Anthony R. Michaelis (22 August 1916 – 18 October 2007) was a science journalist and publisher. He was born Kurt Otto Adolf Michaelis, a doctor's son, in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

on August 22, 1916, and educated at the Falk Real Gymnasium. Although baptised a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

, he had three

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish grandparents, which meant that after

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

came to power in 1933 he would not be allowed to study science - so his father sent him to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Michaelis studied

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

at the Imperial College of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

before switching to Chemistry. He went on to obtain a doctorate on "The Dehydrogenation of Alicyclic Compounds and Terpenic Ketones in the Liquid Phase", while lecturing at

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

under Sir

Patrick Linstead Sir (Reginald) Patrick Linstead CBE, DSc, HonDSc, DIC, HonFCGI, HonMIMM, FRS (28 August 1902, in London – 22 September 1966, in London) was an English chemist. Biography Patrick Linstead was born on 28 August 1902 in Southgate, London, the s ...

. He was interned as an '

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

' in England in May 1940 and then Canada, where he formed lasting friendships with Klaus Fuchs,

Max Perutz Max Ferdinand Perutz (19 May 1914 – 6 February 2002) was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of haemoglobin and myoglobin. He went ...

Hermann Bondi Sir Hermann Bondi (1 November 1919 – 10 September 2005) was an Austrian- British mathematician and cosmologist. He is best known for developing the steady state model of the universe with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold as an alternative to the ...

and Tommy Gold. After he returned to Britain in December 1940, he joined the

Auxiliary Fire Service The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were superseded ...

whilst working as a chemist in a paint factory. After graduation, he became chief chemist at

Milton Antiseptic Milton Antiseptic Ltd was an English company which made the household antiseptic solution. Registered as Milton Proprietary Ltd in 1923, the company changed its name to Milton Antiseptic Ltd. in May 1942. The company was wound up in 1960. During Wo ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Michaelis worked for the British Intelligence Objectives Committee, which investigated enemy scientific developments, and in 1946 he married Ann Aikman, with whom he was to have three children. His distinguished career as a science journalist and editor spanned several activities including the “BIOS project”, technical writing at “CIBA” and “

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

” in Switzerland. Later he became a scientific film author in Australia, editor of the British magazine ''Discovery'', science correspondent for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' where he wrote daily reports on science and technology from 1969 to 1973. He was also the founding editor and publisher of ''

Interdisciplinary Science Reviews Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

''. Whilst at the Daily Telegraph, in 1968, Michaelis was the first person to coin and use the term "Pulsar" to describe the discovery of

Jocelyn Bell Burnell Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (; Bell; born 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. The discovery eventually earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in ...

and Antony Hewish of the "Pulsating Radio star" in 1967. Michaelis became known as an expert on the subject of scientific cinematography. From 1950 to 1954 he worked at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

and during this time wrote much of the textbook ''Research Films'' (1956, US). The

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

holds material related to the publication of this book. He died in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

in 2007.

Books

* ''Overall Reports'' (editor), 1947 * ''Research Films'', 1956 * ''Discovery'' (editor), 1955 * ''From Semaphore to Satellite'', 1960 * ''The Scientific Temper'', 2001

References

External links

''The Scientific Temper''
1916 births 2007 deaths German male journalists German male writers Jewish German writers Alumni of Imperial College London Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German journalists German expatriates in the United Kingdom German expatriates in Australia {{Germany-writer-stub