These days, it is easy to trace one’s ancestry through online websites dedicated to genealogy and family histories. Even without taking help from such sites, the Haldanes of Oxfordshire stand distinguished in their genealogy, with a clear ancestry that can be traced all the way back to A.D. 1250.
Among them, the legacy of John Burdon Sanderson (J.B.S.) Haldane is one of intellectual accomplishment, academic rigour, and universal citizenship. Known for his prowess in population genetics, physiology, and the mathematical theory of evolution, the polymath Haldane holds a place of honour for his many achievements. What is equally interesting is that JBS spent the later part of his life in India, which he made his home.
Haldane was born in Oxford on November 5, 1892, and to some extent, his eventual success in science was guaranteed by virtue of his early exposure within the family. His father, John Scott Haldane, was a renowned British physiologist and philosopher; while children of his age were busy at the playgrounds, young J.B.S. was pre-occupied in his father’s scientific experiments from the age of 8.
In fact, Haldane’s academic orientation was noticed quite early: at the age of 5, he could recite poetry with ease and read reports of British Science Association meetings “at a pace that was ‘deliberate, but not exasperatingly slow.” Upon noticing blood from a laceration on his forehead, the young Haldane is purported to have asked: “Is it oxyhaemo-globin or carboxyhaemoglobin?”
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