S4.03 - A dominant character: The life of JBS Haldane
Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode we’re taking a look at the extraordinary life of JBS Haldane, whose work, writing and dominant personality made him one of the most interesting characters of 20th century genetics. As well as being an insightful scientist, fearless self-experimenter and artful communicator, Haldane’s political leanings also affected his approach to science - even at the expense of the scientific rigour that he usually applied to his endeavours.
Every year The Genetics Society awards the JBS Haldane prize lecture, recognising an individual with outstanding ability to communicate topical subjects in genetics to an interested public audience. This year’s winner is Matthew Cobb from the University of Manchester, who you might remember from our recent episode on the history of mRNA.
The man the prize is named after, JBS Haldane, was himself an outstanding public communicator of science, as well as being a brilliant scientist and a staunch believer in Marxism.
Author Samanth Subramanian’s recent biography A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane, digs into Haldane’s remarkable life, work and political views. I devoured this incredibly well-researched and pacey book over the Christmas break, and Haldane’s larger-than-life personality springs off every page.
It’s impossible not to be gripped by the sheer drama of his story. Haldane was a fearless self-experimenter, to the point of nearly killing himself and his colleagues. He fought in the trenches in the first world war and was in Spain during the civil war there. He fell out with authority figures and the establishment, was a committed communist and was suspected of being a spy.
Haldane’s mathematically-minded work in genetics and evolutionary biology set the stage for the way we think about evolution today. He brought intellectual rigour and clarity to everything he did - with one notable exception, when he let his political beliefs cloud his scientific thinking,
I caught up with Samanth Subramanian while he was visiting his family in India - apologies for the slightly dodgy internet connection - to take a look at this remarkable life…
Click here to read the full transcript
That’s all for now. Thanks very much to Samanth Subramanian. His book A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane is available now from all good bookshops, and the evil ones too.
We’ll be back next time with more scientific ‘tails’ - literally - as we poke a cold wet nose into the genetics of dogs. Is there a gene for being a Very Good Boy? You’ll have to sit...stay... and find out next time.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
Genetics Unzipped is written and presented by me, Kat Arney. It is produced by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall, and audio production was by Hannah Varrall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
All music and sound effects licensed from Envato and Epidemic Sound
Image Credit: Haldane, J. B. S (John Burdon Sanderson). Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 90-105, Science Service Records, Image No. SIA2008-2208. CC0
