The Perception of Life Documents

While studying at Cambridge University, Peter Whitehead worked in the Medical Research Council Unit at the university's Cavendish Laboratory. The following notes, written specially for this volume, outline this work and point to its influence upon his subsequent work, particularly The Perception of Life (1964) and his novel The Risen (1994). Whitehead's notes are followed by a short series of documents that pertain to Perception: an extract from a 1964 brochure produced by the Nuffield Foundation Unit for the History of Ideas that describes the film, and two reviews of the Nuffield project as a whole that appeared in the Guardian and the Times. In addition to Perception, three further Nuffield films were produced during 1964: The Perfection of Matter (UK, 1964) by June Goodfield and Don Levy, Goodfield's The Discovery of the Past (UK, 1964), and Levy's Time Is/A Question of Time (UK, 1964).

Peter Whitehead's Notes on the Medical Research Council Unit

1. 1. In my first year at Peter house, I studied physics, chemistry, and maths.

2. 2. My tutor was Dr. John Kendrew, future Nobel Prize winner and director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit in the Cavendish Laboratory. I said I wanted to change my subjects at the end of this first year. I asked to do history and philosophy of science and physiology. He agreed, but suggested—as I also needed another subject—mineralogy and crystallography. Because his work was with X-ray crystallography, I might find it especially interesting. I could see him at work. Which I very soon did!

   Figure 1.

   Peter Whitehead's work at the Medical Research Council Unit, 1961. Perspex molecule: "We can only see SOME of the points where they overlap—as in moiré patterns."

3. 3. Soon into the second year, having also discovered the mystery and magic of crystallography—especially rock slides and polarised light—he suggested I work part-time for him as an assistant in the MRC Unit.

4. 4. As I was living in Cambridge with my wife Diane and daughter Tamsin, I was there all year-round, so I could work full-time during the long holidays. I needed the money.

5. 5. I eventually became a "lab technician" and it was my job to work with the interface to the massive new computer they had, built especially for them—EDSAC 2. This was the largest and fastest in the United Kingdom (and famous for it) and had been used by all the microbiologists and X-ray specialists in the MRC, including Francis Crick, Max Perutz, Sydney Brenner, and of course John Kendrew. (All these people won Nobel Prizes for their work in this unit.)¹

   Figure 2.

   Mapping the molecule

6. 6. They used a new technique—bombarding crystals of the various molecules—DNA, myoglobin, hemoglobin, etc.—with X-rays.

   These penetrated the lattices of the crystals and were refracted in the process; the resulting photographs of these interference patterns revealed the presence of atoms in these distinct, precise locations on the lattices, within the crystals. After lengthy analysis by the computer, a three-dimensional image of the whole molecule was created—and the number and positions of the various elements that made up the molecule became evident. They then created 3-D Perspex models of the various, very complex molecules.

   Figure 3.

   "Multiple, interlocking structures"

7. 7. My job, principally, was to analyse the photographic images. There were thousands created from each small crystal. This resulting circular image had black dots of varying intensity embedded in their own circles, in the pale white background of the inner space of the crystals. I had to "read" these and convert them to ticker tape (the same as used on Wall Street!), as this was the only way of inputting the data into the computer program that would then analyse them. It was intense, laborious work, but an extremely important part of the long process.

   Figure...