Haldane as Biochemist: The Cambridge Decade, 1923–1932

Abstract

From 1923 until 1932 J. B. S. Haldane served as Reader in Biochemistry at Cambridge under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. This decade was critical to Haldane’s intellectual development. During it, along with Fisher and Wright, he laid down the mathematical foundations of evolutionary genetics, the contribution that remains his most important claim to fame (Wright 1968). The first part of his seminal series of papers, “A Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection,” appeared in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1924 (Haldane 1924). Only the tenth and last part (Haldane 1934) post-dated his tenure at Cambridge. Meanwhile, in 1932, he had published The Causes of Evolution (1932), the main text being based on a set of lectures given at Prifysgol Cymru (Wales) in 1931. Fisher’s Genetical Theory of Natural Selection had appeared in 1930 (Fisher 1930); Wright’s long paper, “Evolution in Mendelian Populations,” in 1931 (Wright 1931). The mathematical foundations for evolutionary genetics had finally been laid down: not only had Mendelian genetics been shown to be consistent with Darwinian evolution by natural selection but had, in fact, been shown to provide the principle of inheritance which explained much of the phenomena of evolution. Haldane has routinely received full credit for his role in these developments: along with Wright and Fisher he is regarded as one of the three founders of mathematical population genetics (see, e.g., Provine (1971)).