William Bateson

Person · Open Library

Born

1861

Died

1926

Works

17

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type

Person

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

1. VMD: Visual molecular dynamics

   · 1996 · cited 61,500x

2. Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure

   · 1976 · cited 43,866x

3. Comparison of simple potential functions for simulating liquid water

   · 1983 · cited 38,975x

4. QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data

   · 2010 · cited 30,722x

5. Preparation of Graphitic Oxide

   · 1958 · cited 28,525x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

• “Misconception was especially brought in by describing descent in terms of "blood". The common speech uses expressions such as consanguinity, pure-blooded, half-blood, and the like, which call up a misleading picture to the mind. Blood is in some respects a fluid, and thus it is supposed that this fluid can be both quantitatively and qualitatively diluted with other bloods, just as treacle can be diluted with water.”
• “Truer notions of genetic physiology are given by the Hebrew expression "seed". If we speak of a man as "of the blood-royal" we think at once of plebeian dilution, and we wonder how much of the royal fluid is likely to be "in his veins"; but if we say he is "of the seed of Abraham" we feel something of the permanence and indestructibility of that germ which can be divided and scattered among all nations, but remains recognisable in type and characteristics after 4000 years.”
• “The concept of evolution as proceeding through the gradual transformation of masses of individuals by the accumulation of impalpable changes is one that the study of genetics shows immediately to be false. Once for all, that burden so gratuitously undertaken in ignorance of generic physiology by the evolutionists of the last century may be cast into oblivion. For the facts of heredity and variation unite to prove that genetic variation is a phenomenon of individuals.”
• “That the variations are controlled by physiological law, we have now experimental proof; but that this control is guided ever so little in response to the needs of adaptation there is not the smallest sign.”
• “In the light of the new knowledge various plausible, but frequently unsatisfying, suggestions put forward, especially by Wallace, Weismann, and their followers, as probable accounts of evolutionary progress, must be finally abandoned.”
• “Few who are familiar with the facts that genetic research has revealed are now inclined to speculate as to the manner by which the process [species come into existence] has been accomplished. Our knowledge of the nature and properties of living things is far too meagre to justify any such attempts. Suggestions of course can be made: though, however, these ideas may have a stimulating value in the lecture room, they look weak and thin when set out in print.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born

8 August 1861, Whitby , Yorkshire, England

Died

8 February 1926 (1926-02-08) (aged 64), Merton , London, England

Alma mater

St. John's College, Cambridge

Known for

Heredity and biological inheritance

Spouse

Beatrice Durham

Children

Gregory Bateson and two older sons

Parents

William Henry Bateson (father) Anna Bateson (mother)

Relatives

Margaret Heitland (sister) Anna Bateson (botanist) (sister) Mary Bateson (sister) Florence Margaret Durham (sister-in-law)

Awards

Royal Medal (1920)

Fields

Genetics

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image

Bateson2.jpg

via Wikidata · CC0