August 22: Jacob Bronowski

Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician, biologist, and poet who served as a great popularizer of science through his book and television series, The Ascent of Man, died on this date in 1974, one year after the filming of his series was completed. Bronowski was Polish-born and lost many family members to the Holocaust; his 1974 interview on British television about his visit to Auschwitz brought awareness of the Nazi killing machine to millions. His post-war visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to document the effects of nuclear bombings turned his professional interests from mathematics to biology, in hope of understanding the human propensity for violence. In 1964 he helped Jonas Salk found the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, where Bronowski served as senior fellow and director of the Council for Biology.

“Science has nothing to be ashamed of even in the ruins of Nagasaki. The shame is theirs who appeal to other values than the human imaginative values which science has evolved.” —Jacob Bronowski

To view the powerful closing moments of episode 11 of The Ascent of Man, “Knowledge or Certainty,” when Bronowski visits Auschwitz, look below.