Magnus Alfred Pyke (29 December 1908 – 19 October 1992) was an English nutritional scientist, governmental scientific adviser, writer and presenter. He worked for the UK Ministry of Food, the post-war Allied Commission for Austria, and different food manufacturers. He wrote prolifically and became famous as a TV and radio personality, and was featured on Thomas Dolby's 1982 synth-pop hit, "She Blinded Me with Science".
Early life and scientific career
Pyke was born at Gloucester Terrace, Paddington, London, the son of Clara Hannah Lewis and Robert Bond Pyke, manager of a wholesale confectionery business. He went to St. Paul's School, Barnes, London, where he found he had a "certain bounciness combined with a lack of self-consciousness."
He worked briefly for an insurance company before moving to Canada to attend Macdonald College, McGill University, Montreal, studying agriculture, gaining a BSc in 1933. During summers there, he worked as a farm labourer. He remained in Canada for seven years.
He returned to the UK and in 1934 became chief chemist at Vitamins Ltd., Hammersmith, London. He worked with Professor J.C.Drummond of University College, London on vitamin research. He gained a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1936.
On 23 August 1937 he married Dorothea Mina Vaughan (1907–86), an accountant. They had a daughter and a son.
In 1974, he appeared on Yorkshire Television's Don't Ask Me and then Don't Just Sit There (until 1980), in which he and other experts such as David Bellamy, Rob Buckman and Miriam Stoppard fielded popular science questions. His exuberant delivery, with very animated and passionate speech and gesticulation, made him famous. He was a panellist on radio programmes such as Any Questions? and Just a Minute and a guest on Desert Island Discs. He called this period his "sixth life". Lancaster University (1976),
and his alma mater, McGill University (1981).
He died on 19 October 1992 at Elmsbank Nursing Home, Carlton Drive, Wandsworth, London.
In 1982 Pyke was featured on Thomas Dolby's synth-pop hit, "She Blinded Me with Science", as a doctor at the "Home for Deranged Scientists", appearing prominently in the accompanying video. The song features exclamations from Pyke, who repeatedly interjects "Science!" and delivers other lines in a deliberately caricatured mad scientist manner, such as, "Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful!"
See also
- Geoffrey Pyke (first cousin)