Brave genius: a scientist, a philosopher, and their daring adventures from the French resistance to the Nobel Prize

Abstract

I really thank Sean Carroll, himself a scientist and educator, for his accessible and scholarly book, dealing with an intellectually unique interaction of two exceptional individuals during 30 years of the 20th century: the philosopher and writer Albert Camus and the biologist Jacques Monod. All readers, whatever their main interest in politics, history, or contemporary evolution of metaphysical concepts and bioscience research, may learn a lot and enjoy this fascinating and passionate account of a critical period when ideologies, biological discoveries, and their occasional confrontations evolved so much. My invitation to review this book for The FASEB Journal is warmly appreciated. Perhaps I was asked, because when I was very young—before I became a research physician and biochemist —I was a member of the French Resistance in the Francs Tireurs et Partisans Francais (FTPF), a fighting organization. Therefore, I had the privilege to be directly in contact with several matters that Camus and Monod approached and greatly influenced but not to say decisively. As Monod and Camus were born in 1910 and 1913, respectively, the book deals with most important political and economical aspects of the 20th century: the development of Communism and Fascism, the second World War, and the following years, featuring the violent and complex relationship between the French and German people. After World War II, audacious French moralists and philosophers, such as Albert Camus, were at the forefront of their field, as were great scientists, particularly those who, like Jacques Monod, revolutionized the basic foundations of biology. They publicly elaborated and discussed revolutionary concepts. Each published a book, creating an intellectual breakthrough: Le mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus) by Camus and Le hasard et la necessite (Chance and Necessity) by Monod; these books are introduced to us by Sean Carroll. Camus and Monod, both French and active resistants during the German occupation of France, met after the war; they became mutual admirers of each other and sincere friends. Monod had to work experimentally for many years before being able to speak openly on the significance of his biological discoveries with reference to questions and suggestions of Camus (such as “What is worth living for?”). Monod was the son of an American mother, and his father was a free-thinking painter. Jacques, a cellist and aspiring conductor, was encouraged to be a professional musician and did not make a definitive choice of career in biology until he completed his Ph.D., even though he had visited the laboratory of the pioneer geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan. He married a specialist of Asian art, Odette Bruhland, and they had twin sons, born in 1939. Monod had not yet been conscripted into the army (a consequence of childhood poliomyelitis), but he managed to support the regular armed forces. After the Armistice, he was demobilized in July 1940, and in Paris with his family, he finished his doctorate on bacterial growth. Opportunities for obtaining food were difficult, but more importantly, the collaborationist French government of Vichy developed an antiSemitic policy (Statut des Juifs, or Status of Jews), and so, Monod sent his family to a suburban area. He himself became rapidly very active in the nascent Resistance, writing and distributing clandestine publications. Progressively, he played an important role in underground networks and was promoted to the

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