J. B. S. Haldane: Difference between revisions
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:"At the age of eight or so I was allowed to take down numbers which I called out when reading the burette of a gas-analysis apparatus and later to calculate from these numbers the amounts of various gases in a sample. After this I was promoted to making up simple mixtures for his use and, still later, to cleaning apparatus. Before I was fourteen, he had taken me down a number of mines, and I had spent some time under water both in a submarine and in a diving dress. He had also used me as the subject in many experiments. In fact I spent a good deal of my holidays from school in learning my father's trade…After I was twelve, he discussed with me all his research before publication, and sometimes tried out a lecture course on me before delivering it to students."</ref> (For more on J.B.S. Haldane's father's life and scientific work, see<ref name=jshaldaneobit/>) J.B.S. Haldane had a head start in science and scientific thinking, leading him in school to switch from studying Latin and Greek to studying physics, chemistry and biology — and history.<ref name=haldaneautobio/>. | :"At the age of eight or so I was allowed to take down numbers which I called out when reading the burette of a gas-analysis apparatus and later to calculate from these numbers the amounts of various gases in a sample. After this I was promoted to making up simple mixtures for his use and, still later, to cleaning apparatus. Before I was fourteen, he had taken me down a number of mines, and I had spent some time under water both in a submarine and in a diving dress. He had also used me as the subject in many experiments. In fact I spent a good deal of my holidays from school in learning my father's trade…After I was twelve, he discussed with me all his research before publication, and sometimes tried out a lecture course on me before delivering it to students."</ref> (For more on J.B.S. Haldane's father's life and scientific work, see<ref name=jshaldaneobit/>) J.B.S. Haldane had a head start in science and scientific thinking, leading him in school to switch from studying Latin and Greek to studying physics, chemistry and biology — and history.<ref name=haldaneautobio/>. | ||
In studying chemistry in school, he reportedly had learned about advances in chemical knowledge that helped his father and colleague, C. G. Douglas, in their research. His first scientific paper, at age seventeen years, co-authored with his father and his colleague, was read to the Physiological Society, likely what appeared in the Journal of Physiology in 1912, as <u>[http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16993128 Douglas CG, Haldane JS, Haldane JB. (1912) The laws of combination of haemoglobin with carbon monoxide and oxygen. ''J. Physiol'' 44:275-304.]</u><ref name=douglas1912>Douglas CG, Haldane JS, Haldane JB. (1912) [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16993128 The laws of combination of haemoglobin with carbon monoxide and oxygen. ''J. Physiol'' 44:275-304. Free Full-Text]</ref> It reflected physiology at the mathematical and chemical level. J.B.S. Haldane had achieved credentials as a scientist before age twenty years. | In studying chemistry in school, he reportedly had learned about advances in chemical knowledge that helped his father and colleague, C. G. Douglas, in their research. His first scientific paper, at age seventeen years, co-authored with his father and his colleague, was read to the Physiological Society, likely what appeared in the Journal of Physiology in 1912, as <u>[http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16993128 Douglas CG, Haldane JS, Haldane JB. (1912) The laws of combination of haemoglobin with carbon monoxide and oxygen. ''J. Physiol'' 44:275-304.]</u><ref name=douglas1912>Douglas CG, Haldane JS, Haldane JB. (1912) [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16993128 The laws of combination of haemoglobin with carbon monoxide and oxygen. ''J. Physiol'' 44:275-304. Free Full-Text]</ref> It reflected physiology at the mathematical and chemical level. J.B.S. Haldane had achieved credentials as a scientist with sophisticated mathematical ability before age twenty years, and he followed up in the years ahead with mathematical perspectives applied in enzymology and population genetics (''vide infra''). | ||
==Scientific contributions== | ==Scientific contributions== | ||
Revision as of 19:26, 21 November 2007
- As commonly done, we will omit the spaces between the initials when we refer to J. B. S. Haldane in this article.
Referred to by most as J. B. S. Haldane (or J.B.S. Haldane), the initials stand for John Burdon Sanderson ('Burdon Sanderson' from his maternal line), born in Oxford, England, in 1892, his father an accomplished and honored (respiratory) physiologist, John Scott Haldane (J. S. Haldane),[1] with whom J.B.S. worked as an assistant during childhood.[2] Educated at Eaton and Oxford Colleges, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1914, served in World War I, and later teaching and doing research at Oxford, Cambridge, and London universities and the University of California at Berkeley. In 1932 J.B.S. Haldane published The Causes of Evolution, a founding document in the modern evolutionary synthesis of population genetics, reflecting the interest he pursued in college in biology, genetics and applying mathematics to questions in biology and genetics.[2]
This article will give a summary of J.B.S. Haldane's life and thinking, his contributions to science and to the popularization of science, his impact on his times, and his vision of the future. One science historian, Mark B. Adams, sets the task:
J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) is one of the most fascinating, perplexing and troublesome figures in the history of science. That he was a major biologist of his time goes without saying, but attempts at further scientific classification are futile: there is hardly a field of modern biology in whose history he does not deserve at least some mention. And, beyond biology proper, Haldane had yet other personae that at times seemed no less central to his career. Any attempt to come to terms with his life and work must face the dual challenge of his extraordinary multiformity and his utter singularity. [3]
Childhood and Adolescence
As a child J.B.S. Haldane learned much of his father's 'trade', human physiology, essentially as an non-indentured apprentice. By age fourteen years, having started at age 8 years, he had apparently learned about gases and human respiratory physiology, learned mathematical applications for interpreting experimental data, and from discussions with his father, learned about presenting research results for publication, and developing lecture courses.[4] (For more on J.B.S. Haldane's father's life and scientific work, see[1]) J.B.S. Haldane had a head start in science and scientific thinking, leading him in school to switch from studying Latin and Greek to studying physics, chemistry and biology — and history.[4].
In studying chemistry in school, he reportedly had learned about advances in chemical knowledge that helped his father and colleague, C. G. Douglas, in their research. His first scientific paper, at age seventeen years, co-authored with his father and his colleague, was read to the Physiological Society, likely what appeared in the Journal of Physiology in 1912, as Douglas CG, Haldane JS, Haldane JB. (1912) The laws of combination of haemoglobin with carbon monoxide and oxygen. J. Physiol 44:275-304.[5] It reflected physiology at the mathematical and chemical level. J.B.S. Haldane had achieved credentials as a scientist with sophisticated mathematical ability before age twenty years, and he followed up in the years ahead with mathematical perspectives applied in enzymology and population genetics (vide infra).
Scientific contributions
Early (1925), at Cambridge University, Haldane applied his evidenced passion for mathematical analysis of biological chemistry in the field of enzymology. Enzymologists study the behavior of enzymes, the protein catalysts that accelerate biochemical reactions in living cells without themselves getting consumed in the reactions, including schematic and mathematical modeling of the many different kinds of biochemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes. Initially with a colleague, George E. Briggs, Haldane presented a theoretical analysis and devised equations based on that analysis that could account for quantitative measurements of the rates of many of such reactions, improving on earlier models,[6] Later (1930) in a book he wrote entitled Enzymes he presented a modified scheme.[7] Both the Briggs-Haldane and Haldane analyses continue to remain in the mainstream of enzymatic reaction ‘kinetics’, and have set a foundation for, and stimulated, the further development that field up to the 21st century.<ref<Tzafriri AR, Edelman ER. (2004) The total quasi-steady-state approximation is valid for reversible enzyme kinetics. Journal of Theoretical Biology 226 (3):303-313</ref>[8]
References
Citations and notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Editors. (1936) The Late Professor J. S. Haldane, C.H., M.D., F.R.S. Can Med Assoc J. August; 35(2): 197–198.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bookrags Collection of Sources of Biographical Information on J. B. S. Haldane
- ↑ Adams MB. (2000) Last Judgment: The Visionary Biology of J. B. S. Haldane. J Hist Biol. 33:457-491
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Haldane JBS. (1966) An autobiography in brief. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine Summer. (The editors noted: "Professor Haldane died December 1, 1964. This article is reprinted with the kind permission
of the illustrated Weekly of India, Bombay.")
- From J.B.S. Haldane's autobiography:
- "At the age of eight or so I was allowed to take down numbers which I called out when reading the burette of a gas-analysis apparatus and later to calculate from these numbers the amounts of various gases in a sample. After this I was promoted to making up simple mixtures for his use and, still later, to cleaning apparatus. Before I was fourteen, he had taken me down a number of mines, and I had spent some time under water both in a submarine and in a diving dress. He had also used me as the subject in many experiments. In fact I spent a good deal of my holidays from school in learning my father's trade…After I was twelve, he discussed with me all his research before publication, and sometimes tried out a lecture course on me before delivering it to students."
- ↑ Douglas CG, Haldane JS, Haldane JB. (1912) The laws of combination of haemoglobin with carbon monoxide and oxygen. J. Physiol 44:275-304. Free Full-Text
- ↑ Briggs GE, Haldane JBS. (1925) A note on the kinetics of enzyme reactions. Biochem J 19:338-339
- They end the paper: “It may be remarked that with this modification of their [earlier] theory, Michaelis and Menten's analysis of the effects of the products of the reaction, or other substances which combine with the enzyme, still holds good.”
- ↑ Haldane JBS. (1930) Enzymes Longmans, Green and Co.
- ↑ Pedersena MG, Bersani AM, and Bersani E. (2007) The total quasi-steady-state approximation for fully competitive enzyme reactions. Bull.Math.Biol. 69 (1):433-457 PMID 16850351