Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (2 May 1860, Edinburgh – 21 June 1948, St. Andrews, Scotland) was a biologist, mathematician, and classics scholar. A pioneering mathematical biologist,[1] he is mainly remembered as the author of the 1917 book, On Growth and Form, an influential work of striking originality and elegance. Peter Medawar, the 1960 Nobel Laureate in Medicine, called it "the finest work of literature in all the annals of science that have been recorded in the English tongue".[2]
Contents |
Life
In 1878, he matriculated at University of Edinburgh to study medicine. Two years later, he shifted his studies to Cambridge University, obtaining the BA in Natural Science in 1883. In 1884, he was appointed Professor of Biology at University College, Dundee, a post he held for a record 64 years. In 1917, he was appointed to the Chair of Natural History at St Andrews University. In 1896, he carried out an expedition to the Bering Straits. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1916, he was knighted in 1937 and awarded the Darwin Medal in 1946.
On Growth and Form
 |
It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss) |
The central theme of On Growth and Form is that biologists of its author's day overemphasized evolution as the fundamental determinant of the form and structure of living organisms, and underemphasized the roles of physical laws and mechanics. He advocated structuralism as an alternative to survival of the fittest in governing the form of species.
On the concept of allometry, Thompson wrote:
"An organism is so complex a thing, and growth so complex a phenomenon, that for growth to be so uniform and constant in all the parts as to keep the whole shape unchanged would indeed be an unlikely and an unusual circumstance. Rates vary, proportions change, and the whole configuration alters accordingly."
Thompson pointed out example after example of correlations between biological forms and mechanical phenomena. He showed the similarity in the forms of jellyfish and the forms of drops of liquid falling into viscous fluid, and between the internal supporting structures in the hollow bones of birds and well-known engineering truss designs. His observations of phyllotaxis (numerical relationships between spiral structures in plants) and the Fibonacci sequence has become a textbook staple.
Perhaps the most famous part of the work is chapter XVII, "The Comparison of Related Forms," where Thompson explored the degree to which differences in the forms of related animals could be described by means of relatively simple mathematical transformations.
Utterly sui generis, the book never quite fit into the mainstream of biological thought. It does not really include a single unifying thesis, nor, in many cases, does it attempt to establish a causal relationship between the forms emerging from physics with the comparable forms seen in biology. It is a work in the "descriptive" tradition; Thompson did not articulate his insights in the form of experimental hypotheses that can be tested. Thompson was aware of this, saying that "This book of mine has little need of preface, for indeed it is 'all preface' from beginning to end."
This huge (the current Dover edition is 1116pp long), well-written, and extensively illustrated tome has enchanted and stimulated several generations of biologists, architects, artists, mathematicians, and, of course, those working on the boundaries of disciplines. There is a shorter (328pp) edition which preserves most of the material that is of interest to the modern reader.
Notes
- ^ University of Dundee : External Relations : Press Office
- ^ Bretscher, Otto. Linear algebra with applications. 3rd edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. Page 66.
See also
References
- Thompson, D W., 1992. On Growth and Form. Dover reprint of 1942 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1917). ISBN 0-486-67135-6
- --------, 1992. On Growth and Form. Cambridge Univ. Press. Abridged edition by John Tyler Bonner. ISBN 0521437768, ISBN 9780521437769.
345 pages
- Sermonti, Giuseppe, "Wagner and Darwin, Hanslick and D'Arcy: from the whirlpools of becoming to the mathematical beauty.", Riv. Biol. 97 (3): 357–64, PMID 15754590
External links
Other works by Thompson
- 1885. A bibliography of Protozoa, sponges, Coelenterata, and worms, including also the Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, and Tunicata, for the years 1861-1883. Cambridge Univ. Press.
- 1895. Glossary of Greek birds. Oxford Univ. Press.
- 1897. "Report by Professor D'Arcy Thompson on his mission to the Behring Sea in 1896." Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- 1913. On Aristotle as a biologist with a prooemion on Herbert Spencer. Oxford Univ. Press. Being the Herbert Spencer lecture delivered before the University of Oxford, February 14, 1913.
Sources
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
