Spinach On The Ceiling: The Multifaceted Life Of A Theoretical Chemist

by Martin Karplus

Nobel Laureate Martin Karplus was eight when his family fled Nazi-occupied Austria via Switzerland and France for the United States. He would later credit his life as a refugee as a decisive influence on his world view and approach to science. Spinach on the Ceiling is an autobiographical telling of Karplus' life story, and how it led him to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013. The book captures pivotal moments in Martin's life — from his escape to Switzerland in 1938 shortly after Hitler's entrance into Austria; to memorable moments like when his parents gave him a microscope which opened his eyes to the wonders of science; to his education in New England and California; and his eventual scientific career which took him to England, Illinois, Columbia, Strasbourg, and Harvard. It relates how Martin's optimistic outlook and belief in his vision made it possible for him to overcome setbacks in his life, and turn a subject of study his colleagues considered a waste of time into a central part of chemistry and structural biology. It is his hope to inspire and aid young readers, in particular, to have a successful trajectory in their own lives. Although research and teaching have been his primary focus, he has traveled the world photographing people and places with a Leica IIIC and has had numerous exhibitions of the photographs. He has also enjoyed a lifelong interest in cooking and worked in some of the best restaurants in France and Spain.

312 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2020

About the author

Martin Karplus was an Austrian and American theoretical chemist. He was the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry, emeritus at Harvard University. He was also the director of the Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory, a joint laboratory between the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Strasbourg, France. Karplus received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel, for "the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems".

Reviews

[Jayashrita · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s worth a read for people in the field of Computational sciences. It highlights in a beautiful way the human aspects of the life of a Nobel laureate and can be inspiring for young researchers or graduate students.
However, for people who do not understand theoretical chemistry/biology, the scientific jargon might be overwhelming and a lot of interesting parts of the book might be incomprehensible.

[Amy Zhou · Rating 5 out of 5]

my dad’s postdoc advisor 🫶 I was lucky enough to go to his home earlier this year and get my copy signed!

[Elizabeth Behrman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful scientific autobiography. I used his textbook as an undergraduate in pchem (Karplus & Porter, Atoms and Molecules), really very well written, and now I know it wasn't (just?) Porter. There is a photograph of the book's cover in S on the C, and a couple of comments about the book that I appreciated: he eschews "It can be shown that", for example! which I appreciate in retrospect. Probably non-science people will miss or underappreciate the science parts, but that's ok; there's plenty there for everyone. Lots of interesting pictures, lots of interesting stories about colleagues and other people. The title is misleading, though: there is almost nothing about spinach, and even the story of how it got on the ceiling is given very short shrift.