J.B.S. Haldane

J.B.S. Haldane hailed from a family of scholars and prominent personalities. His uncle, Viscount Haldane, was a scholar and prominent politician in Prime Minister’s cabinet. His great uncle, Burdon Sanderson, was the first Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford University.

He married twice. In 1926, he married Charlotte Burghes, a writer and journalist. Following their separation in 1942, the couple divorced in 1945. He later married Dr. Helen Spurway, a biologist.

During World War I, he was a socialist. In the 1930s, inspired by the work of Lenin, he became a Marxist. He joined the British Communist Party in 1942. Although he left the party later, he continued to support Marxism all through his life.

J.B.S. Haldane was born on 5 November 1892, in Oxford, England. He belonged to an upper-class, secular family of scholars. His father, John Scott Haldane, was a physiologist who researched on human respiration, and his mother’s name was Louisa Kathleen Trotter. His younger sister, Naomi Mitchison, grew up to be a writer.

He spent his childhood in North Oxford. He began to read at the age of three and showed a keen interest in science. From the age of eight, he started working with his father in their home laboratory.

In 1897, he commenced his formal education at Oxford Preparatory School. Two years later, his family shifted to a Victorian house with a private laboratory, at the outskirts of Oxford.

In 1905, he joined Eton College where senior students repeatedly misbehaved with him. Since the college management failed to curb this menace, he developed a strong disliking for the English education system.

He later joined New College, University of Oxford and graduated with distinction in 1914 with a degree in mathematics, classics and philosophy. At the age 20, his first research paper, co-authored with his father, was published.

During World War I, his education was sporadic. He fought in the British Army as second lieutenant in the Royal Highland Regiment. For his bravery, he was promoted to the position of temporary lieutenant and later, temporary captain.

His life was in constant danger when he fought in France and Iraq. In 1920, he resigned from his military duty. This was made possible by his uncle, Lord Haldane, who was Minister for War at that time.

In 1919, he received a Fellowship in Physiology at New College, Oxford University, where he researched in both physiology and genetics. In 1923, he moved to Cambridge University, where he accepted the Dunn readership in Biochemistry under Professor F. G. Hopkins, at Trinity College, and taught there until 1932.

At Cambridge, he worked on enzymes and genetics, particularly the mathematical aspect of genetics. From 1927 to 1937, he was also Head of Genetical Research at the John Innes Horticultural Institution.

From 1930 to 1932, he was the Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution. In 1933, he became Professor of Genetics at University College, London. Four years later in 1937, he became the first Weldon Professor of Biometry at University College, London.

Together with his sister, Naomi Mitchison, he demonstrated the genetic linkage in mammals in 1915. He researched on the chemical properties of haemoglobin, examined the various aspects of kidney functions and the mechanism of excretion.

He applied Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's study of genetics to his own mathematics-based research on population growth. He pioneered the thought of duplication of humans, and coined the term ‘clone’.

In 1923, he predicted the exhaustion of coal for power generation in Britain and proposed a network of hydrogen-generating windmills; the first of its kind in renewable energy.

Some of his major publications are ‘Daedalus’ (1924), ‘Enzymes’ (1930), and ‘The Causes of Evolution’ (1932). Apart from technical publications, he also wrote about science for beginners. Some of his essays were published in the collection ‘Possible Worlds’ (1927).