Albert Szent-Gyorgyi honoured by Google

Albert Szent-Györgyi, the late Hungarian physiologist who discovered vitamin C has been honoured on his birthday in a citrus-flavoured Google Doodle.

Head over to Google today, and you'll find a tangy version of the Google logo that looks like it would be more at more plastered on the side of a Tropicana box. But it's all a birthday present for the late mister Szent-Györgyi.

Born in Budapest on 16 September in 1893, Szent-Györgyi was intrigued as a youngster by his uncle's anatomy lab. His studies were interrupted though in 1914, when he was packed off to serve as a medic in the first world war.

Two years into the conflict, Szent-Györgyi shot himself in the arm, claiming that he'd been wounded by the enemy. A cunning ruse that paid off -- he was sent home.

Back home, Szent-Györgyi devoted himself to the sparkly arts of science, and while working at the University of Szeged he discovered vitamin C, and found that it was excellent for preventing scurvy -- a disease once common among pirates who had to be away at sea for long periods without access to delicious vitamin C-filled fruits.

In 1937 Szent-Györgyi was awarded the Nobel prize for his discovery. During World War II he joined the Hungarian resistance, but while on a secret mission to Cairo to begin negotiations with the allies, the nazis learned of the plot and Hitler issued a warrant for Albert's arrest. He escaped his house arrest and spent 1944-1945 in hiding.

Szent-Györgyi moved to the US in 1947, where he went on to continue his scientific research. Vitamin C meanwhile went on to become the most popular vitamin, because it's the only one found in consistently delicious fruity foods.

Szent-Györgyibefore died in 1986, aged 93. Today would be his 118th birthday.

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