Rebel Britannia

5th November 1892:

One of the most creative scientists of the 20th century, and one of the greatest science popularisers ever, never held any formal qualifications in science. He lectured at Oxford, Cambridge and University College London, in physiology, biochemistry, genetics and biometry, though his own degree was in maths and Classics. But that sort of petty detail never really bothered JBS "Jack" Haldane, who was born on the 5th November 1892.

In his time he was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Scientists, and served on the executive committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He was an adviser to the UK government in both world wars. He was described as "The last man who might know all there is to be known."

Arthur C. Clarke called Haldane "perhaps the most brilliant science populariser of his generation." Famous in Britain and beyond as a writer and broadcaster, he wrote more than 20 books, hundreds of scientific papers, and thousands of newspaper articles for titles as diverse as the Daily Express and the Daily Worker, along with correspondence courses, conference lectures, and evening classes.

A humorous, lively writer, concise and crystal clear, his subjects included evolution, genetics, the history of science, mathematical biology, palaeontology, astronomy, pollution, diet, economics, scientific ethics, probability, racism, military strategy, colour blindness - and many others. He was one of the world's leading experts on gas masks and bomb shelters. He also wrote science fiction, and stories for children. His headmaster at Eton had accused him of being "a mere smatterer," but the truth is he was a master of all trades, and Jack of none.

His algebra, all of it from the pre-computer age, has been described as "awesome." He never cared whether topics were considered respectable or not by the science establishment; in 1951 he gave a paper on how humans explorers might live on other planets.

One of Haldane's essays is a guide to writing popular science, which includes the advice to begin with a fact your readers already know about, whether "a bomb explosion, a bird's song, or a cheese," which can be used to explain a scientific principle. When you've finished your article, test it on a friend - "if possible a fairly ignorant one." When writing for a general audience, your piece should be sure to include jokes.

Despite his lack of formal education in the sciences, JBS had a good grounding from his father, a prominent physiologist who specialised in studying and solving problems which blighted the lives of people at work and poor people. Young Jack learned a distrust of the Establishment's truths alongside his scientific observations.

Haldane senior followed the long-standing tradition of experimenting on himself, his assistants - and his child. In 1906, aboard the HMS Spanker, father and son studied "the bends," that notorious danger of diving. Thirteen-year-old Jack was amongst those sent down to establish the parameters of decompression sickness. As an adult, his scientific knowledge was self-taught, again often using self-experimentation.

As a soldier in the First World War, JBS's job as a mortar officer involved chucking bombs, by hand, into enemy trenches. It was, obviously, extraordinarily dangerous work, and Haldane loved it. General Haig is said to have described him as “the bravest and dirtiest officer in my army.” He was a very large, very physical man, with a reputation as a fighter and a drinker.

After the war he became an academic, but was sacked by Cambridge in 1925 after he'd been named as a co-respondent (i.e., shagger) in a divorce case, and the Sex Viri (or "Sex Weary," as Haldane called them), a body entrusted with policing the morals of lecturers, charged him with "gross or habitual immorality." Instead of leaving quietly, JBS, the born rebel, became the first person to appeal against such a decision. His eventual reinstatement led to the end of the Sex Viri system, establishing the principle that the university had no business involving itself in the private lives of its employees.

Throughout his career, his work was dedicated to the idea that science could be employed to spread democracy and equality as well as to make material improvements in ordinary people's lives, though he was well aware that this was not what usually happened. Writing in 1939 about the potential beneficial uses of nuclear energy, JBS warned that "doubtless uranium will be used for killing in some way."

In 1929 he invented the influential concept of "the primordial soup" in which, he argued, life on Earth originated. It was also Haldane, in the 1940s, who proposed replacing the terms "coupling" and "repulsion" in genetics with words borrowed from chemistry: "cis" and "trans." What he would have thought about the current usage of those words is impossible to guess - but it can be said for certain that he would have had strong opinions on it, which he would have been happy to share at length with anyone who stood still long enough to hear them.

After WW2, Haldane was removed from some government committees as part of an anti-Red purge. But in any case, by 1950, he'd lost faith in the Soviet approach to science, and quietly left the Communist Party (though he remained a Marxist). He had no love for Western imperialism's use of scientific advances, either, and so he became an Indian citizen for the rest of his life, as a supporter of the non-aligned movement - the original "third world," before that phrase, too, changed its meaning. As one of India's pre-eminent science educators and administrators, he mentored a glittering generation of Indian scientists in many fields.

He'd spent time in India during WW1, and loved the place, the people and the culture. When asked why he was moving there, he gave a typical response: it was because in India people didn't wear socks, and "Sixty years in socks is enough."

From his days as an undergraduate classicist, Haldane could (and did, frequently) recite an immense body of ancient poetry, and even wrote one famous poem himself. Cancer's a funny thing, an ode to the rectal cancer which eventually killed him, includes the lines My final word, before I'm done/ Is "Cancer can be rather fun."/ Thanks to the nurses and Nye Bevan/ The NHS is quite like heaven/ Provided one confronts the tumour/ With a sufficient sense of humour.

Following his death in 1964, JBS Haldane was accused by some of having been a Soviet spy - though, honestly, how would he have found the time?

*

Sources:

Red lives (Manifesto Press, 2020)

www.oxforddnb.com

Britain's Communists the untold story by John Green (Artery Publications, 2014)

What I require from life (Oxford University Press, 2009)

www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/about-us/history/establishing-the-department/haldane-and-the-sex-viri

Morning Star 10 October 2022