Sir Peter Brian Medawar OMThe Order of Merit
is an order recognizing distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
CBE FRS (28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987) was a British zoologist. Medawar's work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants. He was awarded the 1960
Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
with Sir
Frank Macfarlane BurnetSir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, OM, AK, KBE , usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology. Burnet received his M.D. degree from the University of Melbourne in 1924, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of London in 1928...
. Until partially disabled by a
cerebral infarctionA cerebral infarction is the ischemic kind of stroke due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. It can be atherothrombotic or embolic. From stroke caused by cerebral infarction two other kinds of stroke should be distinguished: cerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid...
, he was Director of the
National Institute for Medical ResearchThe National Institute For Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a large medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
at
Mill HillMill Hill is a place in the London Borough of Barnet It is a suburb situated 9 miles north west of Charing Cross, in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Middlesex...
.
Medawar was born on 28 February 1915, in Petrópolis, Brazil (a town 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro) of a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
mother and a
LebaneseThe Lebanese people are an ethnic group or nation of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state...
father.
Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in. I suppose we all realize the degree to which fear and resentment of what is new is really a lament for the memories of our childhood.
Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Exeter, 3 September 1969
Simultaneous discovery is utterly commonplace, and it was only the rarity of scientists, not the inherent improbability of the phenomenon, that made it remarkable in the past. Scientists on the same road may be expected to arrive at the same destination, often not far apart.
Peter Medawar, "The Act of Creation" (New Statesman, 19 June 1964)
A scientist is no more a collector and classifier of facts than a historian is a man who complies and classifies a chronology of the dates of great battles and major discoveries.
(with Jean Medawar), Aristotle to Zoos: A Philosophical Dictionary of Biology (1985)
Creosote has a pretty technological smell.
Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Exeter, 3 September 1969
We wring our hands over the miscarriages of technology and take its benefactions for granted. We are dismayed by air pollution but not proportionately cheered up by, say, the virtual abolition of poliomyelitis.
Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Exeter, 3 September 1969
Watson's childlike vision makes them seem like the creatures of a Wonderland, all at a strange contentious noisy tea-party which made room for him because for people like him, at this particular kind of party, there is always room.
"Lucky Jim" (New York Review of Books, 28 March 1968)
Sir Peter Brian Medawar OMThe Order of Merit
is an order recognizing distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
CBE FRS (28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987) was a British zoologist. Medawar's work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants. He was awarded the 1960
Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
with Sir
Frank Macfarlane BurnetSir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, OM, AK, KBE , usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology. Burnet received his M.D. degree from the University of Melbourne in 1924, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of London in 1928...
. Until partially disabled by a
cerebral infarctionA cerebral infarction is the ischemic kind of stroke due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. It can be atherothrombotic or embolic. From stroke caused by cerebral infarction two other kinds of stroke should be distinguished: cerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid...
, he was Director of the
National Institute for Medical ResearchThe National Institute For Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a large medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
at
Mill HillMill Hill is a place in the London Borough of Barnet It is a suburb situated 9 miles north west of Charing Cross, in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Middlesex...
.
Early years
Medawar was born on 28 February 1915, in Petrópolis, Brazil (a town 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro) of a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
mother and a
LebaneseThe Lebanese people are an ethnic group or nation of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state...
father. His status as a British citizen was acquired at birth: "My birth was registered at the British Consulate in good time to acquire the status of 'natural-born British subject'. Medawar left Brazil for England in 1918, and lived there for the rest of his life.
Medawar was educated at
Marlborough CollegeMarlborough College is an English independent, co-educational boarding school located in Marlborough, Wiltshire.Founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, the school now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. Currently there are just over 800 pupils,...
and
Magdalen College, OxfordMagdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million....
, where he eventually became a
FellowA fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes...
.
Achievements
Medawar was professor of zoology at the
University of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a British 'Redbrick' university located in the city of Birmingham, England...
(1947–51) and
University College LondonUniversity College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...
(1951–62). In 1962 he was appointed director of the
National Institute for Medical ResearchThe National Institute For Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a large medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
, and became professor of experimental medicine at the
Royal InstitutionThe Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London...
(1977–83), and president of the
Royal Postgraduate Medical SchoolThe Royal Postgraduate Medical School was an independent medical school in England. In 1988, the school merged with the Institute of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and in 1997 became part of the Imperial College School of Medicine.-History:...
(1981–87). Medawar was a scientist of great inventiveness who was interested in many other subjects including
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
,
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
and
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being...
.
He was knighted in 1965 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1981.
Later years
Whilst attending the annual British Association meeting in 1969, Medawar suffered a
strokeA stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by thrombosis or embolism or due to a hemorrhage...
when reading the lesson at
Exeter CathedralExeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....
, a duty which falls on every new President of the British Association. It was, as he said, "monstrous bad luck because
Jim Whyte BlackSir James Whyte Black, OM, FRS, FRSE, FRCP is a Scottish doctor and pharmacologist who invented Propranolol, synthesized Cimetidine and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for these discoveries.- Early life and education :...
had not yet devised Beta-blockers, which slow the heart-beat and could have preserved my health and my career". Medawar’s failing health may have had repercussions for medical science and the relations between the scientific community and government. Before the stroke, Medawar was one of Britain's most influential scientists, especially in the medico-biological field.
After the impairment of his speech and movement Medawar, with his wife's help, reorganised his life and continued to write and do research though on a greatly restricted scale. However, more haemorrhages followed and in 1987 Medawar died. He is buried — as is his wife Jean (1913–2005) — at Alfriston in East Sussex.
Views on religion
- "... I believe that a reasonable case can be made for saying, not that we believe in God because He exists but rather that He exists because we believe in Him... Considered as an element of the world, God has the same degree and kind of objective reality as do other products of mind... I regret my disbelief in God and religious answers generally, for I believe it would give satisfaction and comfort to many in need of it if it were possible to discover and propound good scientific and philosophic reasons to believe in God... To abdicate from the rule of reason and substitute for it an authentication of belief by the intentness and degree of conviction with which we hold it can be perilous and destructive... I am a rationalist—something of a period piece nowadays, I admit..."
Early research
His involvement with what became
transplantOrgan transplant is the moving of an organ from one body to another , for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or failing organ with a working one from the donor site. Organ donors can be living or deceased...
research began during WWII, when he investigated possible improvements in skin grafts. It became focused in 1949, when Burnet advanced the hypothesis that during
embryoAn embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
nic life and immediately after birth,
cellsThe cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos...
gradually acquire the ability to distinguish between their own
tissueTissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. Hence, a tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function...
substances on the one hand and unwanted cells and foreign material on the other.
With Rupert Billingham, he published a seminal paper in 1951.
Santa J. OnoSanta J. Ono is a Canadian-American biologist and university administrator.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he was educated at Towson High School, the University of Chicago, McGill University, and Harvard University. At Harvard he was a postdoctoral fellow supported by the...
, the American immunologist, has described the enduring impact of this paper to modern science.
Outcome of research
Medawar was awarded his
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
in 1960 with
BurnetSir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, OM, AK, KBE , usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology. Burnet received his M.D. degree from the University of Melbourne in 1924, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of London in 1928...
for their work in tissue grafting which is the basis of
organ transplantOrgan transplant is the moving of an organ from one body to another , for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or failing organ with a working one from the donor site. Organ donors can be living or deceased...
s, and their discovery of acquired immunological tolerance. This work was used in dealing with skin grafts required after
burnsA burn is a type of injury that may be caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation, or friction. Burns can be highly variable in terms of the tissue affected, the severity, and resultant complications. Muscle, bone, blood vessel, dermal and epidermal tissue can all be damaged with...
. Medawar's work resulted in a shift of emphasis in the science of
immunologyImmunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with, among other things, the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and disease; malfunctions of the immune system in...
from one that attempts to deal with the fully developed immunity mechanism to one that attempts to alter the immunity mechanism itself, as in the attempt to suppress the body's rejection of organ transplants.
Theory of ageing
Medawar's 1951 lecture
An unsolved problem of biology (published 1952) addressed the question of why evolution has permitted us to deteriorate with age, although (1) ageing lowers our individual fitness, and (2) there is no obvious necessity for ageing. His insight was that the force of
natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
is weaker late in life (because the
fecundityFecundity, derived from the word fecund, generally refers to the ability to reproduce. In biology and demography, fecundity is the potential reproductive capacity of an organism or population, measured by the number of gametes , seed set or asexual propagules. Fecundity is under both genetic and...
of younger age-groups is overwhelmingly more significant in producing the next generation). What happens to an organism after reproduction is only weakly reflected in natural selection by the effect on its younger relatives. He pointed out that likelihood of death at various times of life, as judged by life tables, was an indirect measure of
fitnessFitness is a central concept in evolutionary theory. It describes the capability of an individual of certain genotype to reproduce, and usually is equal to the proportion of the individual's genes in all the genes of the next generation...
, that is, the capacity of an organism to propagate its genes. Life tables for humans show, for example that the lowest likelihood of death in human females comes at about age 14, which in primitive societies would likely be an age of peak reproduction. This has served as the basis for all three modern theories for the
evolution of ageing
Enquiry into the evolution of ageing aims to explain why almost all living things weaken and die with age. There is not yet agreement in the scientific community on a single answer...
.
Books
His books include
The uniqueness of Man, which includes essays on immunology, graft rejection and acquired immune tolerance;
Induction and intuition in scientific thought;
The art of the soluble, a book of essays, some later reprinted in
Pluto's Republic;
Advice to a young scientist;
Aristotle to Zoos (with his wife Jean Shinglewood Taylor);
The life science,
The limits of science and his last, in 1986,
Memoirs of a thinking radish, an autobiography. One of his best-known essays is his 1961 demolition of
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man...
's
The Phenomenon of ManThe Phenomenon of Man is a non-fiction book written by French philosopher, paleontologist and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In this work, Teilhard describes evolution as a process that leads to increasing complexity, culminating in the unification of consciousness.The book was...
, of which he said: "its author can be excused of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has taken great pains to deceive himself".
External links