Ernst Mayr - The position of evolution in American science (70/150)

To listen to more of Ernst Meyer’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJu-EJPfLYc&index=1&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFwvkvR52bKoUPNxAMTOhHL9

US-German biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was a leader in evolutionary biology, gaining a PhD at 21. In his seminal work 'Systematics and Origin of the Species' considered as one of his greatest works, he integrated the theories of Darwin and Mendel. [Listener: Walter J Bock; date recorded: 1997]

TRANSCRIPT: Evolution was really very much neglected. I mean, you would have a list of the different fields of biology, and evolution would not be included. There was no society for evolution, there was no journal dealing with evolution, most colleges and universities had no courses dealing with evolution, and those of us who were very much interested in evolution were quite dismayed about it and wondered what to do about it. In particular this was true for the naturalists because the geneticists did have their organizations where evolution at least was discussed quite frequently. And there was first an endeavor to start a society for the study of speciation which from the title alone you can see that… no naturalists were behind this and there were… but the person who was trying to do this was not very energetic and finally the war came also and it fell asleep. And then… there was a… organization established by the National Research Council, a committee on the common problems, primarily was bring… to bring together the palaeontologists with the other evolutionists. And then, again the war broke out and in order to keep some contact on the members I suggested a informal news bulletin going around where people could raise evolutionary questions which somebody else in this group then would try to answer. And I was the editor of this and I brought out, I think, four issues during the war and by the end of that time with Dobzhansky's book out, my book out, and in England Julian Huxley having brought out a book and in Germany [Bernhard] Rensch having brought out a book, it was becoming… and [George Gaylord] Simpson having brought out a book in 1944, it was becoming quite clear that this gap between the different camps of the evolutionists had now been closed, that they really were agreeing with each other, were talking the same language.