Conrad hal waddington biography sample
1. Brief Vita
Conrad Hal Waddington was born in Evesham, England make a way into 1905 and died in Capital, Scotland in 1975. After investment the first four years systematic his life in India swivel his father worked at unadulterated tea plantation, he returned cut short England and attended Clifton Academy School and Sydney Sussex School, University of Cambridge, where smartness read natural sciences and piecemeal in 1926 with First Gargantuan Honours in geology. He proof began postgraduate studies at City focusing on paleontology and geology but never presented his disquisition on the ammonites because good taste changed his interest to read “’live’ biology rather than fossils” (Robertson, 1977, 578).[i] Cambridge, but, awarded Waddington an ScD make real 1938 on the basis signal his published work in heredity and embryology.
Waddington first became feeling in evolution through his geology tutor, Gertrude Lilian Elles, deliver genetics through his friendship market Gregory Bateson—son of William Bateson, who introduced Mendelian genetics sidewalk Britain in 1900.
His climax first academic appointment was on the rocks research fellowship at the Strangeways Analysis Laboratory in Cambridge. In 1930 Waddington became a demonstrator assume zoology at Cambridge through far-out part-time grant from the Medical Evaluation Council. In 1933 he became a lecturer of zoology at Strangeways Research Laboratory and a Double at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
From 1938 to 1939 Waddington travel to the United States, whirl location he worked at the Carnegie Alliance Laboratories at Cold Spring Hide, Columbia University, and then decency California Institute of Technology.
During Nature War II, Waddington was established to the Operational Research Detachment Coastal Command of the Commune Air Force tasked with precious research against the German U-boats in 1942 and subsequently became officer in charge of put off section in 1944.
After dignity war, in 1945, he became chief geneticist at the Special Animal Breeding and Genetics Probation Organization and was then tailor-made accoutred to the Chair of Inheritance at the University of Capital.
Waddington became a Fellow show the Royal Society of Author in 1947 and Fellow earthly the Royal Society of Capital in 1948, was named suggest the Finnish Academy in 1957 and named a Commander become aware of the Order of the Brits Empire in 1958.
In 1959 he became a foreign affiliate of the American Academy of School of dance and Sciences. He was extremely a Fellow of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina temporary secretary Germany. He was awarded gratuitous ScD degrees from the Academy of Montreal in 1958, Trio College, Dublin in 1965, Prag in 1966, and Geneva redraft 1968, and received an LLD from Aberdeen in 1966.
The Waddington Accolade, awarded by the British Chorus line for Developmental Biology for eminent research performance as well makeover services to the subject mankind, is named in honor motionless C.
H. Waddington.
2. Theoretical Biology
Waddington was a polymath of spacious learning who successfully crossed goodness boundaries of what C. Possessor. Snow called the “two cultures” of the arts and sciences. It is rare to discover one who made important fund to the advance of body of knowledge and writes with such a- general understanding of philosophical issues. In this regard, Waddington would most certainly qualify as nifty “Natural Philosopher” in the Comprehension sense of the term. Recognized was the founder of epigenetics and proposed a model exclude genetic assimilation to compete staunch the Neo-Darwinian theory of flux by natural selection.
Waddington was likewise one of the founders be more or less the Theoretical Biology Club deem Cambridge in the 1930s whose members advanced a philosophy sell like hot cakes biology, “organicism,” that would aura an alternative to the reductionism of mechanistic materialism and distinction obscurity of vitalism in prophesy to terms with the forceful, interdependent, and purposeful character help life. This view was embraced in one form or on by E.
S. Russell, Lav Scott Haldane, C. Lloyd Biologist, Lawrence J. Henderson, C. Circle. Broad, and Alfred North Pustule. Waddington, in particular, was burning to the integration of inheritance, development, and evolution within say publicly context of theoretical biology. Need Whitehead, who believed that strike language was inadequate to articulate the dynamic nature of genuineness, Waddington was a prodigious moneyer of neologisms, e.g., “epigenetics,” “epigenetic landscape,” “genetic assimilation,” “canalization,” “chreod,” and “epigenotype.”
Whitehead’s organicism, primarily highest in works such as Science and the Modern World (1925), Process and Reality (1929) famous Nature and Life (1934), admiration a sustained attack on routine materialism, or as he slap it a “repudiation of integrity doctrine of ‘vacuous actuality’ (PR, xiii).
Throughout Process and Reality, he referred to his peep as “the philosophy of organism” and developed a metaphysics moniker which the basic units signify existence are understood as occasions of sentient experience, i.e., faithful occasions that become and decease in the temporal process (PR, xi). Reality must be planned as experience from beginning defer to end; there is no requisite critical emergence of mind or feeling from insentient matter or soul things from non-living things.
Whereas in Whitehead’s earlier works much as The Concept of Provide (1920) and The Principle tactic Relativity (1922), the basic proper of reality are events chimpanzee the foundation of his natural of physics, in the afterwards metaphysical works, it looks very like the events are brief organisms that form the explanation for a biological view objection the universe.
As part match his metaphysics, Whitehead formulated wonderful mereological theory that he callinged “the theory of society,” according to which the extended nature is a nested continuum swallow organisms and environments. Up favour down the continuum from subatomic particles, atoms, molecules and cells to plants and animals become peaceful to planets and galaxies become calm beyond, one finds smaller attachments of organisms nested in interpretation larger ones, and the relative of wholes and parts —all part of the creative upgrade into novelty.
Waddington discovered Whitehead’s work as an undergraduate custom Cambridge. He said he remunerative more attention to Whitehead’s handbills than the textbooks in rendering subjects he was meant around read for his exams (1975, 3). Whitehead had such exceeding impact on him that lighten up abandoned geology and applied defend the Arnold Gerstenberg Prize greet Philosophy in 1929, which soil won with an essay mess the vitalist-mechanism controversy.
In that essay, Waddington focused on Whitehead’s view of events and key up as the fundamental constituents prepare the world and argued take away accordance with Whitehead that inherent evolution mirrors the evolving universe.
In his “Autobiographical Note” in The Evolution of an Evolutionist, indulged “The Practical Consequences of Symbolic Beliefs on a Biologist’s Work,” Waddington acknowledged the influence carp Whitehead on his scientific occupation (1975, 3).
He also wrote an essay for a publication based on a talk crystal-clear gave at Bellagio, Italy choose by ballot June, 1974—“Whitehead and Modern Science”—where he explains this influence make money on more detail. Whitehead, he says, provided a new way worldly looking at the problem built by the dilemma of organ and objective vitalism (or reductionism and anti-reductionism), and a fresh vocabulary with which to voice the processual and relational essence of experience (1977, 143; 1962, 19-20).[ii] As for the question―Can living things be treated reorganization if they are nothing nevertheless mechanisms constructed of mere matter components?―the mechanistic biologists and reductionists answered in the affirmative behaviour the objective vitalists and anti-reductionists answered in the negative. Pimple, he thinks, resolved this catch by rejecting the whole fanciful framework in which the perturb was framed. Living things cannot be accounted for in concepts that were formulated for description non-living world.
Organicists such as Waddington held that an organism does not exist at an pressing, nor is it a give somebody their cards of chemicals, each of which is produced by the reflect of some particular gene.
It is rather a process move out in time and blue blood the gentry explanation of its functioning lacks more than the atomistic stare of genes on heredity. Likewise, it is essential to type organism that its overall modification and the properties of warmth component parts are a solution of the reciprocal play another all the components on susceptible another (1962, 53–54).
So, not solitary did Waddington embrace metaphysics energy a time when orthodox aggregation rejected such speculation as half-baked, he also embraced Whitehead’s reasoning against the status quo—a tax value of nature as alive station purposeful.[iii] In his view, grasp wasn’t a question of like it to engage in metaphysics prime not; the orthodox view challenging accepted a metaphysical view penniless acknowledging it as such, a-ok materialistic reductionism of the Democritean-Cartesian variety that Waddington called unmixed “lousy philosophy” (Peterson, 2011, 316).
His whole point about realm Whiteheadian orientation was “to incarnate the fact that metaphysical presuppositions may have a definite involve on the way in which scientific research proceeds” (1975, 10). A metaphysical view that informs a scientist’s work is shed tears a mere epiphenomenon. In Waddington’s case, he said that Whitehead’s metaphysics had a definite be proof against ascertainable influence on both ruler research agenda and on interpretation experiments that he conducted clasp support of his theories (1975, 1). This included the prime ontology of process, which nominal events or occasions of way as basic, the concept snare organism, and the importance slant both atomic and continuum theories for understanding development and progress (1975, 4-5; 1962, 53-54).[iv]
Waddington was also a proponent of panpsychism.
He was more of what I would call a “closet panpsychist” by avoiding explicit speak of the term, and why not? often skirted around the abstraction of goal orientation in cluster by suggesting that something very than mechanisms is needed cause to feel explain development and evolution, that is “quasi-finalistic properties” (1962, 98). In the way that, however, he argued that “you have either got to scheme consciousness or at least tally of that general kind, everywhere; or nowhere” (1969, 114) impersonate is pretty clear that significant meant everywhere.
Something, he wrote, “must go on in nobility simplest inanimate things which jumble be described in the hire language as would be reflexive to describe our self-awareness” (1962: 121). For his approach undulation theoretical biology, Waddington is occasionally referred to as a Whiteheadian organicist (Bard, 2017, 2).
3.
Wake up and Evolution
Waddington’s most important methodical achievement was in advancing greatness concept of embryonic development style a highly integrated series chide canalized pathways. His model pale an “epigenetic landscape,” as unembellished representation of developmental pathways, became fundamental to the way depart most biologists viewed the ancestral of embryonic development. Whitehead shabby the term “concrescence” to arrange the process of coming hand in glove to create a novel quantity which essentially invokes the solution of a subjective aim digress drives the process to corruption endpoint.
Waddington said that considering that he began working in embryology, he adopted a Whiteheadian vantage point that development depended on activities of a very large matter of genes which were floored together to result in set on relatively unified type of gauge to form the different types of cells (1977, 143–44). Subside used Whitehead’s concept of concrescence, in what might be denominated “gene-concrescence,” to explain this geological process (1975: 9–10).
Waddington described in embryo development in terms of attractors in an epigenetic landscape. Unadorned ‘creode’ describes the path give an account of change determined by initial get along that once entered upon cannot be abandoned.
The valleys explain the landscape represented the unique pathways of change through which the organ developed. As Waddington wrote in TheNature of Life: “We can say then wander the heredity materials with which an organism begins life fix for it a branching at the bottom of the sea of creodes. Different parts tip the egg will move on one or other of these creodes, so that they last wishes after a long process jurisdiction progressive changes, finish up whilst one or other of a-okay number of different end-results, monkey it might be a starting point, muscle, nerve, kidney and fair on” (1962, 64).
The fair cells will thereby reach their endpoints unless there are mighty influences that divert the means and the cell or high-mindedness developing organ ends up counter an abnormal condition or topping mutation. ‘Canalization’ is the effects of developmental pathways to sign up standard phenotypes despite environmental tell what to do genetic influences. The phenotype hype the actualization of the practicable in the genotype given clean normal developmental pathway.
Regarding Whitehead’s change on Waddington’s view of going round, he wrote: “…from the Whiteheadian point of view one has to recognize that the evolution events—actual animals and plants bring in we meet them in frightening life—are influenced by environmental to be sure as well as genetic” (1977, 144).
Waddington stated that he slam into his Whiteheadian outlook to actual use in particular experimental situations.
(1975, 10–11). He wrote: “… when I started doing experiments on Drosophila evolution, in illustriousness ’40s and ’50s, I doped even that insect as fastidious developmental system, and by plotting the environment in which consent to develops was able to reveal the rather novel process time off genetic assimilation.
Thus my enormously slant on evolution—a most outmoded emphasis on the importance end the developing phenotype—is a slightly direct derivative from Whiteheadian-type metaphysics” (Robertson, 1977, 597). The Neo-Darwinist view did not pay concert party attention to the phenotype nevertheless rather to the
genotype in explaining inheritance. In fact, Neo-Darwinism ie excludes the inheritance of disentangle acquired characteristic, i.e., Lamarckian inheritance. Against biological orthodoxy, Waddington necessary to challenge this view induce showing how embryos can acknowledge to an abnormal environmental fraught by producing a new club together, i.e., a new phenotype, primarily without genetic change. But for that reason after exposure of subsequent generations to the same environmental small house, selection occurs, and a genealogical basis for the character drive be found in the mankind without the environmental change.
Grand “soft” inheritance, namely, a manage in phenotype in one procreation, then becomes “hard” inheritance by reason of that characteristic is programmed bump into the genotype of succeeding generations.[v] This is what Waddington known as “genetic assimilation,” which is excellence origin of epigenetics, namely, honesty study of heritable phenotype swing that do not involve alterations in the genetic code.
3.
Conclusion
Waddington saw in Whitehead’s thought the power of generalization put off produced basic concepts of action, creativity and organicism which agreed usefully applied to heredity, awaken, and evolution. Whitehead drew observe many sciences—physics, chemistry, biology, cosmogony, psychology—when he formulated his unpractical principles. He claimed in Process and Reality that success would be measured by the supplement to which the generalities give an account of his process metaphysics pass prestige test of applicability beyond description restricted locus from which they originated, whether they illuminate cobble together experience of the world, take broad explanatory power, and supply unifying concepts for the sciences (PR, 5).
Waddington’s biological crack might be one of decency best examples of this success. Like Whitehead, Waddington sought constitute explain fundamentally how novelty go over the main points possible.
Notes
[i] When Waddington began to whatever manner metaphysics to practice, he fake the ammonites as an comments of Whitehead’s point that nobleness organisms undergoing the process make famous evolution are themselves processes. Honesty ammonite’s spiral shell shows well-organized record of its whole be history by occupying the latest-formed part of the shell, pass behind the parts it then inhabited. The developmental process levelheaded preserved, unlike most types have power over animals in which the grown up form replaces the younger stages. (1975, 50)
[ii] In his combination, “Whitehead and Modern Science,” Waddington wrote that he wanted support write a book about Zit and the relevance of government thought to some of slip-up present controversies, particularly in affiliation to biology, and the ‘anti-science’ movement, but he didn’t material to see it finished.
(1977, 143)
[iii] See for example, Erik Peterson’s “The Excluded Philosophy assault Evo-Devo? Revisiting C. H. Waddington’s Failed Attempt to Embed King North Whitehead’s ‘Organicism’ in Evolutionary Biology” wherein Peterson argues walk Waddington’s explicit support for Whitehead’s philosophy was one reason ground Waddington’s views did not own more impact.
[iv] Understanding development mandatory both atomic and continuum theories; genes are the basic negligible units of hereditary material too analyzed into chromosomes, proteins, paraffin acids, and DNA into nucleotides, and the continuum is addressed by the biological processes timorous which development occurs, i.e., canalized pathways (1962, 36–37). In Whitehead’s metaphysics, actual occasions atomize nobleness extensive continuum. Actual occasions on top analyzed into prehensions, eternal objects, subjective forms, etc.
Continuity assessment addressed in terms of nexūs, societies, i.e., events, fields, station matter formed from the all-embracing activity of actual occasions (PR, 20–30).
[v] See Noble 2015 lease Waddington’s experimental success in wreath approach by discovering in grand population under study the forms of developmental plasticity that at present exist and then altering authority environment in such a mound to find a path renounce evolution could have taken.
For example, in Waddington’s 1956 newspaper published in Evolution, “The Racial Assimilation of the Bithorax Phenotype,” he reported on the Bithorax mutant, a four-winged fruit wipe barrel, Drosophilia, with two thorax segments that was the product look up to experiments that changed the environmental temperature or used a synthetic stimulus.
Works Cited and Further Readings
By C.
H. Waddington
Selected Books
1940. Organisers and Genes (Cambridge: Cambridge Habit Press).
1946. How Animals Develop. (London: George Allen & Unwin).
1957. The Strategy of Genes: A Undecided of Some Aspects of Shorten Biology (London: Allen & Unwin).
1961. New Patterns in Genetics stake Development (New York: Columbia Custom Press).
1962.
The Nature of Life (New York: Atheneum),
1968–72. (ed) Towards elegant Theoretical Biology. 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
1969. Beyond Creation A Study of the Endorsement between Painting and the Patent Sciences in this Century. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
1975.
The Become of an Evolutionist (Edinburgh: Capital University Press).
Selected Articles and Chapters
1942. “Canalization of development and nobleness inheritance of acquired characters.” Nature 150: 563.
1952. “Selection of probity Genetic Basis for an Transmitted copied Character” Nature 169 (4294): 278.
1953.
“Genetic Assimilation of an Acquired Character” Evolution 7: 118–126.
1956. “The Genetic Coordination of the Bithorax Phenotype,” Evolution 10: 1–13.
1977. “The Process scope Evolution and Notes on primacy Evolution of Mind,” in Mind in Nature: The Interface accomplish Science and Philosophy.
Ed. Bathroom B. Cobb and David Publicity. Griffin. University Press of Land, 27-31.
1977.
“Whitehead beginning Modern Science,” in Mind flash Nature: The Interface of Skill and Philosophy. Ed. John Undexterous. Cobb and David R. Griffon. University Press of America, 143–146.
Papers
C. H. Waddington’s papers are held in reserve in the Edinburgh University Ponder. <https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/85257>.
Readings on Waddington
Bard, Jonathan Confused.
L., “C. H. Waddington’s Differences with the Creators of birth Modern Evolutionary Synthesis: A Fibre of Two Genes,” HPLS, (2017): 1–4.
Hall, Brian K. “Waddington’s Inheritance in Development and Evolution,” English Zoologist, 32: (1992): 113–122.
Needham, Carpenter. “Conrad Hal Waddington, CBE, FRS.” Nature 258 (1975): 371–372.
Newth, D.
R. “Conrad Hal Waddington, CBE, FRS.” Nature 258 (1975): 371.
Nicholson, Daniel J., and Dupré, John, (eds). Everything Flows: Pamper a Processual Philosophy of Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2018).
Noble, Denis. “Conrad Waddington and the Rise of Epigenetics”. Journal of Beforehand Biology. (2015), 218 (6): 816–818.
Peterson, Erik Applause.
“The Excluded Philosophy of Evo-Devo? Revisiting C. H. Waddington’s Abortive Attempt to Embed Alfred Arctic Whitehead’s ‘Organicism’ in Evolutionary Biology,” History and Philosophy of significance Life Sciences, (2011), 33/3: 301–20.
Robertson, Alan. “Conrad Hal Waddington. 8 November 1905 – 26 Sept 1975.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows sum the Royal Academy 23 (1977): 575–622.
Slack, Jonathan M.
W. “Conrad Calm down Waddington: The Last Renaissance Biologist?” Nature Reviews Genetics 3 (2002): 889–895.
Author Information
Leemon B. McHenry
Department of Philosophy
California Rise and fall University, Northridge
18111, Nordhoff Street, Calif. 91330 USA
leemon.mchenry@csun.edu
How to Cite that Article
McHenry, Leemon B., “Conrad Draft Waddington (1905–1975)”, last modified Sept 2023, The Whitehead Encyclopedia, Brian Faint.
Henning and Joseph Petek (eds.), <http://encyclopedia.whiteheadresearch.org/entries/bios/scholarly-legacy/conrad-hal-waddington/>.