Eminent scientists are well-placed to bring the novel works of others, even if not in their own areas of expertise, to general attention. In so doing, they may be able to extend original accounts or introduce new terminologies, but they are basically messengers, not innovators. In the 1940s an evolutionary theory of biological aging was explained by Peter Medawar, and informational concepts relating to DNA were explained by Erwin Schrödinger. Both explanations were eventually traced back to the Victorian polymath Samuel Butler—one by Medawar’s research associate Alex Comfort, and the other, albeit indirectly, by Schrödinger himself. In his time Butler’s works were too erudite for general readers and too laden with populist jargon for contemporary experts to take seriously. However, today it appears counterfactually plausible that an early acceptance of his ideas would have greatly quickened the pace of research.
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Article
Mark Jackson;
(2020)
2019 Wilkins–Bernal–Medawar Lecture: Life Begins at 40: The Demographic and Cultural Roots of the Midlife Crisis
(/isis/citation/CBB655560810/)
Article
Thierry Hoquet;
(2021)
Pluralizing Darwin: Making Counter-Factual History of Science Significant
(/isis/citation/CBB581465929/)
Book
Gillott, David;
(2015)
Samuel Butler against the Professionals: Rethinking Lamarckism 1860-1900
(/isis/citation/CBB001551952/)
Article
Pauly, Philip J.;
(1982)
Samuel Butler and his Darwinian critics
(/isis/citation/CBB000023047/)
Chapter
Amigoni, David;
(2007)
“The written symbol extends infinitely”: Samuel Butler and the Writing of Evolutionary Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB000800229/)
Article
Gregory Radick;
(2016)
Presidential Address: Experimenting with the Scientific Past†
(/isis/citation/CBB748863438/)
Chapter
Shuttleworth, Sally;
(2007)
Evolutionary Psychology and The Way of All Flesh
(/isis/citation/CBB000800234/)
Article
Breuer, Hans-Peter;
(1975)
Samuel Butler's “The book of the machines” and the argument from design
(/isis/citation/CBB000018705/)
Chapter
Fangerau, Heiner;
(2009)
Alternde Zellen, Menschen und Gesellschaften -- Biomedizinische Alterstheorien zwischen Degeneration und Regeneration im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert
(/isis/citation/CBB001031940/)
Article
Ritch, Alistair;
(2014)
English Poor Law Institutional Care for Older People: Identifying the `Aged and Infirm' and the `Sick' in Birmingham Workhouse, 1852--1912
(/isis/citation/CBB001550844/)
Article
David M Pomfret;
(2020)
Imperial Rejuvenations: Youth, Empire, and the Problem of Accelerated Aging in “Tropical” Colonies, ca. 1800–1914
(/isis/citation/CBB154676425/)
Article
Suzanne Newcombe;
(2017)
Yogis, Ayurveda, and Kayakalpa:
(/isis/citation/CBB037874836/)
Article
Alice Crossley;
(2021)
Odd Age, Old Age, and Doubled Lives: Asynchronicity and Ageing Queerly in Israel Zangwill’s Short Stories
(/isis/citation/CBB545440937/)
Article
Park, Hyung Wook;
(2013)
Senescence, Growth, and Gerontology in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB001320624/)
Article
D'Agostino, Salvo;
(2009)
Il ‘gatto’ di Schroedinger in una lettura del testo originale del celebre saggio
(/isis/citation/CBB314642805/)
Article
Laurent Loison;
(2020)
De la nécessité au hasard et à la finalité: Les transformations du concept de gratuité dans l’itinéraire intellectuel de Jacques Monod
(/isis/citation/CBB789361455/)
Book
Jennifer Burwell;
(2018)
Quantum Language and the Migration of Scientific Concepts
(/isis/citation/CBB682085795/)
Article
Mawhin, Jean;
Ronveaux, André;
(2010)
Schrödinger and Dirac Equations for the Hydrogen Atom, and Laguerre Polynomials
(/isis/citation/CBB001022003/)
Article
Hilgevoord, Jan;
(2005)
Time in Quantum Mechanics: A Story of Confusion
(/isis/citation/CBB000501568/)
Article
Perovic, Slobodan;
(2008)
Why Were Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics Considered Equivalent?
(/isis/citation/CBB000933672/)
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