Walter Gratzer

Walter Bruno Gratzer (20 September 1932 – 20 October 2021) was a German-born British biophysical chemist and science writer.

Career

Gratzer was born in a Jewish hospital in Breslau (now Wrocław). Gratzer and his parents escaped Nazi persecution by escaping to Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom in 1939. He lived in Belsize Park and then Cheltenham. He won a scholarship to Cheltenham grammar school.

He was professor of biophysical chemistry at King's College London and an author and reviewer of popular science. He was the first Nature news correspondent appointed by editor John Maddox. Oliver Sacks of Nature writes that his reviews have high literary quality and show knowledge of a wide range of topics. Gratzer was a friend of James D. Watson, and wrote the introduction and afterword of his A Passion for DNA. He died in London on 20 October 2021. A Bedside Nature: Genius and Eccentricity in Science 1869–1953 (1996) The Undergrowth of Science: Delusion, Self-Deception and Human Frailty (2000) (Google Books) Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes (2002) (Google Books) Terrors of the Table: The Curious History of Nutrition (2005) (Google Books) Giant Molecules: From Nylon to Nanotubes (2009) (Google Books)

Reviews

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Articles

Gratzer, Walter. , ASBMB Today, December 2009, pp. 15–17, accessed 7 November 2010. by WebCite on 7 November 2010. See HTML version here. on 7 November 2010.

Academic papers

Pinder, JC et al. "Actomyosin motor in the merozoite of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum: implications for red cell invasion", Journal of Cell Science 111 (13): 1831–1839, 1998, accessed 10 November 2010.