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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2008; all rights reserved.
Commentary: Haldane and beanbag genetics
Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA. E-mail: jfcrow@wisc.edu
Accepted 20 December 2007
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We are all unique; but for Haldane the word seems pallid. A grizzly bear of a man, he seemed larger than life. He was a multidimensional outlier.1
JBS Haldane (1892–1964) was arguably the most erudite biologist of his generation. I think he was also the most interesting. He was fluent in Latin and Greek; he once said that as a pre-school child he had already ‘written erotic poetry in two dead languages’. Remarkably, he had no advanced degree in biology; at Oxford, he majored in ‘greats’. Late in life, after moving to India, he became proficient in Hindu languages as well as the lore of that country. Blessed with a near-perfect memory, he did not need to save the paper after doing extensive algebra. He could quote large passages from Shakespeare, Dante, the Bible, the Koran, and who knows what else? As a child, helping his physiologist father with
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  G. D. Smith 'Something funny seems to happen': J.B.S. Haldane and our chaotic, complex but understandable world Int. J. Epidemiol., June 1, 2008; 37(3): 423 - 426. [Full Text] [PDF]
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