1910s Timeline - John Innes Centre

1932 A landmark in the
‘synthetic theory of evolution’
J B S Haldane publishes The
causes of evolution (1932), a
collection of papers elaborating
a mathematical theory of
evolution, in which he
demonstrates that Darwin’s
theory of natural selection can
be integrated with Mendel’s
theory of inheritance to form a
coherent account of
evolutionary change. For this
work Julian Huxley (in 1942)
lionised Haldane (along with
Ronald Fisher and Sewall
Wright) as a founder of
population genetics and a
leading figure in the ‘modern
synthesis’ or ‘synthetic theory of
evolution’. Historians have
considered the ‘modern
synthesis’ either as a project to
reconcile hitherto rival schools
of biology (especially biometric
and Mendelian approaches in
Britain), or as a device to limit
biological perspectives on
evolution within the context of a
struggle for institutional
resources. Whichever narrative
is accepted, it remains true that
Haldane produced one of the
first works of that enterprise,
and that Britain, the home of
the ‘Oxford School’ of broad
Darwinian thinkers (Haldane’s
first University), was very much
involved in the effort to bring
evolutionary theory into
classical genetics (Harman,
2004, p. 112).
See also:
Julian Huxley, Evolution: the
modern synthesis, London:
George Allen & Unwin, 1942.
William Provine, The origins of
theoretical population genetics,
Chicago: Chicago University
Press, 1986.
Ernst Mayr and William Provine
(eds.), The evolutionary
synthesis: perspectives on the
unification of biology,
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1980.
Carla Keirns, ‘Evolutionary
synthesis’, pp. 239-241 in A
Reader’s Guide to the History of
Science, ed. A. Hessenbruch
(London: Fitzroy Dearborn,
2000).
Harman, O. S., The man who
invented the chromosome: a life
of Cyril Darlington, Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2004. See pp. 109-113.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M
odern_evolutionary_synthesis
http://students.washington.ed
u/gw0/modernsynthesis/
1933 Rose Scott-Moncrieff
joins the staff and contributes
significantly to the
development of biochemical
genetics
In December 1933 Rose Scott-
Moncrieff joins the staff of JIHI
to pursue her studies of the
biochemistry of flower colour
under the direction of J B S
Haldane. She has already
collaborated with JIHI staff for
several years, and from 1931-32
held the title ‘volunteer worker’
at JIHI. Haldane encourages her
to extend her early research on
naturally occurring
anthocyanins to the quite
separate chemical and genetic
studies of flower pigmentation
that were being undertaken at
the time. Armed with
experience gained in Professor
Robert Robinson’s labs in
London and Oxford, Scott-
Moncrieff is able to use new and
quick qualitative methods; for
the first time it has become
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