Muscle Man

Hungarian-born Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (in English, St. George), professor of biochemistry, is a Nobel Prizewinner who is fascinated by muscles. "That a soft jelly should suddenly . . . change its shape and lift a thousand times its own weight . . ." he says, "is little short of miraculous." In the current Scientific American, Szent-Gyorgyi explains the latest discoveries about this miracle of muscle action.

Muscles, he says, are chemical engines that get their energy from a compound called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Their active portions are submicroscopic fibers made of a peculiar protein called actomyosin. When the protein is linked with ATP (to supply energy), it is like a coiled spring or a loaded gun. An electrical impulse from the nervous system can "fire the gun," making the fibers contract powerfully.

Synthetic Muscle. The fibers can be duplicated in the laboratory out of their chemical constituents, actin and myosin. When properly stimulated, the, synthetic muscles react much like the real thing. "We have reproduced, and thus made it possible to analyze, one of the most mysterious manifestations of life," says Szent-Gyorgyi. "Seeing actomyosin contract for the first time was the most exciting experience in [my] scientific career."

Not all Szent-Gyorgyi's exciting experiences have been scientific. He is one of the second wave of eminent scientists who fled to the U.S. to escape totalitarianism. The first wave, driven from Europe by Fascists and Nazis, was largely responsible for the success of the atom-bomb project. Now the U.S. is getting super-valuable men who are slipping out of the Soviet satellite countries.

Paprika & Disguises. Szent-Gyorgyi, now 55, grey-haired and dynamic, won his Nobel Prize in 1937 for isolating vitamin C (ascorbic acid) from the plants of one of Hungary's favorite vegetables, paprika. As Nazi influence grew in Hungary, he found that his research was a handy cover for underground anti-Nazi work. One of his cloak & dagger jobs was carrying a secret letter to the British legation in Istanbul on the pretense of having to give a scientific lecture in Turkey. When the Gestapo got too close on his trail, he went completely underground disguised as an old man with beard and spectacles.

When the Russians came, Szent-Gyorgyi thought at first that they might bring democracy. He was elected to Parliament as one of the ten "cultural representatives" provided for in the new constitution. Says he, with scientific understatement: "After two years I became disappointed and left my country." He delights in showing in pantomime the differences between Nazi and Communist techniques--the clomping, hobnail boot approach of the Nazis, the sly sneakup of the Communists.

Happy in the U.S., Szent-Gyorgyi has taken out first papers for naturalization. He plans to keep on looking for the final answer to the action of muscle, "the most wonderful material to analyze the basic principles of life."

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