Lancelot Hogben
Encyclopedia
Lancelot Thomas Hogben FRS (9 December 1895 – 22 August 1975) was a versatile British
experimental zoologist and medical statistician
. He is best known for developing Xenopus laevis
as a model organism for biological research in his early career, attacking the eugenics movement in the middle of his career, and popularising books on science, mathematics and language in his later career.
and brought up in Southsea
, Hampshire
. His parents were Plymouth Brethren
; he broke young from the family religion. He attended Tottenham County School in London, where his family had moved, and then as a medical student studied physiology
at Trinity College, Cambridge
. He took his degree in 1915. He had acquired socialist convictions, changing the name of the university's Fabian Society
to Socialist Society and went to become an active member of the Independent Labour Party
. Later in life he preferred to describe himself as 'a scientific humanist'.
he was a pacifist and was imprisoned as a conscientious objector
in 1916 at Wormwood Scrubs
; this was after six months working with the Red Cross in France, and his deliberate return to Cambridge. His health collapsed after maltreatment and he was released in 1917. Hogben married the mathematician, statistician, and feminist Enid Charles
in 1918.
and its Animal Breeding Research Department. He then went to McGill University
, and in 1927 to a zoology chair at the University of Cape Town
. He worked on endocrinology
and used the Xenopus frog
. While using Xenopus to investigate the endocrine system, it was fortuitously discovered that female Xenopus frogs, when injected with urine from a pregnant woman, ovulated within hours. Thus, the Hogben Pregnancy Test was created and remained the major, international pregnancy test
for decades. He found the job in South Africa
attractive, but his antipathy to the country's racial policies drove him to leave.
In 1930 Hogben moved to the London School of Economics
, in a chair for social biology
. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1936. The citation read
The social biology position at the London School of Economics
was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation
, and when it withdrew funding Hogben moved to Aberdeen
, becoming Regius Professor
of Natural History
at the University of Aberdeen
in 1937.
, Hogben unleashed a relentless attack on the British eugenics movement, which was at its apex in the 1920s and 1930s. In contrast to eugenicists, who commonly drew a strict line between heredity (or nature) and environment (or nurture), Hogben highlighted the 'interdependence of nature and nurture'. Hogben's appeal to this interdependence of nature and nurture marked the first time gene-environment interaction
(or 'gene-environment interplay') was utilized to undermine statistical attempts to partition the contributions of nature and nurture, as well as the eugenic implications drawn from those statistics. Hogben's foil throughout this period was R.A. Fisher, the leading scientist-eugenicist of the day (Tabery 2008).
and its organ the British Journal of Experimental Biology (renamed Journal of Experimental Biology in 1930), along with Julian Huxley
and geneticist Francis Albert Eley Crew (1886–1973). According to Gary Werskey, Hogben was the only one of the founders not holding any eugenic
ideas.
Recent research has "revealed that contrary to Hogben's published recollection of the early years of the SEB, which was published in 1966 and has been circulating in the literature since, J.B.S. Haldane (1892–1964) was not one of the 'Founding Fathers of the SEB'" (Erlingsson 2006).
, he created an international language, Interglossa
, as ‘a draft of an auxiliary for a democratic world order’.
George Orwell
in his essay Politics and the English Language
used a sentence of Hogben's as an example of how not to write, particularly in relation with the use of metaphors.
Hogben had responsibility for the British Army
's medical statistics. He was Mason Professor of Zoology at the University of Birmingham
1941–1947 and professor of medical statistics there 1947–1961, when he retired. In 1963, he became the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana
, a post he abandoned in April 1964, resigning in 1965.
, which Hogben first developed as a model organism, is now one of the most widely-used model organisms in biological research. Likewise, his emphasis on the interdependence of nature and nurture has had and continues to have an impact on scientific practice and scientific debate. In terms of scientific practice, modern research on phenotypic plasticity
, gene-environment interaction
, and developmental systems theory
all owes much to the legacy of Hogben's initial emphasis on understanding nature and nurture interdependently rather than in dichotomy. In terms of scientific debate, the dispute between Hogben and R.A. Fisher over gene-environment interaction
was the first of many subsequent disputes over the extent to which the primacy of the gene
can be understood independently of its developmental relationship with the environment (Tabery 2007). The nature-nurture debate, the IQ controversy
, the heritability wars, concerns over the geneticization of complex human traits, and arguments over the promises and perils of the human genome project
all incorporate some element of disagreement over the primacy of the gene. Hogben's attack on that primacy by appeal to the interdependence of nature and nurture has been echoed in each successive dispute.
. Archive highlights include a draft of his autobiography (later edited and published by his son Adrian Hogben and his wife), correspondence, hand drawn diagrams for his books, and reflections on his life and works. (For a review of the Hogben Archive, see Tabery 2006).
For a tribute to Mathematics for the Million from Fields Medal
list David Mumford
Some of the correspondence between Hogben and R. A. Fisher
is available online
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
experimental zoologist and medical statistician
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
. He is best known for developing Xenopus laevis
African clawed frog
The African clawed frog is a species of South African aquatic frog of the genus Xenopus. Its name is derived from the three short claws on each hind foot, which it uses to tear apart its food...
as a model organism for biological research in his early career, attacking the eugenics movement in the middle of his career, and popularising books on science, mathematics and language in his later career.
Early life
Hogben was born in PortsmouthPortsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
and brought up in Southsea
Southsea
Southsea is a seaside resort located in Portsmouth at the southern end of Portsea Island in the county of Hampshire in England. Southsea is within a mile of Portsmouth's city centre....
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
. His parents were Plymouth Brethren
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. Although the group is notable for not taking any official "church name" to itself, and not having an official clergy or liturgy, the title "The Brethren," is...
; he broke young from the family religion. He attended Tottenham County School in London, where his family had moved, and then as a medical student studied physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. He took his degree in 1915. He had acquired socialist convictions, changing the name of the university's Fabian Society
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
to Socialist Society and went to become an active member of the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
. Later in life he preferred to describe himself as 'a scientific humanist'.
World War I
During World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he was a pacifist and was imprisoned as a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
in 1916 at Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs, is an open space located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the Borough, at 80 ha , and one of the largest areas of common land in London...
; this was after six months working with the Red Cross in France, and his deliberate return to Cambridge. His health collapsed after maltreatment and he was released in 1917. Hogben married the mathematician, statistician, and feminist Enid Charles
Enid Charles
Enid Charles, Ph.D. was a socialist, feminist and statistician who was a pioneer in the fields of demography and population statistics....
in 1918.
Academic
After a year's convalescence he took lecturing positions in London universities, moving in 1922 to the University of EdinburghUniversity of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
and its Animal Breeding Research Department. He then went to McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
, and in 1927 to a zoology chair at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
. He worked on endocrinology
Endocrinology
Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...
and used the Xenopus frog
African clawed frog
The African clawed frog is a species of South African aquatic frog of the genus Xenopus. Its name is derived from the three short claws on each hind foot, which it uses to tear apart its food...
. While using Xenopus to investigate the endocrine system, it was fortuitously discovered that female Xenopus frogs, when injected with urine from a pregnant woman, ovulated within hours. Thus, the Hogben Pregnancy Test was created and remained the major, international pregnancy test
Pregnancy test
A pregnancy test attempts to determine whether or not a woman is pregnant.These markers are found in urine and blood, and pregnancy tests require sampling one of these substances. The first of these markers to be discovered, human chorionic gonadotropin , was discovered in 1930 to be produced by...
for decades. He found the job in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
attractive, but his antipathy to the country's racial policies drove him to leave.
In 1930 Hogben moved to the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, in a chair for social biology
Sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...
. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1936. The citation read
Distinguished for his work in Experimental Zoology, especially in respect of the mechanism of colour change in AmphibiaAmphibianAmphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
and ReptiliaReptileReptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
. He has published a series of important papers on the effect of hormoneHormoneA hormone is a chemical released by a cell or a gland in one part of the body that sends out messages that affect cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. In essence, it is a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one...
s on the pigmentary effector system and on the reproductive cycleBiological life cycleA life cycle is a period involving all different generations of a species succeeding each other through means of reproduction, whether through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction...
of vertebrateVertebrateVertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
s, and has worked on many branches of comparative physiologyComparative physiologyComparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many universities offer undergraduate courses that cover...
. More recently he has made substantial contributions to geneticsGeneticsGenetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
, especially with regard to man.
The social biology position at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, and when it withdrew funding Hogben moved to Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
, becoming Regius Professor
Regius Professor
Regius Professorships are "royal" professorships at the ancient universities of the United Kingdom and Ireland - namely Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dublin. Each of the chairs was created by a monarch, and each appointment, save those at Dublin, is approved by the...
of Natural History
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
at the University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
in 1937.
Attack on eugenics
While Chair for Social Biology at the LSELSE
LSE may refer to:* London School of Economics and Political Science, a specialist school of the University of London* London Stock Exchange or its owner group London Stock Exchange Group...
, Hogben unleashed a relentless attack on the British eugenics movement, which was at its apex in the 1920s and 1930s. In contrast to eugenicists, who commonly drew a strict line between heredity (or nature) and environment (or nurture), Hogben highlighted the 'interdependence of nature and nurture'. Hogben's appeal to this interdependence of nature and nurture marked the first time gene-environment interaction
Gene-environment interaction
Gene–environment interaction is the phenotypic effect of interactions between genes and the environment....
(or 'gene-environment interplay') was utilized to undermine statistical attempts to partition the contributions of nature and nurture, as well as the eugenic implications drawn from those statistics. Hogben's foil throughout this period was R.A. Fisher, the leading scientist-eugenicist of the day (Tabery 2008).
Society for Experimental Biology
In 1923, Hogben was a founder of the Society for Experimental BiologySociety for Experimental Biology
The Society for Experimental Biology is a learned society which was established in 1923 at Birkbeck College in London to “promote the art and science of experimental biology in all its branches”. The Society has an international membership of approximately 2000 biological researchers, teachers and...
and its organ the British Journal of Experimental Biology (renamed Journal of Experimental Biology in 1930), along with Julian Huxley
Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
and geneticist Francis Albert Eley Crew (1886–1973). According to Gary Werskey, Hogben was the only one of the founders not holding any eugenic
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
ideas.
Recent research has "revealed that contrary to Hogben's published recollection of the early years of the SEB, which was published in 1966 and has been circulating in the literature since, J.B.S. Haldane (1892–1964) was not one of the 'Founding Fathers of the SEB'" (Erlingsson 2006).
Writer
Hogben produced two best-selling works of popular science, Mathematics for the Million (1936) and Science for the Citizen (1938). These were big ambitious books. While at Aberdeen, Hogben developed an interest in language. Besides editing The Loom of Language by his friend Frederick BodmerFrederick Bodmer
Frederick Bodmer was a Swiss philologist and author of the popular book The Loom of Language....
, he created an international language, Interglossa
Interglossa
The auxiliary language Interglossa was devised by the scientist Lancelot Hogben during World War II. It appears to be a straightforward attempt to put the international lexicon of science and technology, mainly of Greek and Latin origin, into a language with a purely isolating grammar. Interglossa...
, as ‘a draft of an auxiliary for a democratic world order’.
George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
in his essay Politics and the English Language
Politics and the English Language
"Politics and the English Language" is an essay by George Orwell criticizing "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English.Orwell said that political prose was formed "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Orwell believed...
used a sentence of Hogben's as an example of how not to write, particularly in relation with the use of metaphors.
Later life
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Hogben had responsibility for the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
's medical statistics. He was Mason Professor of Zoology at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
1941–1947 and professor of medical statistics there 1947–1961, when he retired. In 1963, he became the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana
University of Guyana
The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana is a public university established in 1963 by the Guyanese government.-History:Cheddi Jagan, then Premier of British Guiana considered that the University of the West Indies, to which his government had contributed since 1948, was not meeting the...
, a post he abandoned in April 1964, resigning in 1965.
Hogben's legacy
Hogben's research has left a lasting impression on the history of biology. Xenopus laevisAfrican clawed frog
The African clawed frog is a species of South African aquatic frog of the genus Xenopus. Its name is derived from the three short claws on each hind foot, which it uses to tear apart its food...
, which Hogben first developed as a model organism, is now one of the most widely-used model organisms in biological research. Likewise, his emphasis on the interdependence of nature and nurture has had and continues to have an impact on scientific practice and scientific debate. In terms of scientific practice, modern research on phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
, gene-environment interaction
Gene-environment interaction
Gene–environment interaction is the phenotypic effect of interactions between genes and the environment....
, and developmental systems theory
Developmental systems theory
In developmental psychology, developmental systems theory is an overarching theoretical perspective on biological development, heredity, and evolution . It emphasizes the equal contributions of genes, environment, and epigenetic factors on developmental processes...
all owes much to the legacy of Hogben's initial emphasis on understanding nature and nurture interdependently rather than in dichotomy. In terms of scientific debate, the dispute between Hogben and R.A. Fisher over gene-environment interaction
Gene-environment interaction
Gene–environment interaction is the phenotypic effect of interactions between genes and the environment....
was the first of many subsequent disputes over the extent to which the primacy of the gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
can be understood independently of its developmental relationship with the environment (Tabery 2007). The nature-nurture debate, the IQ controversy
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...
, the heritability wars, concerns over the geneticization of complex human traits, and arguments over the promises and perils of the human genome project
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
all incorporate some element of disagreement over the primacy of the gene. Hogben's attack on that primacy by appeal to the interdependence of nature and nurture has been echoed in each successive dispute.
The Hogben Archive
The Lancelot Thomas Hogben papers are held in Special Collections, University of BirminghamUniversity of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
. Archive highlights include a draft of his autobiography (later edited and published by his son Adrian Hogben and his wife), correspondence, hand drawn diagrams for his books, and reflections on his life and works. (For a review of the Hogben Archive, see Tabery 2006).
Works
- Exiles of the Snow, and Other Poems (1918)
- An Introduction to Recent Advances in Comparative Physiology (1924) with Frank R. Winton
- The Pigmentary Effector System. A review of the physiology of colour response (1924)
- Comparative Physiology (1926)
- Comparative Physiology of Internal Secretion (1927)
- The Nature of Living Matter (1930)
- Genetic Principles in Medical and Social Science (1931)
- Mathematics for the Million (1936)
- The Retreat from Reason (1936) Conway Memorial Lecture 20 May 1936
- Science for the Citizen: A Self-Educator Based on the Social Background of Scientific Discovery (1938)
- Political Arithmetic: A Symposium of Population Studies (1938) editor
- Dangerous Thoughts (1939)
- Author in Transit (1940)
- Principles of Animal Biology (1940)
- Interglossa: A Draft of an Auxiliary for a Democratic world order, Being an Attempt to Apply Semantic Principles to Language Design (1943)
- The Loom of Language by Frederick BodmerFrederick BodmerFrederick Bodmer was a Swiss philologist and author of the popular book The Loom of Language....
(1944) editor - An Introduction to Mathematical Genetics (1946)
- History of the Homeland The Story of the British Background: by Henry Hamilton (1947) editor, No. 4 of Primers for the Age of Plenty
- The New Authoritarianism (1949) Conway Memorial Lecture 1949
- From Cave Painting To Comic Strip: A Kaleidoscope of Human Communication (1949)
- Chance and Choice by Cardpack and Chessboard (1950)
- Man Must Measure: The Wonderful World of Mathematics (1955)
- Statistical theory. The relationship of probability, credibility and error. An examination of the contemporary crisis in statistical theory from a behaviorist viewpoint (1957)
- The Wonderful World Of Energy (1957)
- The Signs of Civilisation (1959)
- The Wonderful World Of Communication (1959)
- Mathematics In The Making (1960)
- Essential World English (1963) with Jane Hogben and Maureen Cartwright
- Science in Authority: Essays (1963)
- The Mother Tongue (1965)
- Wales for the Welsh — A Tale of War and Peace with Notes for those who Teach or Preach (1967)
- Beginnings and Blunders or Before Science Began (1970)
- The Vocabulary Of Science (1970) with Maureen Cartwright
- Astronomer Priest and Ancient Mariner (1972)
- Maps, Mirrors and Mechanics (1973)
- Columbus, the Cannon Ball and the Common Pump (1974)
- How The World Was Explored, editor, with Marie Neurath and J. A. Lauwerys
Further reading
- Erlingsson, Steindór J., "The Early History of the SEB and the BJEB." Society For Experimental Biology Bulletin, March, pp. 10–11, 2006. The article can be accessed here
- Tabery, James, "Looking Back on Lancelot's Laughter", The Mendel Newsletter 15: 10-17, 2006.
External links
- Lancelot Hogben biography at the Galton Institute
- Scientific Humanism in Time Magazine (11 March 1940)
- http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=162693§ioncode=6Max PerutzMax PerutzMax Ferdinand Perutz, OM, CH, CBE, FRS was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins...
on Lancelot Hogben and his autobiography in Times Higher Education (July 31, 1998)] - Details of research on Xenopus
- Royal Society certificate of election
- Royal Society photograph
- First part of Interglossa (there is a photograph of the author on p. 2.)
- Brief excerpts from Interglossa
- Full text and diagrams from Interglossa
For a tribute to Mathematics for the Million from Fields Medal
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
list David Mumford
David Mumford
David Bryant Mumford is an American mathematician known for distinguished work in algebraic geometry, and then for research into vision and pattern theory. He won the Fields Medal and was a MacArthur Fellow. In 2010 he was awarded the National Medal of Science...
Some of the correspondence between Hogben and R. A. Fisher
Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS was an English statistician, evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and geneticist. Among other things, Fisher is well known for his contributions to statistics by creating Fisher's exact test and Fisher's equation...
is available online