbakuk in a meat store freezer below [[Smithfield Meat Market]].<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|pp=215–20,235–7}}</ref> This project indirectly marked his divergence from Zuckerman, when he was recalled from a joint tour of the Middle East investigating the co-operation of army and air force, but the tour established Zuckerman's reputation as a military scientist.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|pp=222–4}}</ref>

===Operation Overlord and D-Day===
After the disaster of the [[Dieppe raid]], Bernal was determined that its mistakes not be repeated in [[Operation Overlord]]. He demonstrated the advantages of an artificial harbour to the participants of the [[Quebec Conference, 1943|Quebec Conference]] in 1943, as the only British scientist present. On 3 June 1944, he was commissioned a temporary lieutenant (Special Branch) in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR).<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=36590|supp=|page=3099|date=30 June 1944}}</ref> His main contribution to the [[Normandy landings]] was the detailed mapping of the beaches, which had to be done without attracting any German attention.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|pp=238–247}}</ref> His knowledge of the area stemmed from research in English libraries, personal experience (he had visited [[Arromanches]] on previous holidays) and aerial surveys.<ref name="Goldsmith 1980 105–108">{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|pp=105–108}}</ref>

At Bernal's memorial service, Zuckerman downplayed Bernal's part in the Normandy landings and said that he was not cleared for the highest levels of security.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|pp=477–484}}</ref> Given Bernal's Marxist and pro-Soviet sympathies, it is perhaps remarkable that there has never been any suggestion that he fed any information in that direction.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=184}}</ref> However, Brown provides evidence<ref>{{Cite journal|last=de Charadevian|first=Soraya|date=2006|editor-last=Brown|editor-first=Andrew|title=Advocating Science for the People|journal=Science|volume=312|issue=5775|pages=849–850|issn=0036-8075|jstor=3846181|doi=10.1126/science.1126642|s2cid=220096079}}</ref><ref name="Coker">{{cite news |title=Solly Zuckerman and J D Bernal, ''Times'' review by Christopher Coker of both Andrew Brown's biography of Bernal and Bernard Donovan's biography of Zukerman, 8 February 2006 |url=http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25350-2030656,00.html |access-date=7 November 2008 |location=London |work=The Times |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621171931/http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C25350-2030656%2C00.html |archive-date=21 June 2008 }}</ref> of Bernal's contributions to the preparation and the success of the invasion.

After assisting in the preparations for [[D-Day]] with work on the structure of the proposed landing sites and the [[bocage]] countryside beyond, Bernal landed, according to [[C. P. Snow]], at [[Normandy]] on the afternoon of D-Day+1 in the uniform of an Instructor-Lieutenant [[Royal Navy]] to record the effectiveness of the plans. He also assisted boats floundering on the rocks by using his knowledge of the area but said, "I committed the frightful [[solecism]] of not knowing which was [[port (nautical)|port]] and which side was [[starboard]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|pp=102–112}}</ref>

===Publications===
Bernal's 1929 work ''The World, the Flesh and the Devil'' has been called "the most brilliant attempt at scientific prediction ever made" by [[Arthur C. Clarke]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=Arthur C.|title=Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds|publisher=St Martin's Griffin, New York|year=2000}} cited in {{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=70}}</ref> It is famous for having been the first to propose the so-called [[Bernal sphere]], a type of [[Space colonization|space habitat]] intended for permanent residence. The second chapter explores radical changes to human bodies and intelligence and the third discusses the impact of these on society.

In ''The Social Function of Science'' (1939) he argued that science was not an individual pursuit of abstract knowledge and that the support of research and development should be dramatically increased. [[Eugene Garfield]], originator of the [[Science Citation Index]], said "his idea of a centralized reprint center was in my thoughts when I first proposed the as yet nonexistent SCI in Science in 1955."<ref>{{Cite web |author=Eugene Garfield |title=Tracing the Influence of JD Bernal on the World of Science through Citation Analysis |url=http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/bernaldublin0907.pdf |access-date=2011-03-10 }}</ref>

''[[Science in History]]'' (1954) is a monumental four-volume attempt to analyse the interaction between science and society. ''The Origin of Life'' (1967) gives the current ideas from [[Oparin]] and [[J. B. S. Haldane|Haldane]] onwards.

Other publications include
{{Div col|colwidth=35em}}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Bernal | first1=J. D. | title=On the Interpretation of X-Ray, Single Crystal, Rotation Photographs | journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London | volume=113 | issue=763 | pages=117–160 | doi=10.1098/rspa.1926.0143 | year=1926 | bibcode=1926RSPSA.113..117B | doi-access=free }}
<!--vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi-->
* [http://www.quarkweb.com/foyle/WorldFleshDevil.pdf ''The World, the Flesh & the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul''] (1929) Jonathan Cape. Scholar [[Robert Scholes]] calls this a "book of breathtaking scientific speculation" that "is probably the single most influential source of [[science fiction]] ideas."<ref name="scholes-rabkin">{{cite book | first1=Robert | last1=Scholes| author-link1= Robert Scholes| first2=Eric S.| last2=Rabkin|title=Science Fiction: History, Science, Vision| chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sciencefictionhi00scho | chapter-url-access=registration | publisher=Oxford University Press| location=London|date=1977|chapter=Bibliography III: Science Backgrounds| isbn=978-0-19-502174-5}}</ref>
* ''Aspects of Dialectical Materialism'' (1934) with [[E. F. Carritt]], [[Ralph Fox]], [[Hyman Levy]], [[John Macmurray]], [[R. Page Arnot]]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=nbxgAAAAIAAJ ''The Social Function of Science''] (1939) Faber & Faber
* ''Science and the Humanities'' (1946) pamphlet
* [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.233907 ''The Freedom of Necessity''] (1949)
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=nPE5AAAAMAAJ ''The Physical Basis of Life''] (1951)
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=AIUFAQAAIAAJ ''Marx and Science''] (1952) Marxism Today Series No. 9
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=howVAAAAIAAJ ''Science and Industry in the Nineteenth Century''] (1953) Routledge.
* {{Cite journal | last1=Bernal | first1=J. D. | title=Stalin as Scientist | journal=Modern Quarterly | volume=8 | issue=3 | year=1953 | url=http://mugu.com/haldane/bernal/bernal-1953-stalin-as-scientist.html}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=k54SAQAAIAAJ ''Science in History''] (1954) four volumes in later editions, The Emergence of Science; The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions; The Natural Sciences in Our Time; The Social Sciences: Conclusions. Faber & Faber
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=SDEIAQAAIAAJ ''World without War''] (1958)
* ''A Prospect of Peace'' (1960)
* ''Need There Be Need?'' (1960) pamphlet
* ''The Origin of Life'' (1967)
* ''Emergence of Science'' (1971)
* ''The Extension of Man. A History of Physics before 1900'' (1972) M.I.T. Press also as ''A History of Classical Physics from Antiquity to the Quantum''
* ''Engels and Science'', Labour Monthly pamphlet
* ''After Twenty-five Years''
* ''Peace to the World'', British Peace Committee pamphlet
* {{Cite journal | last1=Bernal | first1=J. D. | title=The relation of microscopic structure to molecular structure | doi=10.1017/S0033583500000469 | journal=Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics | volume=1 | issue=1 | pages=81–87 | year=1968 | pmid= 4885734| s2cid=32833369 }}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Bernal | first1=J. D. | title=The structure of water and its biological implications | journal=Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology | volume=19 | pages=17–32 | year=1965 | pmid=5849048}}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Bernal | first1=J. D. | title=The Use of Fourier Transforms in Protein Crystal Analysis | doi=10.1098/rspb.1953.0022 | journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | volume=141 | issue=902 | pages=71–85| year=1953 | pmid= 13047272| bibcode=1953RSPSB.141...71B| s2cid=8614975 }}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Bernal | first1=J. D. | title=Phase Determination in the X-Ray Diffraction Patterns of Complex Crystals and its Application to Protein Structure | doi=10.1038/1691007a0 | journal=Nature | volume=169 | issue=4311 | pages=1007–1008 | year=1952 | pmid= 14947858| bibcode=1952Natur.169.1007B | s2cid=2503892 }}
{{Div col end}}

===Political activism===
Raised as a Catholic, Bernal became a socialist in Cambridge as a result of a long night arguing with a friend. He also became an atheist.<ref name="Peter Haugen 2009 85">{{cite book |title=Biology: Decade by Decade |year=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438109770 |page=85 |author=Haugen, Peter |chapter=4: 1931-1940|quote=Although a devout Catholic in his boyhood, he became an outspoken atheist, socialist, and sometime Communist Party member...}}</ref> According to one reviewer, "This conversion, as complete as St. Paul's on the [[road to Damascus]], goes some way to account for, but not excuse, Bernal's blind allegiance for the rest of his life, to the [[Soviet Union]]".<ref name=sage>{{Cite journal | last1=Witkowski | first1=J. A. | title=J. D. Bernal: The Sage of Science by Andrew Brown (2006), Oxford University Press | doi=10.1096/fj.07-0202ufm | journal=The FASEB Journal | volume=21 | issue=2 | pages=302–304 | year=2007| doi-access=free }}</ref> He joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CPGB) in 1923.<ref name="Goldsmith 1980 31">{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|p=31}}</ref> His membership evidently lapsed when he returned to Cambridge in 1927 and was not renewed until 1933,<ref name="Brown 2005 269">{{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=269}}</ref> and he may have lost his card again shortly afterward.<ref name="Goldsmith 1980 31"/>

Bernal became a prominent [[intellectual]] in political life, particularly in the 1930s. He attended the famous 1931 meeting on the [[history of science]], where he met the Soviets [[Nikolai Bukharin]], and [[Boris Hessen]] who gave an influential [[Marxist]] account of the work of [[Isaac Newton]]. That meeting fundamentally changed his world view and he maintained sympathy for the Soviet Union and [[Joseph Stalin]]. In 1939, Bernal published ''The Social Function of Science'', probably the earliest text on the [[sociology of science]].

After World War II, although Bernal had been involved in evaluating the effects of atomic attacks against the Soviet Union,<ref name="Brown 2005 269"/> he supported the [[World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace]] organised in [[Communist Poland]] in 1948. Afterwards, he wrote a letter to the ''[[New Statesman]]'' warning that the US was preparing "a war for complete world domination".<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=New Statesman |title=Letter |volume=XXXVI |pages=238–239 |author=J.D. Bernal |date=18 September 1948}} quoted in {{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=325}}</ref> Consequently, when Bernal was invited to a world peace conference in New York in February 1949, his visa was refused. However, he was allowed into France in April for the World Congress of the Partisans of Peace, with [[Frédéric Joliot-Curie]] as president and Bernal as vice-president. The following year the organisation changed its name to the [[World Peace Council]].

On 20 September 1949, after his return from giving a speech strongly critical of Western countries at a peace conference in Moscow, the ''[[Evening Star (Ipswich)|Evening Star]]'' newspaper of [[Ipswich]] published an interview with Bernal in which he endorsed Soviet agriculture and the "proletarian science" of [[Trofim Lysenko]].<ref name="Goldsmith 1980 105–108"/> The [[Lysenko affair]] had erupted in August 1948, when Stalin authorised Lysenko's theory of plant genetics as official Soviet orthodoxy, and he refused any deviation. Bernal and the whole British scientific left were damaged by his support for Lysenko's theory, even after many scientists had abandoned their sympathy for the Soviet Union.

Under pressure from the burgeoning [[Cold War]], the president of British [[Royal Society]] had resigned from the [[Soviet Academy of Sciences]] in November 1948.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=304}}</ref> In November 1949, the British Association for the Advancement of Science removed Bernal from membership of its council.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|pp=182 et seq}}</ref> Membership in British radical science groups quickly declined. Unlike some of his socialist colleagues, Bernal persisted in defending the Soviet position on Lysenko. He publicly refused to accept the gaping fissures that the dispute revealed between the study of natural science and dialectical materialism.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|pp=189 et seq}}</ref>

In November 1950, [[Pablo Picasso]], a fellow communist, en route to a Soviet-sponsored<ref>Eric Hobsbawm, Interesting Times, p.&nbsp;181</ref> World Peace Congress in [[Sheffield]] created a mural in Bernal's flat at the top of No.&nbsp;22 [[Torrington Square]].<ref>{{harvnb|Goldsmith|1980|p=picture}}</ref> In 2007, it became part of the [[Wellcome Collection|Wellcome Trust's collection]]<ref name="Picasso">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080515203149/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1599818.ece The night that Picasso was a little plastered], ''[[The Times]]'', 2 April 2007.</ref><ref name="Picasso2">[http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art53172 Bernal's Picasso goes on show in London at Wellcome Collection], [[Culture24]], UK, 14 January 2008.</ref> for £250,000.

Throughout the 1950s, Bernal maintained a faith in the Soviet Union as a vehicle for the creation of a socialist scientific utopia. In 1953, he was awarded the [[Stalin Peace Prize]].<ref name="BSE59">{{cite book|title=Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia|year=1959|publisher=Sovetskaya Enciklopediya |location=Moscow |language=ru|title-link=Great Soviet Encyclopedia}}</ref> From 1959 to 1965, he was president of the [[World Peace Council]].

===Awards and honours===
Bernal was awarded the [[Royal Medal]] in 1945,<ref name=official>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925080312/https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/royal-medal/|archive-date=2015-09-25|url=https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/royal-medal/|title=Royal Medals|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London}}</ref> the [[Guthrie lecture]] in 1947,<ref>The physical basis of life. (The Guthrie Lecture of the Physical Society.) Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. A 62, 357. Also published (1951) Routledge & Kegan Paul.</ref><ref name=wilkinsbernalmedawar>{{Cite web | url=https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/wilkins-bernal-medawar/ |title = Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture &#124; Royal Society| date=30 November 2023 }}</ref> the [[Stalin Peace Prize]] in 1953,<ref name="BSE59" /> the Grotius Gold Medal in 1959<ref name=sage /> and the [[Bakerian Lecture]] in 1962.<ref name="bakerian"/><ref name=bakerian-source>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1980.0002|title = John Desmond Bernal, 10 May 1901 - 15 September 1971|journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume = 26|pages = 16–84|year = 1980|doi-access = free|last1 = Hodgkin|first1 = Dorothy Mary Crowfoot}}</ref>

Bernal was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1937.<ref name="frs"/> A fictional portrait of Bernal appears in the novel ''The Search'', an early work of his friend [[C. P. Snow]].  He was also said{{by whom|date=October 2018}} to be the inspiration for the character Tengal in ''The Holiday'' by [[Stevie Smith]]. The [[Bernal Lecture]] and its successor the [[Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Lecture]] Medal and Lecture were named in his honour.<ref name=wilkinsbernalmedawar />

===Legacy===
The Bernal Building at the [[University of Limerick]] was named in his honour. He is the eponym of the [[John Desmond Bernal Prize]].

Bernal's brass microscope, in the possession of his great-grandson, was restored in an episode of the [[BBC Television]] series ''[[The Repair Shop]]'' shown in April 2023.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Live Series 12: Episode 4 |series=The Repair Shop |series-link=The Repair Shop |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001kzrq/the-repair-shop-series-12-episode-4 |accessdate=12 April 2023 |network=[[BBC Television]] |date=12 April 2023 |series-no=12 |number=4 |transcript= |transcript-url= }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Bernal had two children – Mike (1926–2016) and Egan (b. 1930)<ref name="Goldsmith 1980 238"/> – with his wife Agnes Eileen Sprague (1898–1990), a secretary, who was usually referred to as Eileen.<ref name ="NPG"/> He married Sprague on 21 June 1922, the day after having been awarded his BA degree. Bernal was 21, Sprague 23. Sprague was described as an active socialist and their marriage as 'open' which they both lived up to 'with great gusto'.<ref name= "APBrown">{{Cite journal | last1=Brown | first1=A. P. | doi=10.1088/1742-6596/57/1/006 | title=J D Bernal: The sage of science | journal=Journal of Physics: Conference Series | volume=57 | issue=1 | pages=61–72 | year=2007 | bibcode=2007JPhCS..57...61B | doi-access=free }}</ref>

In the early 1930s he had a brief intimate relationship with chemist [[Dorothy Hodgkin]], whose scientific research work he mentored.<ref name=dphd/><ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2005|p=139}}</ref> He had a long-term relationship with the artists' patron [[Margaret Gardiner (art collector)|Margaret Gardiner]]. Their son [[Martin Bernal]] (1937–2013)<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Margaret Gardiner]</ref> was a professor in the Department of Government at [[Cornell University]] and author of the controversial ''[[Black Athena]]''.<ref>
{{cite news |title=Margaret Gardiner, obituary in The Guardian, 5 January 2005|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jan/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries | date=5 January 2005 |first=Janet |last=Morgan}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Margaret Gardiner, obituary by Nchima Trust |url=http://www.nchimatrust.org/charity/Home/MargeretGardiner/tabid/85/Default.aspx |access-date=2011-02-28 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221614/http://nchimatrust.org/charity/Home/MargeretGardiner/tabid/85/Default.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> Margaret referred to herself as "Mrs. Bernal", though the two never married. Eileen is mentioned as his widow in 1990.<ref name ="NPG">[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp05080 Brief biography of Bernal at the National Portrait Gallery, London]</ref>

He also had a child (Jane, born 1953) with [[Margot Heinemann]].<ref name="Goldsmith 1980 238"/>

==Writings==
* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/index.htm ''The World, the Flesh & the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul''] (1929)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{Cite book | last=Brown|first= Andrew | title=J D Bernal—The Sage of Science | year=2005 | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]| location=Oxford  | isbn=0-19-851544-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZQElvblpvYC}}
* John Finch; 'A Nobel Fellow on Every Floor', [[Medical Research Council (United Kingdom)|Medical Research Council]] 2008, 381 pp, {{ISBN|978-1-84046-940-0}}; this book is all about the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge.
* {{Cite book | last=Goldsmith |first= Maurice | title=Sage: A Life of J. D. Bernal | year=1980 | publisher=[[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson]] | location=London | isbn=0-09-139550-X }}
* {{Cite book | last=Howarth |first= T. E. B. | title=Cambridge Between Two Wars | year=1978 | publisher=Collins | location=London | isbn=0-00-211181-0 }}
* ''The Visible College'' (1978) Gary Werskey, on Bernal, [[J. B. S. Haldane]], [[Lancelot Hogben]], [[Hyman Levy]] and [[Joseph Needham]], 2nd edition 1988
* {{Cite book | editor1-last=Swann | editor1-first=Brenda | editor2-last=Aprahamian |editor2-first=Francis | title=J. D. Bernal: A Life in Science and Politics | publisher=[[Verso Books|Verso]] | year=1999 | isbn=1-85984-854-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TM3pbvYFK3cC }}
* ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'': 'Bernal, (John) Desmond (1901–1971)’ by [[Robert Olby]], first published Sept 2004, 2870 words, with portrait illustration
* {{Cite news |pmid=14517357 |last=Mackay |first=Alan L. | author-link=Alan Lindsay Mackay |publication-date=Sep 2003 |year=2003 |title=J D Bernal (1901–1971) in perspective |volume=28 |issue=5 |periodical=[[J. Biosci.]] |pages=539–46 |doi=10.1007/BF02703329}}
* {{cite journal |pmid=9886283 |last=Surridge |first=C. |publication-date=Jan 1999 |year=1999 |title=50 years of biomolecular structure at Birkbeck: Bernal's legacy |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=13–4 |doi=10.1038/4879 |journal=[[Nature Structural Biology]]|s2cid=33553672 }}
* {{Cite news |pmid=11616361 |last=Breathnach |first=C. S. |publication-date=Nov 1995 |year=1995 |title=Desmond Bernal and his role in the biological exploitation of X-ray crystallography |volume=3 |issue=4 |periodical=[[Journal of Medical Biography]] |pages=197–200}}
* {{Cite journal | last=Hodgkin | first=Dorothy Mary Crowfoot | title=John Desmond Bernal, 10 May 1901 - 15 September 1971 | journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume=26 | pages=16–84 | publisher=[[Royal Society]] | year=1980 | issn=0080-4606| doi=10.1098/rsbm.1980.0002 | doi-access=free }}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/86 'Bernal and the Social Function of Science' A Masterclass by Chris Freeman, Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex]  Freeview video provided by the Vega Science Trust.
*Helena Sheehan [[J D Bernal: philosophy, politics and the science of science]] Journal of Physics 2007
* [http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper93h.html R. M. Young '' 'The Relevance of Bernal's Questions' '']
* [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=BERNAL Bernal papers at London School of Economics Archives (relating to his involvement with the peace movement)]
* [http://human-nature.com/science-as-culture/werskey.html Gary Werskey&nbsp;— The Marxist Critique of Capitalist Science: A History in Three Movements?]
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal Marxist Writers: John Desmond Bernal]  (Free versions of some of his writings.)
* [http://www.iol.ie/~rjtechne/scihist/brnlwhit.htm Roy Johnston, 1999, '' 'Century of Endeavour: J D Bernal and the Science and Society Theme' '']
* {{PM20|FID=pe/001574}}

{{Crystallography}}
{{Authority control}}

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