John Desmond Bernal (10.05.1901-16.09.1971) was an English physicist and public figure and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1937). He was born in Nenagh (Ireland). He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1922). In 1923-27 he worked at the Royal Institution in London and in 1927-37 at the University of Cambridge. From 1937 he was professor at the University of London.
His main work concerned crystallography and X-ray structural analysis.
He studied the structure of graphite, showing that the layers of carbon atoms are not puckered but flat. In the course of these early X-ray structural studies he developed an important graphical method of analysing rotation photographs, based on the use of reciprocal-lattice charts (the so-called Bernal charts). He also studied the crystal structures of various metals, of amino acids and of related compounds, in particular of globular proteins.
As early as 1931 he made an important contribution to the understanding of the nature of the steroid hormones, demonstrating the value of X-ray structural analysis for the study of complex organic substances. He studied the structure of the sterols and was a pioneer in the study of viruses (1936); in particular, he carried out a series of experiments with tobacco mosaic virus which made it possible to establish the size of the virus particles and showed that these particles have a regular internal structure determined by strictly repeating combinations of small protein molecules.
From 1933 onwards he studied the structure and properties of water and of other liquids, which led him in 1959 to a structural theory of liquids. Bernal's exceptional part in the study of crystals by the methods of X-ray structural analysis was described by L. Bragg: “No one has done more than he as a scout and a pioneer of new paths. Whatever branch of X-ray structural analysis we take up among those of great importance today, we are each time obliged to admit that it was he who inspired the first fundamental experiments in that field.” Together with L. Bragg, L. Pauling and others he laid the foundations of the structural analysis of proteins.
A considerable part of Bernal's work was devoted to the problem of the origin of life and to the role and place of science in modern society. In particular, his book “The Social Function of Science” (1939) began a new field, the science of science, or science studies.
President of the International Union of Crystallography (1963-66). An active campaigner for peace, he was executive president of the Presidium of the World Peace Council and a laureate of the International Lenin Prize “For Strengthening Peace Among Peoples” (1953). A member of many academies of sciences, among them the USSR Academy of Sciences (1958). The Royal Medal (1945).