Giants of Evolution

by Curtis Templeton

Ledyard Stebbins (1906-2000) was a world-renowned plant evolutionary geneticist and botanist. He is remembered as one of the biologists involved in the modern synthesis; the bringing-together of Mendel’s genetics and natural selection with statistics during the 1940s. Stebbins is considered the father of evolutionary genetics in plants, and for bringing the field of botany up to date with the modern synthesis.

He was born George Ledyard Stebbins on Jan. 6, 1906 in Lawrence, New York. His parents were wealthy and his father (also named George Ledyard Stebbins) in particular was very involved in real-estate. He helped to establish Acadia National Park in Maine and encouraged young Ledyard’s interest in natural and plants. In 1914, Ledyard’s mother contracted tuberculosis and the family moved to California in an effort to improve her health. Although Ledyard would leave California for university, his experiences there as a child may have contributed to his desire to return there in his later life.

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by Dev Thain

A transcript of a commencement speech delivered by Sir Julian Sorell Huxley to the graduating class of Oxford in 1972.

Thank you. Ladies and Gentleman, distinguished faculty and of course graduating class of ’72, welcome. Today I’ve received the honour of addressing you, the next generation of Oxford scholars. I stand here today in humility. A humility I have forged with the innumerable mistakes I have made over my life. To understand these mistakes you must understand my life and so if you will indulge me, I would like to tell you just a little bit about myself.

I was born in June of 1887 in the London house of my aunt, Mary Ward. I came from a distinguished family; my grandfather was Thomas Henry Huxley, a good friend and supporter of Charles Darwin. My father, Andrew Huxley was a writer and my brother Aldous decided to follow in his footsteps. As many of you have read A Brave New World, I wanted to quote for you a passage from Émile Zola’s Germinal, a passage that inspired my brother to write his book. “He laughed at his earlier idealism, his schoolboy vision of a brave new world in which justice would reign and men would be brothers.”

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by Habib Tarzi

David Lack, an Evolutionary biologist, Ornithologist, Ecologist and Anglican Christian. Born in London in 1910, Lack was the son of the famous surgeon Harry Lack. Because of this, he was very wealthy and much like Darwin, this wealth allowed him to pursue his dreams of an education and the study of science.

David Lack is known for his work in a variety of fields. He has written about a dozen books, completed many studies and has also taught many school subjects. However, one particular area of study appealed to him the most – Ornithology. As a young boy his interest in birds was strong to the point that he had a written out an alphabetically ordered list of the names every bird species he knew existed. His first field study began in 1938 where he traveled to the infamous Galapagos Islands. This however was cut short and interrupted due to the genesis of the Second World War. Lack served with the Army Operational Research Group during World War II and succeeded with the team of scientists to develop radar technologies, a tool he would later use for his personal ornithological research.

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by Evan Rees

The Origin of Continents and Oceans, is Alfred Wegener’s most famous work. In this book he explains his theory of continental drift and plate tectonics, arguing that all the land was once connected. He suggested that there was once a supercontinent that had existed, which he called Pangaea meaning “All-Lands” or “All-Earth”. His belief was that it broke up, approximately 200 million years ago, and that the pieces drifted into the positions they are presently. To support his theory, he used the evidence of the fit between South America and Africa. There was also the fossil evidence, such as the fern Glossopteris and Mesosaurus, and similarity of rock structures, to support his claim.

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by Manpreet Singh

Without question, Georges Cuvier [Figure 1] was one of the finest scientists of his time. He was born Johann Leopold Nicolaus Friedrich Kuefer on August 23, 1769 in Montbeliard where his family had been forced to migrate, near the French-Swiss border among a largely Lutheran population. Religious persecution, at this time, was rampant and his family’s Protestant faith was a dangerous liability. Growing up, Cuvier had proven a conscientious student and was sent to the Carolinian Academy to study medicine. Upon completing his education he served as a tutor to a noble family thus, mostly avoiding the tumult of the revolutionary years.

Following the return of some measure of political stability to France in 1795, Cuvier was appointed as assistant professor of zoology and anatomy at the Musee National d’Histoire Naturelle. Later Cuvier was further assigned to influential posts, such as Inspector-General of public education, when Napoleon came to power. By this time, Cuvier was well established within the academic circles of Paris. It is remarkable to note that Cuvier served under three different, opposing French governments including the Revolution, the rule of Napoleon and the monarchy.

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by Oliver Sun

Jan Swammerdam, a Dutch biologist and microscopist, made milestone discoveries in both the fields of entomology and anatomy. His demonstration of insect development, where the same organism undergoes various life stages, is the basis of the modern understanding of development. Swammerdam was also one of the first people to use the microscope in dissection.

Swammerdam was born in Amsterdam, on February 12, 1637. His father, Jan Jacobszoon Swammerdam (1606-1678), was an apothecary and an amateur collector of minerals, coins, fossils, and insects. Swammerdam’s mother died when he was 24 in 1661. In the same year, Swammerdam entered the University of Leiden to study medicine which he qualified as a candidate in medicine in 1663. Swammerdam earned his M.D. on February 22, 1667.

Even in his childhood, Swammerdam was passionately interested in insects. Once he left university, Swammerdam spent much of his time pursuing his interests in entomology. However, Swammerdam’s father thought that his son should practise medicine causing an eventual deterioration of their relationship. Swammerdam’s father cut off all financial support forcing Swammerdam to practise medicine in order to finance his research.

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by Devin Reynolds

Comte de Buffon was likely born before his time. He explored ideas that would later be made famous by Darwin, Lyell, Lamarck and many others. In the Origin of the Species, Darwin credits Buffon for being the first to consider the change of species over time but Buffon had many more important discoveries as well. He was not a perfect scientist. His biggest obstacle was that his ideas probably seemed too radical for their time.

In many ways, Buffon was given all the ingredients he needed to make a name for himself. He was born George-Louis Leclerc to a wealthy family in Montbard. His father, Benjamin was a councilor of the Burgundian Parlement. He studied law at the college of Jesuits at Dijon but he was more interested in physical sciences and math. For a brief period, he stayed with the Duke of Kingston in Nantes when at the age of 20 he developed the binomial theorem. He returned home to Montbard after inheriting a large estate following his mother’s passing. This allowed him to devote his time to the sciences and it also brought him respect from the scientific community. In 1739, at the age of 32 he took up a prestigious position of keeper at the Jardin du Roi and the Royal Museum.

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by Jeremy Stockley

On April 2^nd 1647, Swiss engraver and publisher Matthaus Merian the Elder and wife Johanna gave birth to Maria Sibylla Merian, one of the most significant contributors to entomology of her time and one of the first naturalists to observe and record insects directly. Just three years into her life Maria’s father died and in 1651, only a year later, her mother married a still life painter by the name of Jacob Marrel. Marrel had two kids from a previous marriage and although he and Johanna attempted to have their own children,the children died as babies. Marrel left Johanna and daughter Maria when his kids grew up and essentially left the two alone when Maria was only 12. Despite Marrel untimely departure, it was through Marrel that Maria developed a love for drawing and painting and at age 13 started her first paintings of various insects and plants.

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by Sohaib Siddiqui

“Final victory is within our grasp,” he said, “I wish to be among those at the victory line.”

James Watson’s completive nature was evident from the beginning of his formal education as he entered the University of Chicago to study zoology at the age of 15. Initially interested in animal behavior, he later stated that a book written by Edwin Schrodinger entitled ‘What is Life?’ would serve as an impetus for interest in genetics. He would later move on to attend Indiana University to pursue his Ph.D. in zoology. He would meet several notable figures throughout his education that further influenced his understanding of the field. Salvador Luria had been working on bacteriophages, to understand the mecehanism of gentic mutations for which he would later receive a Nobel Prize in 1969. Perhaps the most influential step in his life would be when he moved to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, where he would meet James Watson.

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