Haldane, J(ohn) B(urdon) S(anderson) (1892-1964)

Anglo-Indian physiologist, geneticist, and author of popular science books. In 1936 he showed the genetic link between haemophilia and colour blindness.

Haldane was born and educated at Oxford. In 1933 he became professor of genetics at University College, London. He emigrated to India in 1957 in protest at the Anglo-French invasion of Suez and was appointed director of the Genetics and Biometry Laboratory in Orissa. He became a naturalized Indian citizen in 1961.

In 1924 Haldane produced the first proof that enzymes obey the laws of thermodynamics.

Haldane carried our research into how the regulation of breathing in humans is affected by the level of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. During World War II, in 1942, Haldane, who often used his own body in biochemical experiments, spent two days in a submarine to test an air-purifying system.

Haldane was convinced that natural selection and not mutation is the driving force behind evolution. In 1932, he estimated for the first time the rate of mutation of the human gene and worked out the effect of recurrent harmful mutations on a population. He is supposed to have remarked: ‘I'd lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins.’