I don’t remember how this book got on my radar, but I am so glad that it did and that I finally was able to read it. This is a non-fiction book about Albert Camus and Jacques Monod, two friends that both participated in the French Resistance during World War II that went on to win the Nobel Prize.
The first half of the book talks about their experiences during the war. They didn’t know each other at the time, but Monod was in the middle of doing his PhD at the Sorbonne (which no one was interested in) and he went on to become a leader of the French Resistance. He coordinated messages, destroying train routes, and working with the Allies. Similarly Camus was working on his books dealing with the idea of the absurd (probably The Myth of Sisyphus is the most famous one) and writing for the Resistance newspaper Combat. Both of them had friends that were arrested by the Gestapo and killing, or sent off to concentration camps. It was dangerous work.
After the war ended, Monod finally graduated with his PhD and started a lab at the Pasteur Institute. It was during this time that he learned about the Soviet government essentially rewriting science so that it fit in with its ideology more easily, essentially throwing Darwin and Mendel out the window. Camus was also opposing the USSR, on the grounds that it was silencing its people and promoting ideology over liberty. The two became close friends through this, even though many other writers were abandoning Camus for his opinions. Camus eventually won the Nobel Prize for literature, and as a result started to become more active in politics. Unfortunately, he died in a car accident before he could finish his next book, which he thought would be his greatest. Meanwhile, Monod was trying to smuggle his friend and fellow scientist out of USSR-controlled Hungary. After succeeding, he did groundbreaking experiments in gene regulation that eventually won him the Nobel Prize. Similarly to Camus, this caused him to become more active in politics. When French students started protesting in the 60s, he was the only faculty member to protest with them. He repeatedly affirmed that science and scientists have a duty to society and to make their voices heard. He died while he was in his 70s of what’s thought to be leukemia.
This was such an informative read. I know so little about French history that hearing the story of WWII with the focus on France was extremely new to me. I did not know much about the Resistance, or the fights that were occurring on the streets of Paris with the Germans occupying the city. Even after the war, the occupation of Hungary and the student protest in France was all completely new to me. The single largest thing that I learned though was about Jacques Monod. I had no idea that he was part of the team that figured out how the lac operon worked, or that RNA is the material that goes between DNA and proteins, or how allosteric inhibition works. I’m not going to explain these ideas, but they are all present in intro to genetics courses, and I have taught those courses, but I never knew who the man behind them was!
Monod seems like such an amazing person and an amazing scientist. He was a conductor as well so he was very knowledgeable about music. He apparently had this quirk while writing where he would invent a quote that he needed and would attribute it to the imaginary philosophy McGregor (his mother’s maiden name). Eventually he would both introduce and eulogize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I cannot believe that I never heard of him, scientists who are also decent people are so rare and here we have one!
Carroll put so much love and work into this book. He interviewed many participants such as the scientist that Monod smuggled out of Hungary, a colleague Monod worked with in the Resistance, and Monod’s two sons. Many of the letters being shown here were unpublished until this book, and the wealth of information about both men is incredible. I know I wrote a lot about Monod, but the extent of the detail about Camus and what he was writing about and how that influenced the rebuilding for France is also highly informative. We truly are so lucky to have this work.
I borrowed this copy from the library, but I honestly want
to own my own copy and use it the next time I teach intro to genetics. It is so
important to know the history of any discipline that you are a part of,
regardless of whether that’s philosophy or science. I adored this book, I do
not think I can recommend it highly enough.
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