NationMaster - Encyclopedia: J. B. S. Haldane

John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (November 5, 1892 – December 1, 1964), who normally used "J.B.S." as a first name, was a British geneticist and evolutionary biologist. He was one of the founders (along with Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright) of population genetics. Image File history File links Haldane. ... November 5 is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 56 days remaining. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Edinburgh (pronounced ; DÃ¹n Ãˆideann () in Scottish Gaelic) is Scotlands capital, and its second-largest city. ... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 kmÂ² 1. ... December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Bhubaneswar (Hindi: à¤à¥à¤µà¤¨à¥‡à¤¶à¥à¤µà¤° - in Sanskrit and Oriya, The Lord of the Universe) is a city located on the eastern coast of India. ... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 kmÂ² 1. ... A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of organisms. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University, or just Cambridge), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a prestigious, public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. ... The Front Quad University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... John Maynard Smith Professor John Maynard Smith, F.R.S. (6 January 1920 â€“ 19 April 2004) was a British evolutionary biologist and geneticist. ... Population genetics is the study of the distribution of and change in allele frequencies under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration. ... The Darwin Medal is given by the Royal Society on even years to a biologist or a husband and wife team of biologists. ... November 5 is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 56 days remaining. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Look up geneticist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Evolutionary biology is a subfield of biology concerned with the origin and descent of species, as well as their change over time, i. ... Sir Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS (17 February 1890 â€“ 29 July 1962) was a British eugenicist, evolutionary biologist, geneticist and statistician. ... Sewall Green Wright ForMemRS (December 21, 1889 â€“ March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory. ... Population genetics is the study of the distribution of and change in allele frequencies under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration. ...

Biography

Haldane was born in Edinburgh, the son of the physiologist John Scott Haldane and his wife Louisa Kathleen Haldane, and descended from Scottish aristocrats (see Haldane family). His younger sister Naomi Mitchison would later become a writer. Haldane was educated at Dragon School, Eton College (which he hated) and at New College, Oxford. Edinburgh (pronounced ; DÃ¹n Ãˆideann () in Scottish Gaelic) is Scotlands capital, and its second-largest city. ... John Scott Haldane (May 3, 1860 - March 15/March 14, 1936) was a Scottish medical doctor. ... Scottish aristocrats. ... Naomi Margaret Mitchison, CBE (nee Haldane; 1 November 1897 Edinburgh â€“ 11 January 1999 at Carradale) was a Scottish novelist and poet. ... The Dragon School is a renowned British preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a prestigious and internationally known Public School for boys. ... College name New College Named after Mary, mother of Jesus Established 1379 Sister College Kings College Warden Prof. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...

During the First World War, Haldane served with the Black Watch in France and Iraq. He was initially Bombing Officer for the 3rd Battalion before becoming a Trench Mortar Officer in the 1st. Whilst in the army, he became a socialist, writing "If I live to see an England in which socialism has made the occupation of a grocer as honourable as that of a soldier, I shall die happy". Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area â€“ Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 kmÂ² Population â€“mid-2004...

Between 1919 and 1922 he was a fellow of New College, then moved to Cambridge University until 1932. He then moved to University College, London where he spent most of the remainder of his academic career. In the late 1950s he moved to India. The move was ostensibly a protest against the Suez War, but in reality had been on the cards for some while. 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University, or just Cambridge), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... The Front Quad University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The Suez Crisis, also known as the Suez War, Suez Campaign or Kadesh Operation was a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. ...

In 1924 Haldane met Charlotte Burghes (nee Franken) and the two later married. To do so Charlotte divorced her husband Jack Burghes, causing some controversy. 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Charlotte Haldane (née Franken, first married name Burghes; 27 April 1894–16 March 1969) was a British feminist author. ...

In 1925, Briggs and Haldane gave a mathematically superior derivation of the 1913 Michaelis-Menten equation, still a mainstay of enzyme kinetics in biochemistry. The original authors made the assumption that enzyme (catalyst) and substrate (reactant) are in quasi-equilibrium with their complex, which then dissociates to yield product and free enzyme. Briggs and Haldane arrived at an equation of the same algebraic form, but with a better interpretation of the Michaelis constant. Their derivation makes the more realistic assumption that the intermediate complex(es) are initially in a quasi-steady-state as substrate is consumed and product is formed. 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Michaelis-Menten kinetics describe the rate of enzyme mediated reactions for many enzymes. ... Ribbon diagram of the enzyme TIM. TIM is catalytically perfect, meaning its conversion rate is limited, or nearly limited to its substrate diffusion rate. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

He made many contributions to human genetics and was one of the three major figures in the development of the mathematical theory of population genetics. He is usually regarded as the third of these in importance, after R. A. Fisher and Sewall Wright. His greatest contribution was in a series of papers on "A Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection" which was the major series of papers on the mathematical theory of natural selection. It treated many major cases for the first time, showing the direction and rates of changes of gene frequencies. It also pioneered in investigating the interaction of natural selection with mutation and with migration. Haldane's book, The Causes of Evolution (1932), summarized these results, especially in its extensive appendix. This body of work was a major component of what came to be known as the "modern evolutionary synthesis", reestablishing natural selection as the premier mechanism of evolution by explaining it in terms of the mathematical consequences of Mendelian genetics. Human genetics is the study of genetics as applied to humans. ... Population genetics is the study of the distribution of and change in allele frequencies under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration. ... Sir Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS (February 17, 1890 – July 29, 1962) was an evolutionary biologist, geneticist and statistician. ... Sewall Green Wright ForMemRS (December 21, 1889 â€“ March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory. ... A Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection is the title of a series of scientific papers by the British population geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, published between 1924 and 1934. ... Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. ... Allele frequency is a measure of the relative frequency of an allele on a genetic locus in a population. ... In biology, mutations are changes to the genetic material (usually DNA or RNA). ... Cover of the 1990 Princeton University reprint The Causes of Evolution is a 1932 book on evolutionary biology by J.B.S. Haldane, and one of the important books of the modern evolutionary synthesis. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... The modern evolutionary synthesis (often referred to simply as the modern synthesis), neo-Darwinian synthesis or neo-Darwinism, brings together Charles Darwins theory of the evolution of species by natural selection with Gregor Mendels theory of genetics as the basis for biological inheritance. ... Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. ... A hypothetical phylogenetic tree of all extant organisms, based on 16S rRNA gene sequence data, showing the evolutionary history of the three domains of life, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... Mendelian inheritance (or Mendelian genetics or Mendelism) is a set of primary tenets that underlie much of genetics developed by Gregor Mendel in the latter part of the 19th century. ...

Haldane made many other contributions to theoretical population genetics and statistical human genetics, including the first methods using maximum likelihood for estimation of human linkage maps, and pioneering methods for estimating human mutation rates. His was the first calculation of the mutational load caused by recurring mutations at a gene, and he was first to calculate a "cost of natural selection". Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is a popular statistical method used to make inferences about parameters of the underlying probability distribution of a given data set. ... Genetic linkage occurs when particular alleles are inherited together. ... In population genetics, genetic load or genetic burden is a measure of the cost of lost alleles due to selection (selectional load) or mutation (mutational load). ...

Haldane was a keen experimenter, willing to expose himself to danger to obtain data. One experiment involving elevated levels of oxygen saturation triggered a fit which resulted in him suffering crushed vertebrae. In his decompression chamber experiments, he and his volunteers suffered perforated eardrums, but, as Haldane stated in What is Life, "the drum generally heals up; and if a hole remains in it, although one is somewhat deaf, one can blow tobacco smoke out of the ear in question, which is a social accomplishment." A decompression chamber is a pressure vessel used in surface supplied diving to allow the divers to complete their decompression stops at the end of a dive on the surface rather than underwater. ...

He was also a great science populariser, and was perhaps the Isaac Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould, or Richard Dawkins of his day. His essay, 'Daedalus or Science and the Future' (1923), was remarkable in predicting many scientific advances but has been criticized for presenting a too idealistic view of scientific progress. Dr. Isaac Asimov (c. ... Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 â€“ May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. ... Richard Dawkins Clinton Richard Dawkins DSc, FRS, FRSL (known as Richard Dawkins; born March 26, 1941) is an eminent British ethologist, evolutionary theorist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Haldane was himself a very idealistic man, and in his youth was a devoted Communist and author of many articles in The Daily Worker. Events in the Soviet Union, such as the rise of the anti-Mendelian agronomist Trofim Lysenko and the crimes of Stalin, caused him to break with the Communist Party later in life. He joined the Communist party in 1937 but left in 1950, shortly after having toyed with standing for Parliament as a Communist Party candidate. Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Trofim Lysenko Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (Russian: Ð¢Ñ€Ð¾Ñ„Ð¸ÌÐ¼ Ð”ÐµÐ½Ð¸ÌÑÐ¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð›Ñ‹ÑÐµÌÐ½ÐºÐ¾) (September 29, 1898â€“November 20, 1976) was a Soviet biologist who, during the 1930s, led a campaign of agricultural science, now known as Lysenkoism, which went explicitly against contemporary agricultural genetics and lasted until the mid-1960s in the USSR. // Biography Lysenko, the son...

He is also known for an observation from his essay, On Being the Right Size, which Jane Jacobs and others have since referred to as Haldane's principle. This is that sheer size very often defines what bodily equipment an animal must have: "Insects, being so small, do not have oxygen-carrying bloodstreams. What little oxygen their cells require can be absorbed by simple diffusion of air through their bodies. But being larger means an animal must take on complicated oxygen pumping and distributing systems to reach all the cells." The conceptual metaphor to animal body complexity has been of use in energy economics and secession ideas. On Being the Right Size is a 1928 essay by J. B. S. Haldane. ... Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs, OC , O.Ont (May 4, 1916 â€“ April 25, 2006) was an American-born Canadian writer and activist. ... Conceptual metaphor: In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain; for example, using one persons life experience to understand a different persons experience. ... Energy economics is a subfield of economics that focuses on energy relationships as the foundation of all other relationships. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Haldane was friends with the author Aldous Huxley, and was the basis for the biologist Shearwater in Huxley's novel Antic Hay. Ideas from Haldane's Daedalus, such as ectogenesis (the development of fetuses in artificial wombs), also influenced Huxley's Brave New World. Aldous Leonard Huxley (pronounced ) (July 26, 1894 â€“ November 22, 1963) was a British writer who emigrated to the United States. ... Antic Hay is a novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. ... Book cover of Brave New World. ...

Haldane had many students, the most famous of whom, John Maynard Smith, was perhaps also the one most like himself. John Maynard Smith Professor John Maynard Smith, F.R.S. (6 January 1920 â€“ 19 April 2004) was a British evolutionary biologist and geneticist. ...

References

Publications

A Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection is the title of a series of scientific papers by the British population geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, published between 1924 and 1934. ... Cover of the 1990 Princeton University reprint The Causes of Evolution is a 1932 book on evolutionary biology by J.B.S. Haldane, and one of the important books of the modern evolutionary synthesis. ...

External links

There are photographs of Haldane at Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... Wikiquote logo Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... John Scott Haldane (May 3, 1860 - March 15/March 14, 1936) was a Scottish medical doctor. ...

The biography on the Marxist Writers page has a photograph of Haldane when younger.

Categories: 1892 births | 1964 deaths | Edinburghers | Anglo-Scots | Evolutionary biologists | Haldane family | Old Dragons | Population geneticists | British biochemists | British biologists | British communists | British physiologists | British Army officers | UCL academics | Fellows of the Royal Society Population genetics is the study of the distribution of and change in allele frequencies under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration. ... Hardyâ€“Weinberg principle for two alleles: the horizontal axis shows the two allele frequencies p and q, the vertical axis shows the genotype frequencies and the three possible genotypes are represented by the different glyphs The Hardyâ€“Weinberg principle (HWP) (also Hardyâ€“Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), or Hardyâ€“Weinberg law), named... Linkage disequilibrium (LD) is the non-random association of alleles at two or more loci on a chromosome. ... In population genetics, Ronald Fishers fundamental theorem of natural selection was originally stated as: The rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time. ... The neutral theory of molecular evolution (also, simply the neutral theory of evolution) is an influential theory that was introduced with provocative effect by Motoo Kimura in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ... Selection is hierachically classified into natural and artificial selection. ... Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. ... Illustration from The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin showing the Tufted Coquette Lophornis ornatus, female on left, ornamented male on right. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Ecological selection (or environmental selection or survival selection or individual selection or asexual selection) refers to natural selection minus sexual selection, i. ... Genetic drift is the term used in population genetics to refer to the statistical drift over time of allele frequencies in a finite population due to random sampling effects in the formation of successive generations. ... Species with a small population size are subject to a higher chance of extinction because their small population size makes them more vulnerable to genetic drift, resulting in stochastic variation in their gene pool, their demography and their environment. ... A population bottleneck (or genetic bottleneck) is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing, and the population is reduced by 50% or more, often by several orders of magnitude. ... The founder effect is an evolutionary phenomenon. ... Coalescence describes the idea that any sample of genetic sequences from any number of living things (that is, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes) can be traced back to a common ancestor in the past. ... Sir Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS (17 February 1890 â€“ 29 July 1962) was a British eugenicist, evolutionary biologist, geneticist and statistician. ... John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (November 5, 1892 - December 1, 1964), who normally used J.B.S. as a first name, was a geneticist born in Scotland and educated at Eton and Oxford University. ... Sewall Green Wright ForMemRS (December 21, 1889 â€“ March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory. ... A hypothetical phylogenetic tree of all extant organisms, based on 16S rRNA gene sequence data, showing the evolutionary history of the three domains of life, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... Microevolution is the occurrence of small-scale changes in allele frequencies in a population, over a few generations, also known as change at or below the species level. ... Evolutionary game theory (EGT) is the application of game theory in evolutionary biology. ... In evolutionary biology, fitness landscapes or adaptive landscapes are used to visualize the relationship between genotypes (or phenotypes) and replicatory success. ... Genetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. ... This is a list of topics in evolutionary biology and evolution. ...

Contents

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References

Publications

External links

Biography