Derek John Price was born on January 22, 1922, in Leyton, a suburb of London, England, to Fanny Marie de Solla, a singer, and Philip Price, a tailor. Both of his parents were descended from Jewish immigrant families. Price added de Solla as a middle name in 1950. His early interest in science was derived in part from reading science-fiction pulp magazines. In 1938, he became a physics laboratory assistant at South West Essex Technical College and received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics in 1942 and a doctorate in physics in 1946 from the University of London. During World War II, he did research in the optics of hot and molten metals and taught various adult education evening courses and armed forces training programs while completing his doctoral studies. He spent the 1946-1947 academic year at Princeton University as a Commonwealth Fund...