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Steve Jones (biologist)

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Steve Jones
Steve Jones (2012)
Born (1944-03-24) 24 March 1944 (age 80)
Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
OccupationProfessor of genetics
EmployerUniversity College London
Known forBroadcaster and writer furthering public understanding of science
Awards2006 Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society, Fellow of the Royal Society (2012) [1]

John Stephen Jones FRS[1] (born 24 March 1944) is a Welsh geneticist and from 1995 to 1999 and 2008 to June 2010 was Head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London.[2][3] His studies are conducted in the Galton Laboratory. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology, especially evolution. He is one of the contemporary popular writers on evolution. In 1996 his writing won him the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize "for his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media".

Early life

Jones was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, to Thomas Gwilym Jones and Lydia Anne Jones, his parents having met as students at the University of Aberystwyth. Until he was about ten years old the family were accommodated alternately at his paternal grandparents' house in New Quay and his maternal grandparents' house near Aberystwyth. Later the family moved to the Wirral, because of his father's work, and they returned to Wales for their holidays.[4] Jones was a pupil at Wirral Grammar School for Boys.[5] At the age of 13 to 14 years old Jones was inspired to study biology by a school teacher named Mr. Simpson.[6]

Jones' paternal grandparents lived in New Quay, Ceredigion, Wales. His paternal grandfather and great grandfather were both sea captains. His father was a PhD chemist and worked on detergents. Dylan Thomas was an acquaintance of his father. As a child Jones often stayed at his paternal grandparents' home and spent a lot of his time in the attic which contained some seafaring equipment, and boxes of books covering a wide variety of topics, many of which Jones read.[4] He also went to libraries and by the age of 14 years he had read all the works of Charles Dickens.[6]

Jones' maternal grandparents lived in Bow Street, Ceredigion, near Aberystwyth. Jones spoke a lot of Welsh until he was 6 or 7 years old, and at that time many people in the locality preferred to speak Welsh, some speaking Welsh only. The Welsh Presbyterian church was the centre of the community, and Jones' great grandfather, William Morgan, was an incumbent at the church for about 40 years. Jones' grandparent's were strongly Presbyterian and spoke both English and Welsh, but preferred to speak Welsh. His grandfather, John James Morgan, was a school headmaster and used to take Jones on long walks in the countryside, as well as play chess with him. His mother Nancy was one of identical twins[6] and nine siblings. Jones was often surrounded by relatives. Jones and a cousin spent a lot of time playing in the countryside on a local earth mound surrounded by a ditch and an outer wall, the remains of an ancient Norman castle. As an 8-year-old child he thought it was a pre-Christian Iron Age fort, and imagined it was where his Celtic ancestors might have lived. Jones observed the wildlife in the area and was particularly interested in birds.[4][7]

Academic career

Jones was rejected from all the Welsh universities, so he applied to the University of Edinburgh, which had a closing date seven days later and he was accepted onto a zoology undergraduate course.[6] He developed an interest in snails from Bryan Clarke, one of his teachers at university, who is now a professor at the University of Nottingham.[6] However, Jones also decided to study the genetics of drosophila at the University of Chicago to widen his scope.[6] Much of Jones' research has been concerned with snails and the light their anatomy can shed on biodiversity and genetics.

Personal life

Jones married the documentary maker Norma Percy, an American, in 2004.[8]

Jones is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. He was awarded the second Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society on 7 October 2006. On 1 January 2011 he became President of The Association for Science Education.[9]

Claims and opinions

Human evolution

Jones' view that in humans "Natural selection has to some extent been repealed" [10] dates back at least to 1991 and has been the focus of a number of newspaper reports and radio interviews.[11][12][13] His views are largely based on his claim that reduced juvenile mortality, decreasing age of fathers, and greater interconnectedness of populations in Western societies reduce evolution. Both the data supporting these assertions and his views of the way these factors influence evolution in populations have been extensively criticised by other academics. [14][15][16][17][18][19]

Creationism

Jones has stated that creationism is "anti-science" and criticised creationists such as Ken Ham. Jones suggested in a BBC Radio Ulster interview in 2006 that Creationists should be disallowed from being medical doctors because "all of its (Creationism's) claims fly in the face of the whole of science" and he further claimed that no serious biologist can believe in biblical creation. For Jones, 'evolution is the grammar of biology'.[20] Jones elaborated on his full position on creationism in a public lecture entitled 'Why creationism is wrong and evolution is right'.[21]

Private education

In an interview on the BBC Radio 5 show '5 Live Breakfast' hosted by Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty on 13 January 2009, Jones described private schools as a "cancer on the education system".[22] Jones cites private schools as one of the reasons that Britain remains as socially stratified as it is. Among the advantages in private schools compared to state schools, Jones listed smaller classroom sizes, highly-trained teachers, better facilities, and coaching through university interviews.[22]

Religion

Jones, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published on 15 September 2010 in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[23]

Global warming

In July 2011, Jones produced a report dealing with science reporting issues at the BBC.[24] He was critical of the BBC in giving too much space and credence to sceptics of the global warming theory propounded by many climatologists. In the section dealing with impartiality at the BBC, he says

"...For at least three years, the climate change deniers have been marginal to the scientific debate but somehow they continued to find a place on the airwaves. Their ability so to do suggests that an over‐diligent search for due impartiality – or for a controversy – continue to hinder the objective reporting of a scientific story even when the internal statements of the BBC suggest that no controversy exists. There is a contrast between the clear demands for due impartiality in the BBC’s written guidelines and what sometimes emerges on air. ..."

  

Selected publications

Books

  • Jones, Steve (1993). The Language of the Genes. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-655243-9. winner of (Aventis Prize winner)
  • Jones, Steve; Martin, Robert D.; Pilbeam, David R (Editors). (1994). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human evolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46786-1. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Jones, Steve (1997). In the Blood: God, Genes and Destiny. Houghton Miffin. ISBN 0-00-255512-3.
  • Jones, Steve (1999). Almost Like a Whale: The Origin of Species Updated. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-40985-0.
  • Jones, Steve (2000). Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-42277-5.
  • Jones, Steve (2003). Y: The Descent of Men. Flamingo. ISBN 0-618-13930-3.
  • Jones, Steve and Van Loon, Borin (2005). Introducing Genetics. Totem Books. ISBN 1-84046-636-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Jones, Steve (2007). Coral. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-72938-3.
  • Jones, Steve (2009). Darwin's Island. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1-4087-0000-6.

Articles

Radio and television

Jones was the 1991 Reith Lecturer on BBC Radio, with a series entitled The Language of the Genes, the basis of his 1993 book of the same name.[25]

He presented In the Blood, a six-part TV series on human genetics first broadcast in 1996, see book of same name in bibliography.

Quotations

  • "Evolution is inevitable. It depends on mistakes in reproduction."
  • "... the key to evolution, design without a designer: the preservation of favorable variations and rejection of those injurious."
  • "Everyone is a living fossil"

References

  1. ^ a b "Professor Steve Jones FRS | Royal Society". Archived from the original on 2012-04-20.
  2. ^ "Academic Staff at UCL Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment". University College London. 2009-09-15.
  3. ^ UCL GEE News GEE marks the transfer of headship
  4. ^ a b c "The House I Grew Up In with Steve Jones as participant". The House I Grew Up In. 2009-09-15. BBC. BBC Radio 4. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Alumni". Wirral Grammar School. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Desert Island Discs with Steve Jones". Desert Island Discs. 1 March 1992. BBC. Radio 4. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "The Forum; At the British Museum - The Inner Life of Objects". The Forum. 2010-01-24. BBC. BBC World Service. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ JONES, Prof. (John) Stephen, Who's Who 2011, A & C Black, 2011; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2010 ; online edn, Oct 2010 accessed 22 May 2011
  9. ^ "ASE President". The Association for Science Education. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  10. ^ Stevens, William K (March 14, 1995). "Evolution of Humans May at Last Be Faltering". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ BBC Radio 4 Today programme and BBC Five Live on 7 October 2008
  12. ^ Belluz, Julia (October 7, 2008). "Leading geneticist Steve Jones says human evolution is over". The Times. London. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ McKie, Robin (February 3, 2002). "Is human evolution finally over?". The Observer. London. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ "Human evolution stopping? Wrong, wrong, wrong".
  15. ^ "No Virginia, evolution isn't ending".
  16. ^ "Evolution, why it still happens (in pictures)".
  17. ^ "Steven Jones is being silly".
  18. ^ "Not the end of evolution again!".
  19. ^ "Some comments on Steve Jones and human evolution".
  20. ^ Steve Jones radio interview on "Sunday Sequence" - BBC Radio Ulster 19-03-06
  21. ^ Steve Jones - Why creationism is wrong and evolution is right, Royal Society public lecture, April 2006
  22. ^ a b BBC Radio 5 Live: Breakfast, broadcast 13 January 2009
  23. ^ "Letters: Harsh judgments on the pope and religion". The Guardian. London. 15 September 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  24. ^ Booker, Christopher (23 July 2011). "Steve Jones tells the BBC: don't give 'denialists' so much air-time". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  25. ^ BBC website Historic Reith Lectures

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