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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Peter Medawar
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(1915–87, kt 1965) Immunologist whose researches made possible the development of transplant surgery. During World War II he worked on skin grafts for burn victims, and he subsequently pioneered methods of avoiding the body's natural rejection of transplanted tissue – building on the discovery of the Australian scientist Macfarlane Burnet that the ability to produce antibodies (the agents of rejection) is not innate but is acquired during the foetal stage of development. Burnet and Medawar shared the Nobel prize for medicine in 1960.
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