Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson

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Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson (1892–1964) A Scottish physiologist and genetist, who graduated from Oxford University in classics and philosophy, but who taught physiology and became interested in genetics. He investigated respiration and the effect of carbon dioxide in the blood, using himself as an experimental subject. Later he calculated the rate of enzyme reactions, proving these obey the laws of thermodynamics. Finally, he turned to the mathematics of natural selection. Haldane was born in Oxford, the son of John Scott Haldane, an eminent physiologist. In 1933 he was appointed professor of genetics at University College, London, where he later became professor of biometry. A committed atheist and Communist, he left the Communist Party because of the influence wielded by T. D. Lysenko. He migrated to India in 1957 in protest at the British and French invasion of Suez and died at Bhubaneshwar.

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