Lamarck, Waddington and maternal effects

On the centenary of Conrad Hal Waddington's birth, the spotlight has once again come on his attempts in the 1950s to demonstrate inheritance of acquired characters, which he perceived to have given rise to certain callouses in ostrich embryos that could otherwise be caused by aspects of the ostrich's lifestyle. Waddington once remarked that the harshness with which most biologists reject Lamarck's ideas seemed unjustified given his contributions to biology.

Today, I suppose we would talk about the inheritance of acquired characters as maternal effects...

Date of original post on braintickle.blogspot.com: 9/19/2005

Famous evolutionary biologists

Ernst Mayr, deceased 3 February 2005
John Maynard Smith, deceased 19 April 2004
Douglas Falconer, deceased 23 February 2004
Stephen Jay Gould, deceased 20 May 2002
Bill Hamilton, deceased 7 March 2000

Even though I arrived in Oxford before Hamilton died, and in Edinburgh before Falconer did, I never met either of them. I did hear Stephen Jay Gould on a guest lecture in Oxford, although I'd have to admit to not being a particular fan. (Although, coming from Oxford, that is very conformist!)

Date of original post on braintickle.blogspot.com: 5/01/2005