Howard Everest Hinton (24 August 1912 – 2 August 1977) was a British entomologist and

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

who studied beetles.

Education and early life

Howard Hinton grew up in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

as an undergraduate. He received his PhD from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

in 1939 for research on Mexican water beetles . During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he worked on the problem of storage of food products to counter the depredation of moths and beetles. Gerry Kennedy, The Booles and the Hintons, Atrium Press, July 2016

Career

After his PhD, Hinton worked at the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

. In 1949, he moved to the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

where he spent the rest of his career. Hinton published 309 scientific papers, many of which were concerned with insect

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

and

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

. He founded and edited the ''Journal of Insect Physiology''. He introduced an extra stage in the metamorphosis of insects, the

pharate A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

stage, in which the insect has produced a new exoskeleton in preparation for ecdysis but is still enclosed in the remnants of the old one. He was an early proponent of

continental drift Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pl ...

, based on the close relationship between non-migratory water beetles of the family

Elmidae Elmidae, commonly known as riffle beetles, is a family of beetles in the superfamily Byrrhoidea described by John Curtis in 1830. Both adults and larvae are usually aquatic, living under rocks in fast-flowing shallow areas of streams, such as r ...

in rivers in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and northern Australia. He worked extensively on insect eggs, particularly the way in which they respire. He worked for many years on cryptobiosis, experimenting with a species of African fly that could withstand long periods of dehydration, positing that this might also be the key to space voyaging. In an article in ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...

'', October 1965 he suggested that contrary to the idea that life had evolved from the sea, complex molecules from the earth's atmosphere might have survived long periods of desiccation before being washed down to the sea. His graduate students include Robin Baker and

Geoff Parker Professor Geoffrey Alan Parker FRS (born 24 May 1944) is an emeritus professor of biology at the University of Liverpool and the 2008 recipient of the Darwin Medal. Parker has been called “the professional’s professional”. He has a par ...

. His papers are stored at the

, where he worked. Most of his insect collection is housed at the

Awards and honours

Hinton was elected as

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

(FRS) in 1961.

Personal life

Howard Hinton married Margaret Clark, a teacher and sister of Colin Clark, in 1938 and they had four children: Charlotte, who became a head teacher; James Hinton, who served as a professor of history at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

;

Geoffrey Hinton Geoffrey Everest Hinton One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 6 December 1947) is a British-Canadian cognitive psychologist and computer scientist, most noted for his work on a ...

, who is a professor of computer science at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

; and Teresa, who is a social policy researcher in Tasmania. Howard's father, George Hinton, was a mining engineer and botanist who managed a silver mine in Mexico and collected many new botanical specimens, some of which are in Kew gardens. Howard Hinton's nephew, also called George Hinton, has a farm in Mexico and discovered a new genus of cacti, ''

Geohintonia ''Geohintonia mexicana'' (discovered in 1992) is a species of cacti, the only species in the genus ''Geohintonia''. This genus is named after its discoverer George S. Hinton. As its specific epithet suggests, the plant is found in Mexico ( Nuevo ...

'', that are named after him. Howard Hinton was a great-grandson of

George Boole George Boole (; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher, and logician, most of whose short career was spent as the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork in ...

, the founder of mathematical logic. His cousins include

Joan Hinton Joan Hinton (Chinese name: 寒春, Pinyin: ''Hán Chūn''; 20 October 1921 – 8 June 2010) was a nuclear physicist and one of the few women scientists who worked for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. She lived in the People's Republic of C ...

, one of the few women scientists at Los Alamos who later moved to Beijing, and William Hinton who wrote ''

Fanshen ''Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village'' is a 1966 book by William H. Hinton that describes the land-reform campaign during the Chinese Civil War conducted from 1945 to 1948 by the Chinese Communist Party in "Long Bow Villag ...

'', a book about the Chinese revolution which he observed firsthand while working for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

in China in 1949. His grandfather, Charles Howard Hinton was a mathematician who worked on the concept of four-dimensional space and had to leave Victorian England when he was found guilty of bigamy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinton, Howard Everest 1912 births 1977 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society British entomologists Coleopterists Academics of the University of Bristol University of California, Berkeley alumni Employees of the Natural History Museum, London Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Place of birth missing 20th-century British zoologists Hinton family