Book review: A dominant character: the radical science & restless politics of J.B.S. Haldane
A dominant
character: the radical science & restless politics of J.B.S. Haldane
by Samanth Subramanian
Reviewed by Shobhit Mahajan
“I wish I had the
voice of Homer/ To sing of rectal carcinoma,/ Which kills a lot more chaps, in
fact,/ Than were bumped off when Troy was sacked.” This was the opening stanza
of a comic poem which appeared in 1964 in the New Statesman. The man who wrote
this was dying of cancer and yet the deadly disease had failed to repress his
indomitable irreverence. An exceptionally gifted man, John Burdon Sanderson
Haldane, was not just a preeminent biologist who was a founder of population
genetics, but also a brilliant orator, prolific science populariser and much
else.
Born in 1892,
Haldane’s intellect was evident at an early age when, all of four years old, he
injured himself and asked the doctor whether the blood was oxyhaemoglobin or
carboxyhaemoglobin! He graduated in mathematics and Classics from Oxford and
wrote his first scientific paper with his father at 19. Haldane picked up many
experimental skills from his father, a brilliant scientist, as also a penchant
for experimenting on one’s own body.
The First World War
was a life-changing experience for Haldane. He was assigned to a regiment to
train them in the use of explosives, but was soon sent to the front. He
witnessed carnage at close quarters, was among men from different social
backgrounds and frequently came close to being killed. His almost pathological
irreverence was evident—he was adored by his mates who gave him the moniker
‘The Rajah of the Bomb’ because of his bravado.
In the interwar period
Haldane did pioneering work in the newly emerging area of genetics, placing
population genetics on a sound mathematical foundation. Though the idea that
life could have originated from a primordial soup of inorganic chemicals was
first proposed by the Soviet biochemist Alexander Oparin, Haldane independently
propounded it later. He hardly conformed to the stereotypical ivory tower
scientist. He wrote and lectured extensively on science for the general public.
He was, as Arthur C. Clarke said, “the most brilliant science populariser of
his generation”.
Haldane visited the
Soviet Union and was impressed by the project of harnessing science and
technology for development. He became a Marxist, though he only formally joined
the Communist Party much later. Despite being a staunch opponent of the
establishment (he was followed and reported on by MI5), Haldane assisted the
war effort by working on the effects of decompression on the human
body—essential for submarine warfare.
Samanth Subramanian’s
book is a comprehensive account of Haldane’s life. Extensive use of archival
material as well as private letters and diaries of Haldane and his sister make
it well researched. Subramanian, with his lucid writing, makes it into a
page-turner, with some brilliant asides. Thus, commenting on Haldane’s sticking
a lit fuse into gun cotton, he writes, “Bravery and bravado felt just like
isotopes of each other”.
Writing about a
brilliant person like Haldane, it would be easy to focus on his achievements.
It is to Subramanian’s credit that he does not shy from describing some of his
human failings and one gets a vivid picture of Haldane the man, warts and all.
However, one would have liked a much more detailed discussion of his scientific
work. The book does dwell on it and does a decent job of explaining it in
simple terms, but it does leave one wanting more details of the fascinating
work done by this polymath.
Haldane moved to India
in 1956 and started working at ISI, Calcutta. His impatience with the
bureaucratic and hierarchical functioning soon got in the way of his passion
for doing science—he once called CSIR the “Council for Suppression of
Independent Research”. He left ISI and at Biju Patnaik’s request, moved
to Bhubaneswar to establish an Institute of Genetics.
Haldane died of
colorectal cancer in 1964. Ever the man of science and rationality, he willed
that his body be used for medical research—organs to be preserved and studied
and bones to be assembled into a skeleton to be displayed in an anatomy museum.The comic poem he
wrote from his deathbed ends with “…A spot of laughter, I am sure,/ Often
accelerates one’s cures;/ So let us patients do our bit/ To help the surgeons
keep us fit”.
