Question 1

True or false: Max Perutz won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the structure of haemoglobin.

Accepted Answer

True. Perutz shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for his work on the structure of globular proteins, specifically haemoglobin.

Question 2

True or false: Perutz was a British citizen born in London, England.

Accepted Answer

False. He was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1914 and moved to Cambridge, UK, as a refugee from Nazi persecution.

Question 3

True or false: Max Perutz originally studied law before switching to science.

Accepted Answer

False. He studied chemistry at the University of Vienna, then moved to Cambridge for his PhD in crystallography.

Question 4

True or false: Perutz’s early X-ray diffraction data on haemoglobin took over 20 years to fully interpret.

Accepted Answer

True. He started in 1937, but solving the structure required decades of work and new methods, finally succeeded in 1959.

Question 5

True or false: Perutz’s PhD supervisor was the famous physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

Accepted Answer

False. His supervisor was J.D. Bernal, a pioneer in X-ray crystallography; Schrödinger inspired him indirectly via 'What is Life?'

Question 6

True or false: During World War II, Perutz worked on a secret project to make artificial icebergs for aircraft carriers.

Accepted Answer

True. He researched the strength of ice for Project Habbakuk, a plan to build floating runways from reinforced ice.

Question 7

True or false: Perutz founded the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge.

Accepted Answer

True. He established the LMB in 1962, which became a world-leading center for molecular biology research.

Question 8

True or false: Perutz was an accomplished alpine climber who climbed the Eiger in the 1930s.

Accepted Answer

False. He was a keen skier and mountaineer, but there is no record of him climbing the notoriously difficult Eiger.

Max Perutz Trivia Questions