#896 Gregory Radick - Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology
RECORDED ON SEPTEMBER 29th 2023.
Dr. Gregory Radick is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds. He has held fellowships from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, and served as President of the British Society for the History of Science (2014‒16) and the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (2019‒21). He writes and lectures frequently for general audiences, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time and in the PBS/National Geographic television series Genius with Stephen Hawking. In 2022 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Science Museum Group. He is the author of several books, including Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology.
In this episode, we focus on Disputed Inheritance. We start by talking about the work of Mendel, how it relates to Darwin’s, and also the work of Francis Galton on heredity. We then talk about how people first took Mendel’s work seriously, and the work and debate between William Bateson and Walter Weldon. We also discuss the aftermath of Weldon’s death in 1906. We talk about a Weldonian course that ran at the University of Leeds in 2013. Finally, we discuss whether Weldon’s approach to genetics connects in any way to the idea of the extended evolutionary synthesis.
Time Links:
Intro
The work of Mendel, and how it relates to Darwin
Francis Galton, and the idea of “nature and nurture”
When people first took Mendel’s work seriously
The work of Bateson and Weldon
The debate between Bateson and Weldon
How genetics developed after the death of Weldon
What if Weldon didn’t die in 1906?
A Weldonian course that ran at the University of Leeds in 2013
The extended evolutionary synthesis
Follow Dr. Radick’s work!
Follow Dr. Radick’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3NisWQX
Website: https://bit.ly/3NoM0xe
PhilPeople profile: https://bit.ly/41Am47m
Disputed Inheritance: https://bit.ly/3LXz4Ok