Szent-Györgyi was born in
Budapest,
Kingdom of Hungary in 1893. His father, Miklós Szent-Györgyi, was a landowner, born in
Marosvásárhely,
Transylvania (today Târgu Mureş,
Romania), a
Calvinist, and could trace his ancestry back to 1608 when Sámuel, a Calvinist
predicant, was ennobled.[7][8] At the time of Szent-Györgyi's birth, being of the nobility was considered important and created opportunities that otherwise were not available.[9] (Miklós Szent-Györgyi's parents were Imre Szent-Györgyi and Mária Csiky).[10] His mother, Jozefina, a Roman Catholic, was a daughter of József Lenhossék and Anna Bossányi.[11] Jozefina was a sister of
Mihály Lenhossék; both of these men were Professors of
Anatomy at the
Eötvös Loránd University. His family included three generations of scientists.[12] Music was important in the Lenhossék family. His mother Jozefina prepared to become an opera singer and auditioned for Gustav Mahler, then a conductor at the
Budapest Opera. He advised her to marry instead, since her voice was not enough. Albert himself was good at the piano, while his brother Pál became a professional violinist.
Education
Szent-Györgyi began his studies at the
Semmelweis University in 1911,[12] and then began research in his uncle's anatomy lab. His studies were interrupted in 1914 to serve as an army medic in World War I. In 1916, disgusted with the war, Szent-Györgyi shot himself in the arm,[13] claimed to be wounded from enemy fire, and was sent home on medical leave. He was then able to finish his medical education and received his MD in 1917.[12] He married
Kornélia Demény, the daughter of the Hungarian Postmaster General, that same year.[14]
Szent-Györgyi accepted a position at the
University of Szeged in Hungary in 1930.[12] There Szent-Györgyi and his research fellow Joseph Svirbely found that "hexuronic acid" was actually the thus far unidentified
antiscorbutic factor, known as
vitamin C. After
Walter Norman Haworth had determined the structure of vitamin C, and in honour of its antiscorbutic properties, it was given the formal chemical name of
L-ascorbic acid. In some experiments they used
paprika as the source for their vitamin C.[16] Also during this time, Szent-Györgyi continued his work on cellular respiration, identifying
fumaric acid and other steps in what would become known as the
Krebs cycle. In Szeged he also met
Zoltán Bay, physicist, who became his personal friend and partner in research on matters of bio-physics.[citation needed]
In 1947 Szent-Györgyi established the Institute for Muscle Research at the
Marine Biological Laboratory in
Woods Hole, Massachusetts with financial support from Hungarian businessman Stephen Rath. However, Szent-Györgyi still faced funding difficulties for several years, due to his foreign status and former association with the government of a Communist nation. In 1948, he received a research position with the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) in
Bethesda, Maryland and began dividing his time between there and Woods Hole. In 1950, grants from the
Armour Meat Company and the
American Heart Association allowed him to establish the Institute for Muscle Research at Woods Hole. Szent-Györgyi conducted research at the MBL from 1947 to 1986 year-round. There, he found that whole muscle tissue retained its contractility almost indefinitely if stored cold in a fifty percent glycerol solution, thus eliminating the need to have fresh muscle on hand.[17]
In 1941,[19] Szent-Györgyi developed a research interest in
cancer and developed ideas on applying the theories of
quantum mechanics to the biochemistry (
quantum biology) of cancer. The death of Rath, who had acted as the financial administrator of the Institute for Muscle Research, left Szent-Györgyi in a financial mess. Szent-Györgyi refused to submit government grants which required him to provide minute details on exactly how he intended to spend the research dollars and what he expected to find. After Szent-Györgyi commented on his financial hardships in a 1971 newspaper interview, attorney Franklin Salisbury contacted him and later helped him establish a private nonprofit organization, the
National Foundation for Cancer Research. Late in life, Szent-Györgyi began to pursue
free radicals as a potential cause of cancer. He came to see cancer as being ultimately an electronic problem at the molecular level. In 1974, reflecting his interests in quantum physics, he proposed the term "
syntropy" replace the term "
negentropy". Ralph Moss, a protégé of his in the years he performed his cancer research, wrote a biography entitled Free Radical: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi and the Battle over Vitamin C.[20] Aspects of this work are an important precursor to what is now dubbed
redox signaling.[citation needed]
Statement on scientific discovery
Albert Szent-Györgyi, who realized that "a discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge,"[21] divided scientists into two categories: the
Apollonians and the Dionysians. He called Dionysians the scientific dissenters who explore "the fringes of knowledge". He wrote, "In science the Apollonian tends to develop established lines to perfection, while the Dionysian rather relies on intuition and is more likely to open new, unexpected alleys for research...The future of mankind depends on the progress of science, and the progress of science depends on the support it can find. Support mostly takes the form of grants, and the present methods of distributing grants unduly favor the Apollonian."[21]
Involvement in politics
As the government of
Gyula Gömbös and the associated
Hungarian National Defence Association gained control of politics in Hungary, Szent-Györgyi helped his
Jewish friends escape from the country. During World War II, he joined the Hungarian
resistance movement. Although Hungary was allied with the
Axis Powers, the Hungarian prime minister
Miklós Kállay sent Szent-Györgyi to Istanbul in 1944 under the guise of a scientific lecture to begin secret negotiations with the
Allies. The Germans learned of this plot and
Adolf Hitler himself issued a warrant for the arrest of Szent-Györgyi. He escaped from house arrest and spent 1944 to 1945 as a fugitive from the
Gestapo.
After the war, Szent-Györgyi had become well-recognized as a public figure and there was some speculation that he might become President of Hungary, should the Soviets permit it. Szent-Györgyi established a laboratory at the
University of Budapest and became head of the biochemistry department there. He was elected a member of Parliament and helped re-establish the Academy of Sciences. Dissatisfied with the
Communist rule of Hungary, he emigrated to the United States in 1947.
In 1967, Szent-Györgyi signed a letter declaring his intention to
refuse to pay taxes as a means of protesting against the U.S. war against Vietnam, and urging other people to take a similar stand.[22]
He married Cornelia Demény (1898-1981), daughter of the Hungarian Postmaster-General, in 1917.[14] Their daughter, Cornelia Szent-Györgyi, was born in 1918 and died in 1969. He and Cornelia divorced in 1941.
In 1941, he wed Marta Borbiro Miskolczy. She died of cancer in 1963.[citation needed]
Szent-Györgyi married June Susan Wichterman, the 25-year-old daughter of
Woods Hole biologist Ralph Wichterman, in 1965. They were divorced in 1968.[citation needed]
He married his fourth wife, Marcia Houston, in 1975.[26] They adopted a daughter, Lola von Szent-Györgyi.
Death and legacy
Szent-Györgyi died in
Woods Hole, Massachusetts, US, on October 22, 1986. He was honored with a
Google Doodle September 16, 2011, 118 years after his birth.[27] In 2004, nine interviews were conducted with family, colleagues, and others to create a Szent-Györgyi oral history collection.[28]
Ralph Moss (1988). Free Radical Albert Szent-Györgyi and the Battle over Vitamin C. Paragon House Publishers.
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Nagy, I Z (1995). "Semiconduction of proteins as an attribute of the living state: the ideas of Albert Szent-Györgyi revisited in light of the recent knowledge regarding oxygen free radicals". Exp. Gerontol. 30 (3–4): 327–35.
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Ilona Újszászi (ed.): The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
László Dux: On the Basics of Biochemistry. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 13–23.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
János Wölfling: Life through the eyes of a chemist. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 24–34.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
Gábor Tóth: From vitamins to peptides - Research topics in Szent-Györgyi's departments. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 35–57.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
István Hannus: The Analysis of Vitamin C in Szeged. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 58–76.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
Mária Homoki-Nagy: Protection of the creations of the mind in the history of Hungarian law. Copyright and patent rights; primacy and ethics in science. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 77–93.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
Miklós Gábor: Albert Szent-Györgyi's Studies on Flavones. Impact of the Discovery. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 94-122.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
Tamás Vajda: Effects of the discovery of vitamin C on the paprika industry and the economy of the southern part of the Hungarian Great Plain. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 123–152.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
Béla Pukánszky: The thoughts of Albert Szent-Györgyi on pedagogy. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 153–169.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
Csaba Jancsák: Albert Szent-Györgyi and the Student Union of the University of Szeged. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 170–193.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7
József Pál: From the Unity of Life to the Coequality of the Forms of Consciousness. Worries of Albert Szent-Györgyi in Times of War. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 194–210.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7http://publicatio.bibl.u-szeged.hu/6615/1/Sz_Gy-Unity_of_life.pdf[permanent dead link]
Ildikó Tasiné Csúcs: The science-rescuing activity of Albert Szent-Györgyi and its roots in Hungary after 1945. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 211–227.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7http://publicatio.bibl.u-szeged.hu/5744/1/Science_rescuing.pdf
Gábor Szabó: The passage of Szent-Györgyi to biophysics: a journey from the blur of the boundaries of disciplines through the instruments used for research with a stopover at the paprika centrifuge and arriving at the super lasers. In: The intellectual heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi = Szegedi Egyetemi Tudástár 2.(Series editors.: László Dux, István Hannus, József Pál, Ilona Újszászi) Publishing Department-University of Szeged. 2014. 238–253.
ISBN978-963-306-347-7