ABSTRACT
The Nobel Prize Committee's announcement that Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini had been chosen to share the 1986 award in medicine for discovering nerve growth factor, stated, "this is a fascinating example of how a skilled observer can create a concept out of apparent chaos." The choice of the word chaos was strikingly appropriate since it underscored the major determinants of her life and times. Chaos taunted her as she sought a higher education. Chaos blocked her attempts to enter the medical profession. Chaos threatened her as a Jew in Fascist Italy. Chaos greeted her eyes as she peered through her microscope at entanglements of wildly growing nerves.
