"Can we in any better way reconcile desire and fate? In the belief of the scientist the future can yield to an objective analysis only if he can put aside all desire of one future or another; and yet, in reaching for this unattainable understanding, by some mutual influence his desires and the events may grow more and more into harmony." John Desmond Bernal was one of Britain's best known and most controversial scientists, called "Sage" by his friends, and known for pioneering X-ray crystallography in molecular biology.