John Maynard Smith

John Maynard Smith [ ˈdʒɒn ˈmeɪnəd ˈsmɪθ ] (born January 6, 1920 in London , † April 19, 2004 in Lewes , East Sussex ) was an English theoretical biologist who researched in the field of evolutionary game theory , a mathematically shaped area of evolutionary biology and published several pioneering works. The concept of the Evolutionary Stable Strategy goes back to Maynard Smith .

Life

Early years

John Maynard Smith was born in London to a doctor. After the death of his father, the family moved to Exmoor , where Smith became interested in natural history. He studied at Eton College , but was not comfortable there. His interest in Darwinism and mathematics was aroused while studying the work of JBS Haldane . After graduating from school, he joined the Communist Party and began studying engineering at Trinity College at Cambridge University . When World War II broke out in 1939 , he defied the party line and volunteered for the military. He was not accepted because of impaired vision and was advised to finish his engineering degree, which he did in 1941. He later joked that his bad eyes were "a selection advantage": "They prevented me from perishing in the war." In 1941 he married Sheila Matthew, with whom he later had two sons and a daughter (Tony, Carol and Julian). Between 1942 and 1947 he worked as an aerospace engineer .

A second degree

Maynard Smith only turned to biology after the war, when he studied genetics with JBS Haldane at University College London . Between 1952 and 1965 he held a teaching position there. In 1958 he published The Theory Of Evolution , (other editions appeared in 1966, 1975, 1993). After the suppression of the Hungarian uprising by Soviet troops in 1956, he resigned from the communist party.

At the University of Sussex

John Maynard Smith was one of the founders of the Sussex University Faculty of Biology in 1965 and served as Dean from its inception until his retirement in 1985 . In 1977 he was elected a member of the Royal Society.

In his 1978 book, The Evolution of Sex , Maynard Smith looked at the 'double cost of sexual reproduction'. He tried to explain why most species reproduce sexually, when there are so many advantages to the 'selfish gene' in asexual reproduction ( parthenogenesis ). In asexual reproduction, all genes are passed on, while in sexual reproduction only half of the genes are effective in the offspring. According to Maynard Smith, the genes are better mixed during sexual reproduction and the variability is increased. The population is better adapted and more resistant to diseases or parasites.

A major achievement of Maynard Smith was the application of game theory to understand the "strategies of evolution". In 1973, together with George R. Price, he introduced the concept of ' Evolutionary Stable Strategy ' (ESS), which he described in "Evolution and the Theory of Games" (1983) and "Evolutionary Genetics" (1989; German: "Evolutionsgenetik", 1992) presented in detail. The “evolutionarily stable strategy” cannot be displaced by the other strategies present in a population and is therefore retained over time.

Together with the biochemist Eörs Szathmáry , he wrote an influential book 'The Major Transitions in Evolution' in 1995, German: "Evolution - Prozess, Mechanismen, Modelle", 1996. A popular scientific version of the book appeared in 1999 under the title The Origins of Life: From the birth of life to the origin of language .

His last book, Animal Signals , which he co-wrote with David Harper, was published in 2003.

Awards

In 1977 he was elected as a member (“ Fellow ”) of the Royal Society , which awarded him the Darwin Medal in 1986 , the Royal Medal in 1997 and the Copley Medal in 1999 . Other awards include the Balzan Prize for Genetics and Evolution in 1991 , the Linné Medal of the Linnean Society of London in 1995, the Crafoord Prize in 1999 together with Ernst Mayr and George C. Williams , the Kyoto Prize in 2001 and the posthumously in 2008 Darwin Wallace Medal . He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1977), the American Philosophical Society (1980) and the National Academy of Sciences (1982).

In his honor, the European Society for Evolutionary Biology founded the John Maynard Smith Prize in 1997 , which is awarded to outstanding young scientists in evolutionary biology.

Fonts (selection)

The Theory of Evolution . Penguin Books, London 1958, ISBN 0-14-020433-4 ; (1993) ISBN 0-521-45128-0
Mathematical Ideas in Biology . Cambridge University Press, 1968, ISBN 0-521-07335-9 .
On evolution . Edinburgh University Press, 1972, ISBN 0-85224-223-9 .
Models in Ecology . Cambridge University Press, 1974, ISBN 0521-20262-0 .
The evolution of sex . Cambridge University Press, 1978, ISBN 0-521-29302-2 .
Evolution Now . Macmillan, London 1981, ISBN 0-7167-1426-4 .
Evolution and the Theory of Games . Cambridge University Press, 1982, ISBN 0-521-28884-3 .
In Haldane's footsteps. In: Donald A. Dewsbury: Studying Animal Behavior. Autobiographies of the Founders. Chicago University Press, Chicago and London 1985, ISBN 978-0-226-14410-8 , pp. 346-354.
The Problems of Biology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1986, ISBN 0-19-289198-7 .
Did Darwin Get it Right? Essays on Games, Sex and Evolution . Chapman & Hall, London 1988, ISBN 0-412-03821-8 .
Evolutionary Genetics . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-19-850231-1 .
with Eörs Szathmáry : The Major Transitions in Evolution . Oxford University Press, New York 1995, ISBN 0-19-850294-X .
with Eörs Szathmáry: Evolution . Spektrum Akademischer Verlag , November 1996, ISBN 3-8274-0022-8 .
with Eörs Szathmáry: The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language . Oxford University Press, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-286209-X ; March 2000, ISBN 3-931265-08-0 .
with D. Harper: Animal Signals . Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-19-852685-7 .

Web links

Literature by and about John Maynard Smith in the catalog of the German National Library
Obituary: John Maynard Smith (1920-2004). Obituary by Brian Charlesworth in Current Biology , Vol. 14, No. 10 (English)
John Maynard Smith (1920-2004). Obituary by Richard Dawkins , Edge.org (English)

Individual evidence

↑ John Maynard Smith, George R. Price: The Logic of Animal Conflict. Nature , Volume 246, 1973, pp. 15-18, doi : 10.1038 / 246015a0

personal data
SURNAME	Maynard Smith, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British geneticist , evolutionary biologist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 6, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	London
DATE OF DEATH	April 19, 2004
Place of death	Lewes

[1] John Maynard Smith, George R. Price: The Logic of Animal Conflict. Nature , Volume 246, 1973, pp. 15-18, doi : 10.1038 / 246015a0