[5] He is credited with first isolating vitamin C and discovering many of the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle and the molecular basis of muscle contraction.

In 1916, disgusted with the war, Szent-Györgyi shot himself in the arm,[14] claimed to be wounded from enemy fire, and was sent home on medical leave.

In some experiments they used paprika as the source for their vitamin C.[17] Also during this time, Szent-Györgyi continued his work on cellular respiration, identifying fumaric acid and other steps in what would become known as the Krebs cycle.

[citation needed] In 1937 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion process with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid".

(Hungarian volunteers in the Winter War travelled to fight for the Finns after the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939.)

In 1947 Szent-Györgyi established the Institute for Muscle Research at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MLB) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts with financial support from Hungarian businessman Stephen Rath.

However, he still faced funding difficulties for several years due to his foreign status and former association with the Hungarian Communist government.

In 1948, he received a research position with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland and began dividing his time between there and Woods Hole.

In 1950, grants from the Armour Meat Company and the American Heart Association allowed him to establish the Institute for Muscle Research at Woods Hole.

He refused to write government grant proposals minutely specifiying his research methods and expected results.

After Szent-Györgyi commented on his financial hardships in a 1971 newspaper interview, attorney Franklin Salisbury helped him establish a private nonprofit organization, the National Foundation for Cancer Research.

Ralph Moss, a protégé during his cancer research years, wrote a biography, Free Radical: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi and the Battle over Vitamin C.[21] Aspects of his work are an important precursor to the understanding of redox signaling.

[citation needed] Albert Szent-Györgyi, who realized that "a discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge,"[22] divided scientists into two categories: the Apollonians and the Dionysians.

After the war, Szent-Györgyi had become well-recognized as a public figure and there was some speculation that he might become President of Hungary, should the Soviets permit it.

In 1967, Szent-Györgyi signed a letter declaring his intention to refuse to pay taxes as a means of protesting against the U.S. war against Vietnam, and urging other people to take a similar stand.

[24][25] As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt a Constitution for the Federation of Earth.