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

'Karplus's tales of a turbulent graduate school experience at Caltech will inspire readers to muster fortitude when everything seems to be spinning out of control. Karplus balances rigorous scientific discussions with refreshing chapters expounding his passion for photography and gastronomy.'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.Contents:

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• My Ancestors
• Childhood Years in Europe
• Final Days in Europe
• A New Life in America
• Beginning of Scientific Interests
• College Years
• Graduate School
• Postdoctoral Sojourn in Oxford and Europe
• University of Illinois: NMR and Coupling Constants
• Move to Columbia and Focus on Reaction Kinetics
• The FBI and I
• Return to Harvard University and Biology
• Move to Paris
• Protein Folding, Hemoglobin and the CHARMM Program
• The First Molecular Dynamics Simulation of a Biomolecule
• Early Applications of Molecular Dynamics
• My Career as a Photographer
• How We Came to Move to Strasbourg
• My Life as a Chef
• Announcement of the Nobel Prize
• After the Announcement
• The Nobel Prize Event
• Science After the Nobel Prize Simulation
• Life After the Nobel Prize
• References
• Appendices:
  • Karplusians: 1955–2019
  • Martin Karplus: LIFE IN COLOR — From the 1940s to 2019
  • Nobel Lecture
  • Haaretz Article
  • Supplementary Material
• Index

Readership: A wide range of readers including students, scientists, historians, science enthusiasts, people interested in the Nobel Prize, Nobel Laureates, and the lives of people who escaped from Nazi Austria.Martin Karplus;Nobel Prize;Spinach on the Ceiling;Chemistry;Autobiography;CHARMM;Hemoglobin;Molecular Dynamics;NMR;Coupling Constants;Theoretical Chemistry;Reaction Kinetics;Biomolecular Simulations;BPTI;Photography;FBI;Allostery;Molecular Motors;F1 ATPase;Protein Folding;Enzyme Catalysis;cooking;Oxford;Europe00