In 1893, Albert Szent-Györgyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, into a family of noted scientists. During World War I, he spent several years in the Austrian army but, although decorated for bravery, became increasingly convinced the war was a senseless one. Deliberately wounding himself, he returned to his studies and obtained his medical degree from the University of Budapest in 1917. A year later--in large part because the Austrian defeat left his family financially strained--Szent-Györgyi decided to seek further training in other countries. Restless and intellectually curious, he worked and studied in Berlin, Germany, the Netherlands and at the Mayo Clinic in the United States. Finally, in 1927, he obtained his Ph.D. at England's Cambridge University.

At Cambridge, Szent-Györgyi worked in Frederick Gowland Hopkins' laboratory and, for a time, concentrated on trying to determine the function of the body's adrenal gland. During that period...