Evolving EvolutionJohn Burdon Sanderson

Haldane1892-1964

Sindhu Raghunandan

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.

Darwinism Vs. Neo-Darwinism

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: • 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 anti-Darwin 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• 1919: fellowship at Oxford (respiration and CO2)• 1925: Briggs-Haldane equation: enzyme kinetics (rates of enzyme

activity: concentration of the intermediate compound does not change during a chemical reaction)

• 1932: fellow of the Royal Society• 1936: Joined Communist Party with outbreak of Spanish Civil War• 1937: Chair of biometry• 1953: Darwin Medal• 1957: Migrated to India (became director of the Orissa State

Government Genetics and Biometry Laboratory) • 1957: Weldon professor of genetics• 1957: Kimber Genetics Award

• 1919-1922: Taught at Oxford • 1922-1933: Cambridge• 1933-1957: University of London• 1962-1964: Director of genetics and biometry at Bhubaneswar

• “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.”

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• 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.

– 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. FisherTheodosius DobzhanskySewall WrightE.B. FordErnst MayrBernhard RenschSergei ChetverikovGeorge Gaylord SimpsonG. Ledyard Stebbins

Summary• JBS Haldane a man of many trades

– 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+inauthor:Burdon+inauthor:Sanderson+inauthor:Haldane&ei=NVXYSPHzFYLgywSAtsSbCQ&sig=ACfU3U3M6e0VDoVKHfrXqFWG3SM5IBdPLA#PPA123,M1

• http://www.answers.com/topic/j-b-s-haldane