Posted
on November 18, 2016
You
know you're going to earn yourself a Wikipedia page when you've won a
Nobel Prize! George Wald, born on this date in 1906, earned his Nobel
in Physiology / Medicine, along with two others.
Wald
figured out that Vitamin A was important to the retina, and he was
able to measure the absorbance of different colors of light by both
rods and cones.
Even
though he was born in New York City, George Wald was working with several
German scientists, in Germany, when Adolf Hitler came to power. Wald
did the smart thing – as a Jew, Europe was suddenly much more
dangerous for him! – and returned to the U.S. in 1933.
He
worked and taught at the University of Chicago and Harvard
University; he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and
won several awards in addition to the Nobel Prize.
But
I found it interesting that Wald spoke up often on political and
social issues. Because of his Nobel Prize, Wald had a certain amount
of fame; he utilized that fame to oppose the Vietnam War and the
nuclear arms race. He also was one of the people who traveled to Iran
during the Iran hostage crisis.
In
1986, Wald was invited to travel to Moscow by the government in order
to advise Mikhail Gorbachev on the environment. But he took the
opportunity to speak up on behalf of two Soviet scientists and fellow
Nobel laureates who had been arrested and imprisoned in exile.
Gorbachev denied any knowledge of the scientists' plight – and
later that year, the couple were released!
I
admire scientists who broaden our base of knowledge. And I admire
people who leverage their fame to making life better for others.
Speaking up to Gorbachev, especially, must have seemed risky, but
George Wald was courageous enough to do so!
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