Evolving Evolution
John Burdon Sanderson
Haldane
1892-1964
Sindhu Raghunandan
Darwinism Vs. Neo-Darwinism
Darwinism
– Observes differences among members in a population and
suggests evolution.
Neo-Darwinism (George Romanes)
– New chapter in genetics and evolution which seeks to explore
when and why genetic variations are produced.
New Synthesis
• Brings together many
sub-fields (genetics,
cytology, systematics,
botany, morphology,
ecology and
paleontology) in
biology allowing for a
more comprehensive
definition of Evolution.
Lifetime - J.B.S. Haldane
• Born: November 5, 1892
– Oxford, England
• Child Hood:
– Parents: John Scott Haldaen
(physiologist) + Louisa Kathleen
Haldane
– Family:
• Father: JS Halden: scientist,
philosopher, liberal
• Mother: LK Haldane:
conservative
• Sister: Naomi – writer
• Uncle: Richard Haldane – 1st
Viscount, politican, secretary of
war
• Aunt: Elizabeth Haldane –
writer
Lifetime – JBS Haldane cont’d
– School:
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• New College Oxford
• Cambridge University
(readership in Biochem at
Trinity College)
• University of California –
Berkeley
• Univeristy College London
• Indian Statistical Institute,
Calcutta
Adult Hood:
– Marriage:Charlotte Burghes in
1926, divorced in 1945; then
married Helen Spurway
– Career: Professor at Trinity College,
Scientist
Lifetime - J.B.S. Haldane cont’d
– Political Views:
• Socialist during WWI (supported Spanish
Republic during Spanish Civil War)
• Communist (wrote for Communist Daily)
• Served in the British Army during WWI
• As Communism became more and more radical,
geneticists were being persecuted and an antiDarwin movement was brewing – at this point –
Haldane left his political views and shifted his
focus to research.
– Travel:
• India
– His wife studied silk moths
• Moved to Orissa, eventually became an Indian
Citizen
• Died: December 1, 1964 of cancer in
Bhubaneswar, India
– His last publication was titled “Cancer is
a funny thing”.
Academic Accomplishments
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1919:
1925:
fellowship at Oxford (respiration and CO2)
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1932:
1936:
1937:
1953:
1957:
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1957:
1957:
fellow of the Royal Society
Joined Communist Party with outbreak of Spanish Civil War
Chair of biometry
Darwin Medal
Migrated to India (became director of the Orissa State Government
Genetics and Biometry Laboratory)
Weldon professor of genetics
Kimber Genetics Award
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1919-1922:
1922-1933:
1933-1957:
1962-1964:
Taught at Oxford
Cambridge
University of London
Director of genetics and biometry at Bhubaneswar
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“Author of at least 8 books, wrote over 300 scientific papers, and over 500 articles for
the Daily Worker, Reynold News, and many other publications.”
Briggs-Haldane equation: enzyme kinetics (rates of enzyme
activity: concentration of the intermediate compound does not
change during a chemical reaction)
Ideas on Evolution
• Noticed patterns of genetics in generations of rabbits
• Applied mathematics to explain genetic patterns among
peppered moths (discovered natural selection could act much
higher rates than was assumed previously).
• Studied the connection between Hemophilia and
colorblindness
• Respiratory physiology: by studying the carbon dioxide in the
blood
• Survival of the fittest: “The immediate problem today is to
create a social organization in which the majority of men and
women as they are can be happy and useful”
• Compared the structure of the biological society to that of the
Gosplan (Russian Socialist society).
• Social Darwinism: wealth determines social status
– Cause members of small families to come into better social positions
than people with larger families
– Those who have wealth will have smaller families to preserve their
wealth
Ideas on Evolution – cont’d
– “The essential social problems of today, as they
present themselves to a biologist, are to
determine the abilities of different people, and to
organize society so that the demand for various
kinds of human abilities should equal the
supply. Today, these problems are not solved”
– “doubtless complete idiots should be prevented
from breeding, but the effort to eliminate all
sorts of "unfit" human types is a very much
more dubious proposition”
Other Ideas
• Saw that coal was expendable and
suggested hydrogen-generating
windmills: first proposal of
hydrogen-based energy.
• Inequality of man: Democracy is
impossible in India today largely
because less than 10% of its
population can read.
• Drew lots of connections between
science and ethics/law: “finally,
ethics may be profoundly affected
by an adoption of the scientific
view point”(100)
Publications
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Daedalus; or, Science and the Future (1924), E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., a paper read to the Heretics,
Cambridge, on February 4, 1923
A Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection, a series of papers beginning in 1924
G.E. Briggs and J.B.S. Haldane (1925). A note on the kinetics of enzyme action, Biochem. J., 19: 338-339
Callinicus: A Defence of Chemical Warfare (1925)
Possible Worlds and Other Essays (1927)
Animal Biology (1929) Oxford: Clarendon
Enzymes (1930)
The Causes of Evolution (1932)
Science and Human Life (1933)
Science and the Supernatural: Correspondence with Arnold Lunn (1935)
Fact and Faith (1934)
My Friend Mr Leakey (1937)
Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) {1938)
Marxist Philosophy and the Sciences (1939)
Science and Everyday Life (1940)
Science in Peace and War (1941)
New Paths in Genetics (1941)
Heredity & Politics (1943)
Why Professional Workers should be Communists (1945), London: Communist Party (of Great Britain)
Adventures of a Biologist (1947)
Science Advances (1947)
What is Life? (1947)
Everything Has a History (1951)
"Origin of Man", Nature, 176, 169 (1955)
"Cancer's a Funny Thing": New Statesman, 1964.
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This is a heartwarming poem (but unfortunately composed during what turned out to be his mortal illness) written to
encourage others to consult a doctor when they experience the symptoms it describes. It begins: "I wish I had the voice
of Homer/ To sing of rectal carcinoma,/ Which kills a lot more chaps, in fact,/ Than were bumped off when Troy was
sacked." ....and ends "I know that cancer often kills,/ But so do cars and sleeping pills;/ And it can hurt one till one
sweats,/ So can bad teeth and unpaid debts./ A spot of laughter, I am sure,/ Often accelerates one’s cure;/ So let us
patients do our bit/ To help the surgeons make us fit"
Others in Neo-Darwinism, new
synthesis
R. A. Fisher
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Sewall Wright
E.B. Ford
Ernst Mayr
Bernhard Rensch
Sergei Chetverikov
George Gaylord Simpson
G. Ledyard Stebbins
Summary
• JBS Haldane a man of many trades
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Served in the army
Did research in India and became an Indian citizen
Worked on mathematical explanations for enzyme catalyst rates.
Made connections between Evolution and Ethics.
Politically radical (communist, socialist, marxist ideals)
Critically analyzed past and present views on Evolution.
• Neo-Darwinism: finds justification for ideas of natural
selection proposed by early Darwinians.
• New Synthesis: brings several different fields within
biology together to develop a comprehensive definition
of Evolution.
Sources
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Synthesis
• http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/ca
uses-of-evolution/
• http://books.google.com/books?id=aqhJ4gKY84
oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:John+inau
thor:Burdon+inauthor:Sanderson+inauthor:Hald
ane&ei=NVXYSPHzFYLgywSAtsSbCQ&sig=ACf
U3U3M6e0VDoVKHfrXqFWG3SM5IBdPLA#PP
A123,M1
• http://www.answers.com/topic/j-b-s-haldane