chemistry

Lydia Pasternak Slater

Lydia Pasternak Slater is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lydia Pasternak Slater rather than just read about it. In short: Lydia Leonidovna Pasternak (Russian: Лидия Леонидовна Пастернак; March 8, 1902 – May 4, 1989), married name Lydia Pasternak Slater, was a Soviet research chemist, poet and translator. Life Lydia Pasternak was born in Moscow, then the second most important city of the Russian Empire, the daughter of the Russian impressionist painter Leonid Pasternak and of Rozalia Isodorovna Kofman, a concert pianist.

Key takeaways

Lydia Pasternak Slater belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lydia Pasternak Slater to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lydia Pasternak Slater from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Life Lydia Pasternak was born in Moscow, then the second most important city of the Russian Empire, the daughter of the Russian impressionist painter Leonid Pasternak and of Rozalia Isodorovna Kofman, a concert pianist. She was the sister of the poet and novelist Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago, and of the architect Alexander Pasternak. Lydia Pasternak began to study medicine at the Second Moscow University, but changed to chemistry, physics and botany. She continued her academic career in Berlin, after most of the Pasternak family had migrated to Germany as a result of the October Revolution, and received a doctoral degree in chemistry in 1926. Her first career was as a chemist, and in 1928 she joined the German Research Institute for Psychiatry (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie), a Kaiser Wilhelm Society institute in Munich, where she was an assistant to Irvine H. Page. Together they studied the influence of chemical substances on the brain and published several articles on their results in the journal Biochemische Zeitschrift. Lydia Pasternak left the group in 1935 as the Nazis came to power. Pasternak sought exile in Britain, joining Eliot Trevor Oakeshott Slater, a psychiatrist she had met in Munich. The two married later in 1935 and settled in Oxford, where they were joined by Lydia's parents, then by her sister Josephine and her family. They had two sons and two daughters, including Ann Pasternak Slater, before divorcing in 1946. Her new family responsibilities meant that Lydia Pasternak could not continue her work in biochemistry, but she went on to become a published poet in German, Russian, and English, and she translated the poems of her brother Boris, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1958, into English. Lydia Pasternak Slater continued to live in Park Town, North Oxford, until her death in 1989. As the years went by, she was increasingly able to make visits to her native Russia to visit friends and relations there, although her brother Boris was never allowed to visit his family in England.

Selected publications Boris Pasternak: Fifty Poems, translated by Lydia Pasternak Slater (London: Unwin Books, 1963); reissued as Poems of Boris Pasternak, translated by Lydia Pasternak Slater (London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1984) Before Sunrise: poems (London: Mitre Press, 1971) Contemporary Russian poems, chosen and translated by Lydia Pasternak Slater. (Bakewell: Hub Publications, 1973) Vspyshki magniia: poėziia ("Flashes of Magnesium : poems") (Geneva: Poésie Vivante, 1974) 'Texts on Óndra Łysohorsky', translations (with Ewald Osers & Hugh McKinley) in Keith Armstrong, David Gill, eds.,The Informer international poetry magazine (Oxford, 1968) Lydia Pasternak Slater: Writings 1918–1989: Collected Verse, Prose and Translations (Russian Culture in Europe) (London: Peter Lang, 2015) Articles in Biochemie [Journal of Biochemistry] 1931–1935

Recordings Boris Pasternak – Poems (Lyro Record Company – LYR 1, 7" vinyl, released 1960: seven poems translated and read by Lydia Pasternak Slater) Boris Pasternak – Poems (Lyro Record Company – LYR 2, 7" vinyl, released 1960: five more poems translated and read by Lydia Pasternak Slater}

References

Sources Women scientists in Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, from A to Z (Berlin: 1999, 107–109) Page, Irvine H. “The rebirth of neurochemistry” in Modern Medicine (March 19, 1962: 81) Nicolas Pasternak Slater, Boris Pasternak: Family Correspondence, 1921-1960 (2012)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lydia Pasternak Slater

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lydia Pasternak Slater claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lydia Pasternak Slater before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lydia Pasternak Slater ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lydia Pasternak Slater

In research: Lydia Pasternak Slater appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lydia Pasternak Slater in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lydia Pasternak Slater is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1902 births, 1989 deaths, 20th-century Russian chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lydia Pasternak Slater outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lydia Pasternak Slater in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lydia Pasternak Slater means in your own words.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Lydia Pasternak Slater in simple terms?

Lydia Leonidovna Pasternak (Russian: Лидия Леонидовна Пастернак; March 8, 1902 – May 4, 1989), married name Lydia Pasternak Slater, was a Soviet research chemist, poet and translator. Life Lydia Pasternak was born in Moscow, then the second most important city of the Russian Empire, the daughter of…

Why does Lydia Pasternak Slater matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lydia Pasternak Slater?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lydia Pasternak Slater.