Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson

Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson hôl´dān, –dən [key], 1892–1964, British geneticist, biologist, and popularizer of science; son of John Scott Haldane. As one of the most influential scientists of the 20th cent, he studied relationships among different disciplines and problems, including the consequence of Mendelian genetics on evolutionary theory, the relationship between enzymology and genetics, and the application of mathematics and statistics to the study of biology. His works which are numerous, include (with John S. Huxley) Animal Biology (1927), The Causes of Evolution (1937), New Paths in Genetics (1941), and Biochemistry of Genetics (1954). Haldane also wrote fiction and verse as well as political works in support of his Marxist position, notably The Marxist Philosophy and the Sciences (1938). Disillusioned with Marxism in the 1940s and 50s, he eventually moved to India to conduct scientific research.

See biography by R. W. Clark (1984); study ed. by K. R. Dronamraju (1968).

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