J. B. S. Haldane: the John Innes years

Wilmot, Sarah

doi:10.1007/s12041-017-0830-7

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A part-time appointment at the John Innes Horticultural Institution from 1927 to 1937 brought Haldane into contact with the realities of plant breeding. Yet the encounter was not scientifically fruitful, with the mathematically inclined Haldane having ‘little in common with his colleagues’ working methods’ (Wilmot, 2017: 818–19). 7 During the 1930s, nutrition science saw a renewed drive to produce synthetic diets for laboratory animals (Landecker, 2016: 153).…”

Section: Artificiality and Substitutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…His contributions to science, largely in genetics and evolution, have also been the subject of multiple works (Adams, 2000;Fara, 2004;Sarkar, 1992a). We know that Haldane was directly involved in agriculture and breeding through the John Innes Horticultural Institution from 1927 to 1937 (Harman, 2004;Wilmot, 2017). He simultaneously clashed with the interwar Malthusian movement, which at the time was strongly associated with eugenics (Allen, 1991;Bashford, 2007;Chase, 1977;Connelly, 2008;Robertson, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Yeast, coal, and straw: J. B. S. Haldane's vision for the future of science and synthetic food

Holmes

2023

History of the Human Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

British biologist and science populariser J. B. S. Haldane was known as a contrarian, whose myriad ideas and beliefs would shift to oppose whomever he chose to argue with. Yet Haldane's support for synthetic food remained remarkably stable throughout his life. This article argues that Haldane's engagement with synthetic food during the 1930s and 1940s was shaped by his frustration with the status and direction of scientific research in Britain. Drawing upon the Haldane Papers, I reconstruct how Haldane's interest in synthetic food emerged from the biochemical and physiological optimism of the early 20th century. His mid-20th-century writings were an opportunity for Haldane to voice his political opinions. He attempted to erase the conceptual divide between farm and factory, maintained that food shortages were a capitalist construct, and criticised British colonialism. By pointing out the failure of existing economic systems and governments to develop synthetic food, Haldane made the case that food production should be placed under the control of biologists.

show abstract

Section: Artificiality and Substitutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yeast, coal, and straw: J. B. S. Haldane's vision for the future of science and synthetic food

Holmes

2023

History of the Human Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Glückliche Fügung: Experiments’ Potential to Integrate Disciplines**

Schürch

2022

Ber Wissenschaftsgesch

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This essay reviews the discipline-connecting potential of experimentation. Two examples are used to illustrate how researchers in the first half of the twentieth century profitably combined resources from different disciplines in their experiments. These experiments were designed to test mechanism models describing chemical processes underlying the behavior of biological systems. The researchers had clear expectations about how certain interventions should affect the behavior of the organisms studied, if that behavior was indeed based on the presumed chemical processes. They manipulated the organisms in the relevant ways and determined how the behavior of the organisms changed as a result.

show abstract

J. B. S. Haldane and Journal of Genetics

Rao

2017

J Genet

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

J. B. S. Haldane: the John Innes years

Cited by 6 publications

References 15 publications

Yeast, coal, and straw: J. B. S. Haldane's vision for the future of science and synthetic food

Yeast, coal, and straw: J. B. S. Haldane's vision for the future of science and synthetic food

Glückliche Fügung: Experiments’ Potential to Integrate Disciplines**

J. B. S. Haldane and Journal of Genetics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About