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Nature 449, 144-145 (13 September 2007) | doi:10.1038/449144a; Published online 12 September 2007

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Max Perutz: Max in three dimensions

Gregory A. Petsko1

BOOK REVIEWEDMax Perutz and the Secret of Life

by Georgina Ferry

Chatto & Windus/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: 2007. 304 pp. £25/$39

I have a problem with the title of this book, but it's almost my only quibble with this marvelous biography of one of the least known of the twentieth century's great scientists. By no measure could Max Perutz be said to have discovered the secret of life — a claim that might be defended for Gregor Mendel, or Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, or James Watson and Francis Crick.