# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/j-d-bernal
# Generated: 2026-09-07T18:18:46.065Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/j-d-bernal"
name: "J. D. Bernal"
slug: "j-d-bernal"
description: "He turned X-rays into a way to see the architecture of molecules — a technique that unlocked the structure of life itself and made modern molecular biology possible."
tagline: "Irish scientist (1901-1971)"
image: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/John_Desmond_Bernal.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United Kingdom"
  isoCode: "GB"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1901-05-10"
deathDate: "1971-09-15"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           56.33
  momentum:             6.316504668116126
  historical:           23.692448
  currentAttention:     18.54395604395604
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
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    slug: "scientist"
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  - name: "Philosophy"
    slug: "philosophy"
  - name: "Literature"
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  - name: "History"
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  - name: "Chemistry"
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  - name: "United Kingdom"
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    title: "جان دزموند برنال"
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    title: "John Desmond Bernal"
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  John Desmond Bernal was born in Ireland on 10 May 1901. He pioneered X-ray crystallography in molecular biology, using the method to reveal molecular structures that had been invisible before. Beyond the lab, he published extensively on the history of science and wrote popular books exploring the relationship between science and society. He was a communist activist and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Bernal died on 15 September 1971, leaving a method that would shape decades of discovery.