Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

eugenicist Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

, and

internationalist Internationalist may refer to: * Internationalism (politics), a movement to increase cooperation across national borders * Liberal internationalism, a doctrine in international relations * Internationalist/Defencist Schism, socialists opposed to ...

. He was a proponent of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...

, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century

modern synthesis Modern synthesis or modern evolutionary synthesis refers to several perspectives on evolutionary biology, namely: * Modern synthesis (20th century), the term coined by Julian Huxley in 1942 to denote the synthesis between Mendelian genetics and s ...

. He was secretary of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

(1935–1942), the first Director of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

, a founding member of the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

, the president of the British Eugenics Society (1959-1962), and the first President of the

British Humanist Association Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...

. Huxley was well known for his presentation of science in books and articles, and on radio and television. He directed an Oscar-winning wildlife film. He was awarded UNESCO's

Kalinga Prize The Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is an award given by UNESCO for exceptional skill in presenting scientific ideas to lay people. It was created in 1952, following a donation from Biju Patnaik, Founder President of the Kalinga ...

for the popularisation of science in 1953, the

Darwin Medal The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". In 1885, International Darwin Memorial Fund was transferred to the ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1956, and the

Darwin–Wallace Medal The Darwin–Wallace Medal is a medal awarded by the Linnean Society of London for "major advances in evolutionary biology". Historically, the medals have been awarded every 50 years, beginning in 1908. That year marked 50 years after the joint p ...

of the

Linnaean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

in 1958. He was also knighted in that same year, 1958, a hundred years after

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

and Alfred Russel Wallace announced the theory of evolution by natural selection. In 1959 he received a Special Award from the

Lasker Foundation The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, which was f ...

in the category Planned Parenthood –

World Population In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded 8 billion in November 2022. It took over 200,000 years of human prehistory and history for th ...

Life

Personal life

Huxley came from the

Huxley family The Huxley family is a British family; several of its members have excelled in science, medicine, arts and literature. The family also includes members who occupied senior positions in the public service of the United Kingdom. The patriarch of ...

on his father's side and the Arnold family on his mother's. His great-grandfather was Thomas Arnold of

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

, his great-uncle

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...

, and his aunt Mrs Humphry Ward. His grandfather

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stori ...

was raised Anglican but eventually became an advocate of Agnosticism, a word he coined. Thomas was also a friend and supporter of

and proponent of evolution. Huxley's father was a writer and an editor Leonard Huxley and his mother was Julia Arnold Huxley, a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, who had gained a First in English Literature there in 1882. Julia and Leonard married in 1885 and they had four children: Margaret (1899–1981), the novelist Aldous, Trevenen and Julian. LEONARD HUXLEY 1860-1933 JULIAN HUXLEY 1887-1975 ALDOUS HUXLEY 1894-1963 Men of Science and Letters lived here

LEONARD HUXLEY 1860-1933 JULIAN HUXLEY 1887-1975 ALDOUS HUXLEY 1894-1963 Men of Science and Letters lived here

Huxley was born on 22 June 1887, at the London house of his aunt. His mother died in 1908, when he was 21. In 1912, his father married Rosalind Bruce, who was the same age as Julian, and he later acquired half-brothers Andrew Huxley and David Huxley. In 1911, Huxley became informally engaged to Kathleen Fordham, whom he had met some years earlier when she was a pupil at Prior's Field, the school his mother had run. During 1913 the relationship broke down and Huxley had a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

which a biographer described as caused by 'conflict between desire and guilt'. In the first months of 1914 Huxley had severe depression and lived for some weeks at The Hermitage, a small private nursing home. In August 1914 while Huxley was in Scotland, his brother Trevenen also had a nervous breakdown and stayed in the same nursing home. Trevenen was worried about how he had treated one of his women friends and committed suicide whilst there. In 1919 Huxley married Juliette Baillot (1896–1994) a French Swiss woman whom he had met while she was employed as a governess at Garsington Manor, the country house of

Lady Ottoline Morrell Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley, Siegfr ...

. Huxley was later unfaithful to Baillot and told her that he wanted an open marriage. One of his affairs was with the poet

May Sarton May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), a Belgian-American poet, novelist and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of ‘lesb ...

who in turn fell in love with Baillot and had a brief affair with her as well. Huxley described himself in print as suffering from manic depression, and his wife's autobiography suggests that Julian Huxley suffered from a

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

. He relied on his wife to provide moral and practical support throughout his life. Julian and Juliette Huxley had two sons,

Anthony Huxley Anthony Julian Huxley (2 December 1920 – 26 December 1992) was a British botanist. He edited ''Amateur Gardening'' from 1967 to 1971, and was vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1991. He was the son of Julian Huxley. He was ...

(1920–1992) and

Francis Huxley Francis Huxley (28 August 1923 – 29 October 2016) was a British botanist, anthropologist and author. He is a son of Julian Huxley. His brother was Anthony Julian Huxley. His uncle was Aldous Huxley. He was one of the founders of Survival Inter ...

(1923–2016), who both became scientists.

Early career

Huxley grew up at the family home in Surrey, England, where he showed an early interest in nature, as he was given lessons by his grandfather,

. When he heard his grandfather talking at dinner about the lack of parental care in fish, Julian piped up with "What about the stickleback, Gran'pater?". His grandfather also took him to visit

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of ...

at Kew. At the age of thirteen Huxley attended

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

as a

King's Scholar A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's School ...

, and continued to develop scientific interests; his grandfather had influenced the school to build science laboratories much earlier. At Eton he developed an interest in ornithology, guided by science master W. D. "Piggy" Hill. "Piggy was a genius as a teacher ... I have always been grateful to him." In 1905 Huxley won a scholarship in

Zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

to Balliol College, Oxford and took up the place in 1906 after spending the summer in Germany. He developed a particular interest in

embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos ...

and protozoa and developed a friendship with the ornithologist

William Warde Fowler William Warde Fowler (16 May 1847 – 15 June 1921) was an English historian and ornithologist, and tutor at Lincoln College, Oxford. He was best known for his works on ancient Roman religion. Among his most influential works wa''The Roman F ...

. In the autumn term of his final year, 1908, his mother died from cancer at the age of 46. In his final year he won the Newdigate Prize for his poem "Holyrood". In 1909 he graduated with first class honours, and spent that July at the international gathering for the centenary of Darwin's birth, held at 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 ...

. Huxley was awarded a scholarship to spend a year at the Naples Marine Biological Station, where he developed his interest in developmental biology by investigating sea squirts and

sea urchins Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...

. In 1910 he was appointed as Demonstrator in the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and started on the systematic observation of the courtship habits of water birds, such as the

common redshank The common redshank or simply redshank (''Tringa totanus'') is a Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae. Taxonomy The common redshank was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ...

(a wader) and grebes (which are divers).

Bird watching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

in childhood had given Huxley his interest in

ornithology Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

, and he helped devise systems for the surveying and conservation of birds. His particular interest was bird behaviour, especially the courtship of water birds. His 1914 paper on the

great crested grebe The great crested grebe (''Podiceps cristatus'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display. Taxonomy The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in t ...

, later published as a book, was a landmark in avian

ethology Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objecti ...

; his invention of vivid labels for the rituals (such as 'penguin dance', 'plesiosaurus race' etc.) made the ideas memorable and interesting to the general reader. GreatCrestedGrebes

In 1912 Huxley was asked by

Edgar Odell Lovett Edgar Odell Lovett (April 14, 1871 – August 13, 1957) was an American educator and education administrator. He was the first president of Rice Institute (now Rice University) in Houston, Texas. Lovett was recommended to the post by Woodr ...

to set up the Department of Biology at the newly created Rice Institute (now

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

) in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, Texas, which he accepted, planning to start the following year. Huxley made an exploratory trip to the United States in September 1912, visiting a number of leading universities as well as the Rice Institute. At

T. H. Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role tha ...

's fly lab (

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

) he invited H. J. Muller to join him at Rice. Muller agreed to be his deputy, hurried to complete his PhD and moved to Houston for the beginning of the 1915–1916 academic year. At Rice, Muller taught biology and continued ''Drosophila'' lab work. Hux1918-72

Before taking up the post of Assistant Professor at the

Rice Institute The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its work ...

, Huxley spent a year in Germany preparing for his demanding new job. Working in a laboratory just months before the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Huxley overheard fellow academics comment on a passing aircraft "it will not be long before those planes are flying over England". One pleasure of Huxley's life in Texas was the sight of his first hummingbird, though his visit to

Edward Avery McIlhenny Edward Avery McIlhenny (March 29, 1872 – August 8, 1949), son of Tabasco brand pepper sauce tycoon Edmund McIlhenny, was an American businessman, explorer, bird bander and conservationist. He established a private wildlife refuge around his ...

's estate on

Avery Island Avery Island (historically french: Île Petite Anse) is a salt dome best known as the source of Tabasco sauce. Located in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, United States, it is approximately inland from Vermilion Bay, which in turn opens onto the Gulf ...

in Louisiana was more significant. The McIlhennys and their Avery cousins owned the entire island, and the McIlhenny branch used it to produce their famous

Tabasco sauce Tabasco is an American brand of hot sauce made from vinegar, tabasco peppers ('' Capsicum frutescens'' var. ''tabasco''), and salt. It is produced by McIlhenny Company of Avery Island in south Louisiana, having been created over 150 years ago ...

. Birds were one of McIlhenny's passions, however, and around 1895 he had set up a private sanctuary on the Island, called Bird City. There Huxley found

egrets Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

herons The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

and bitterns. These water birds, like the grebes, exhibit mutual courtship, with the pairs displaying to each other, and with the secondary sexual characteristics equally developed in both sexes. In September 1916 Huxley returned to England from Texas to assist in the war effort. He was commissioned a temporary second lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps on 25 May 1917, and was transferred to the General List, working in the

British Army Intelligence Corps The Intelligence Corps (Int Corps) is a corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security. The Director of the Intelligence Corps is a br ...

from 26 January 1918, first in Sussex, and then in northern Italy. He was advanced in grade within the Intelligence Corps on 3 May 1918, relinquished his intelligence appointment on 10 January 1919 and was demobilised five days later, retaining his rank. After the war he became a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

at New College, Oxford, and was made Senior Demonstrator in the University Department of Zoology. In fact, Huxley took the place of his old tutor Geoffrey Smith, who had been killed in the battle of the Somme on the Western Front. The ecological geneticist E. B. Ford always remembered his openness and encouragement at the start of his career.Huxley, Juliette. 1986. ''Leaves of the tulip tree: autobiography''. Murray, London. Chapter 4. Julian Huxley and 2 sons

In 1925 Huxley moved to King's College London as Professor of

, but in 1927, to the amazement of his colleagues and on the prodding of

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

G. P. Wells on ''

The Science of Life ''The Science of Life'' is a book written by H. G. Wells, Julian Huxley and G. P. Wells, published in three volumes by The Waverley Publishing Company Ltd in 1929–30, giving a popular account of all major aspects of biology as known in the 1 ...

'' ( see below). For some time Huxley retained his room at King's College, continuing as Honorary Lecturer in the Zoology Department, and from 1927 to 1931 he was also

Fullerian Professor of Physiology The Fullerian Chairs at the Royal Institution in London, England, were established by John 'Mad Jack' Fuller. Fullerian Professors of Physiology & Comparative Anatomy * 1834–1837 Peter Mark Roget * 1837–1838 Robert Edmond Grant * 1841–1844 Th ...

at the Royal Institution, where he gave an annual lectures series, but this marked the end of his life as a university academic. Juliette Huxley

In 1929, after finishing work on ''The Science of Life'', Huxley visited East Africa to advise the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

on education in

British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Bri ...

(for the most part

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

and

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

). He discovered that the wildlife on the

Serengeti The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a Geography of Africa, geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game res ...

plain was almost undisturbed because the

tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies), are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Glos ...

(the vector for the trypanosome parasite which causes

sleeping sickness African trypanosomiasis, also known as African sleeping sickness or simply sleeping sickness, is an insect-borne parasitic infection of humans and other animals. It is caused by the species ''Trypanosoma brucei''. Humans are infected by two typ ...

in humans) prevented human settlement there. He tells about these experiences in ''Africa view'' (1931), and so does his wife. She reveals that he fell in love with an 18-year-old American girl on board ship (when Juliette was not present), and then presented Juliette with his ideas for an open marriage: "What Julian really wanted was… a definite freedom from the conventional bonds of marriage." The couple separated for a while; Julian travelled to the US, hoping to land a suitable appointment and, in due course, to marry Miss Weldmeier. He left no account of what transpired, but he was evidently not successful, and returned to England to resume his marriage in 1931. For the next couple of years Huxley still angled for an appointment in the US, without success.

Mid career

As the 1930s started, Huxley travelled widely and took part in a variety of activities which were partly scientific and partly political. In 1931 Huxley visited the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

at the invitation of

Intourist Intourist (russian: Интурист, a contraction of , "foreign tourist") was a Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tourists in the Soviet Uni ...

, where initially he admired the results of social and economic planning on a large scale. Later, back in the United Kingdom, he became a founding member of the think tank

Political and Economic Planning Political and Economic Planning (PEP) was a British policy think tank, formed in 1931 in response to Max Nicholson's article ''A National Plan for Britain'' published in February of that year in Gerald Barry's magazine ''The Week-End Review''. His ...

. In the 1930s Huxley visited

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

and other East African countries to see the conservation work, including the creation of

national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

. In 1933, he was one of eleven people involved in the appeal that led to the foundation of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), an organisation for the study of birds in the British Isles. From 1933 to 1938 he was a member of the committee for Lord Hailey's African Survey. Hux-cig-72

In 1935 Huxley was appointed secretary to the

, and spent much of the next seven years running the society and its zoological gardens, the London Zoo and Whipsnade Park, alongside his writing and research. The previous Director,

Peter Chalmers Mitchell Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell (23 November 1864 – 2 July 1945) was a Scottish zoologist who was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1903 to 1935. During this time, he directed the policy of the Zoological Gardens of London and c ...

, had been in post for many years, and had skillfully avoided conflict with the Fellows and Council. Things were rather different when Huxley arrived. Huxley was not a skilled administrator; his wife said "He was impatient… and lacked tact". He instituted a number of changes and innovations, more than some approved of. For example, Huxley introduced a whole range of ideas designed to make the Zoo child-friendly. Today, this would pass without comment; but then it was more controversial. He fenced off the Fellows' Lawn to establish Pets Corner; he appointed new assistant curators, encouraging them to talk to children; he initiated the Zoo Magazine. Fellows and their guests had the privilege of free entry on Sundays, a closed day to the general public. Today, that would be unthinkable, and Sundays are now open to the public. Huxley's mild suggestion (that the guests should pay) encroached on territory the Fellows thought was theirs by right. In 1941 Huxley was invited to the United States on a lecturing tour, and generated some controversy by saying that he thought the United States should join

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 ...

: a few weeks later came the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

. When the US joined the war, he found it difficult to get a passage back to the UK, and his lecture tour was extended. The Council of the Zoological Society—"a curious assemblage… of wealthy amateurs, self-perpetuating and autocratic"—uneasy with their secretary, used this as an opportunity to remove him. This they did by abolishing his post "to save expenses". Since Huxley had taken a half-salary cut at the start of the war, and no salary at all whilst he was in America, the council's action was widely read as a personal attack on Huxley. A public controversy ensued, but eventually the Council got its way. In 1943 he was asked by the British government to join the Colonial Commission on Higher Education. The commission's remit was to survey the West African Commonwealth countries for suitable locations for the creation of universities. There he acquired a disease, went down with

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes ( jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal ...

, and had a serious mental breakdown. He was completely disabled, treated with ECT, and took a full year to recover. He was 55.

Later career

Huxley, a lifelong internationalist with a concern for education, got involved in the creation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (

), and became the organization's first director-general in 1946. His term of office, six years in the Charter, was cut down to two years at the behest of the American delegation. The reasons are not known for sure, but his left-wing tendencies and humanism were likely factors. In a fortnight he dashed off a 60-page booklet on the purpose and philosophy of UNESCO, eventually printed and issued as an official document. There were, however, many conservative opponents of his scientific humanism. His idea of restraining population growth with birth control was anathema to both the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and the Comintern/

Cominform The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (), commonly known as Cominform (), was a co-ordination body of Marxist-Leninist communist parties in Europe during the early Cold War that was formed in part as a replacement of the ...

. In its first few years UNESCO was dynamic and broke new ground; since Huxley it has become larger, more bureaucratic and stable. The personal and social side of the years in Paris are well described by his wife.Huxley, Juliette 1986. ''Leaves of the tulip tree''. Murray, London. Huxley's internationalist and conservation interests also led him, with

Victor Stolan Victor Stolan (born 1893) provided "the germ of the idea"Sir Arthur Norman (1981) The story of the World Wildlife Fund. Contemporary Review vol 239, 23-29. that led Julian Huxley and Max Nicholson with him to start the World Wildlife Fund. They to ...

Sir Peter Scott Sir Peter Markham Scott, (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest in ...

Max Nicholson Edward Max Nicholson (12 July 1904 – 26 April 2003) was a pioneering environmentalist, ornithologist and internationalist, and a founder of the World Wildlife Fund. Early life Max Nicholson, as he was known to all, was born in Kilternan, Ir ...

and

Guy Mountfort Guy Mountfort (4 December 1905 – 23 April 2003) was an English advertising executive, amateur ornithologist and conservationist. He is known for writing the pioneering ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe'', published in 1954 ...

, to set up the WWF (

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

under its former name of the

). Another post-war activity was Huxley's attack on the Soviet politico-scientist

Trofim Lysenko Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (russian: Трофим Денисович Лысенко, uk, Трохи́м Дени́сович Лисе́нко, ; 20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and pseudo-scientist.''An ill-educated agronomist with hu ...

, who had espoused a

Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolo ...

ian heredity, made unscientific pronouncements on agriculture, used his influence to destroy classical genetics in Russia and to move genuine scientists from their posts. In 1940, the leading botanical geneticist

Nikolai Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Вави́лов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ vɐˈvʲiləf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Ivanovich_Vavilov.ogg; – 26 January 1943) was a Russian and Soviet agronomist, botanist ...

was arrested, and Lysenko replaced him as director of the Institute of Genetics. In 1941, Vavilov was tried, found guilty of 'sabotage' and sentenced to death. Reprieved, he died in jail of malnutrition in 1943. Lysenko's machinations were the cause of his arrest. Worse still,

Lysenkoism Lysenkoism (russian: Лысенковщина, Lysenkovshchina, ; uk, лисенківщина, lysenkivščyna, ) was a political campaign led by Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko against genetics and science-based agriculture in the mid-20th ce ...

not only denied proven genetic facts, it stopped the artificial selection of crops on Darwinian principles. This may have contributed to the regular shortage of food from the Soviet agricultural system ( Soviet famines). Huxley, who had twice visited the Soviet Union, was originally not anti-communist, but the ruthless adoption of Lysenkoism by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

ended his tolerant attitude. Lysenko ended his days in a Soviet mental hospital, and Vavilov's reputation was posthumously restored in 1955. In the 1950s Huxley played a role in bringing to the

English-speaking Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...

public the work of the French Jesuit-

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and phil ...

, who he believed had been unfairly treated by the Catholic and Jesuit hierarchy. Both men believed in evolution, but differed in its interpretation as Teilhard de Chardin was a Christian, whilst Huxley was an atheist. Huxley wrote the foreword to ''

The Phenomenon of Man ''The Phenomenon of Man'' (french: link=no, Le phénomène humain) is an essay by the French geologist, paleontologist, philosopher, and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In this work, Teilhard describes evolution as a process that leads t ...

'' (1959) and was bitterly attacked by his rationalist friends for doing so. On Huxley's death at 87 on 14 February 1975, John Owen (Director of National Parks for

) wrote "Julian Huxley was one of the world's great men… he played a seminal role in wild life conservation in astAfrica in the early days… nd inthe far-reaching influence he exerted nthe international community". In addition to his international and humanist concerns, his research interests covered evolution in all its aspects,

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

and to some extent the infant field of cell biology. Julian's eminence as an advocate for evolution, and especially his contribution to the modern evolutionary synthesis, led to his awards of the

of the

in 1956, and the Darwin–Wallace Medal of the

in 1958. 1958 was the centenary anniversary of the joint presentation ''On the tendency of species to form varieties; and the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection'' by Darwin and Wallace. Huxley was a friend and mentor of the biologists and Nobel laureates

Konrad Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarde ...

and

Niko Tinbergen Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (; ; 15 April 1907 – 21 December 1988) was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the or ...

, and taught and encouraged many others. In general, he was more of an all-round naturalist than his famous grandfather, and contributed much to the acceptance of natural selection. His outlook was international, and somewhat idealistic: his interest in progress and evolutionary humanism runs through much of his published work. He was one of the signers of the

Humanist Manifesto ''Humanist Manifesto'' is the title of three manifestos laying out a humanist worldview. They are the original '' Humanist Manifesto'' (1933, often referred to as Humanist Manifesto I), the ''Humanist Manifesto II'' (1973), and ''Humanism and I ...

Special themes

Evolution

Huxley and biologist

August Weismann August Friedrich Leopold Weismann FRS (For), HonFRSE, LLD (17 January 18345 November 1914) was a German evolutionary biologist. Fellow German Ernst Mayr ranked him as the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after Cha ...

insisted on natural selection as the primary agent in

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. Huxley was a major player in the mid-twentieth century modern evolutionary synthesis. He was a prominent populariser of biological science to the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

, with a focus on three aspects in particular.

Personal influence

In the early 20th century he was one of the minority of biologists who believed that

was the main driving force of evolution, and that evolution occurred by small steps and not by saltation (jumps). These opinions are now standard.
Though his time as an academic was quite brief, he taught and encouraged evolutionary biologists at the University of Oxford in the 1920s. Charles Elton (ecology),

Alister Hardy Sir Alister Clavering Hardy (10 February 1896 – 22 May 1985) was an English marine biologist, an expert on marine ecosystems spanning organisms from zooplankton to whales. He had the artistic skill to illustrate his books with his own drawing ...

( marine biology) and John Baker (

cytology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...

) all became highly successful, and Baker eventually wrote Huxley's Royal Society obituary memoir.
Perhaps the most significant was

Edmund Brisco Ford Edmund Brisco "Henry" Ford (23 April 1901 – 2 January 1988) was a British ecological geneticist. He was a leader among those British biologists who investigated the role of natural selection in nature. As a schoolboy Ford became interested i ...

, who founded a field of research called

ecological genetics Ecological genetics is the study of genetics in natural populations. Traits in a population can be observed and quantified to represent a species adapting to a changing environment. This contrasts with classical genetics, which works mostly on ...

, which played a role in the evolutionary synthesis. Another important disciple was

Gavin de Beer Sir Gavin Rylands de Beer (1 November 1899 – 21 June 1972) was a British evolutionary embryologist, known for his work on heterochrony as recorded in his 1930 book ''Embryos and Ancestors''. He was director of the Natural History Museum, Lond ...

, who wrote on evolution and development, and became Director of the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

. Both these scholars had attended Huxley's lectures on

, experimental

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

(including

) and

. Later, they became his collaborators, and then leaders in their own right. In an era when scientists did not travel so frequently as today, Huxley travelled widely in Europe, Africa and the United States. He was therefore able to learn from and influence other scientists, naturalists and administrators. In the US he was able to meet other evolutionists at a critical time in the reassessment of

. In Africa he was able to influence colonial administrators about education and wildlife

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

. In Europe, through

, he was at the centre of the post-

revival of education. In Russia, however, his experiences were mixed. His initially favourable view was changed by his growing awareness of Stalin's murderous repression, and the Lysenko affair. There seems little evidence that he had any effect on the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and the same could be said for some other Western scientists. "Marxist-Leninism had become a dogmatic religion… and like all dogmatic religions, it had turned from reform to persecution."

Evolutionary synthesis

Huxley was one of the main architects of the modern evolutionary synthesis which took place around the time of

. The synthesis of genetic and population ideas produced a consensus which reigned in biology from about 1940, and which is still broadly tenable. "The most informative episode in the history of evolutionary biology was the establishment of the 'neo-Darwinian synthesis'." The synthesis was brought about "not by one side being proved right and the others wrong, but by the exchange of the most viable components of the previously competing research strategies". Ernst Mayr, 1980. Huxley's first 'trial run' was the treatment of evolution in the ''Science of Life'' (1929–30), and in 1936 he published a long and significant paper for the

British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

. In 1938 came three lengthy reviews on major evolutionary topics. Two of these papers were on the subject of

sexual selection Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex ( ...

, an idea of Darwin's whose standing has been revived in recent times. Huxley thought that sexual selection was "…merely an aspect of natural selection which… is concerned with characters which subserve mating, and are usually sex-limited". This rather grudging acceptance of sexual selection was influenced by his studies on the courtship of the

(and other birds that pair for life): the courtship takes place mostly ''after'' mate selection, not before. Huxley to tackled the subject of evolution at full length, in what became the defining work of his life. His role was that of a synthesiser, and it helped that he had met many of the other participants. His book '' Evolution: The Modern Synthesis'' was written whilst he was secretary to the Zoological Society, and made use of his collection of reprints covering the first part of the century. It was published in 1942. Reviews of the book in learned journals were little short of ecstatic; the American Naturalist called it "The outstanding evolutionary treatise of the decade, perhaps of the century. The approach is thoroughly scientific; the command of basic information amazing". Huxley's main co-respondents in the modern evolutionary synthesis are usually listed as Ernst Mayr,

Theodosius Dobzhansky Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky (russian: Феодо́сий Григо́рьевич Добржа́нский; uk, Теодо́сій Григо́рович Добржа́нський; January 25, 1900 – December 18, 1975) was a prominent ...

George Gaylord Simpson George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern synthesis, contributing '' Tempo ...

Bernhard Rensch Bernhard Rensch (21 January 1900 – 4 April 1990) was a German evolutionary biologist and ornithologist who did field work in Indonesia and India. Starting his scientific career with pro-Lamarckian views, he shifted to selectionism and became ...

, Ledyard Stebbins and the population geneticists

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who ...

and

Sewall Wright Sewall Green Wright FRS(For) Honorary FRSE (December 21, 1889March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. He was a founder of population genetics alongsi ...

. However, at the time of Huxley's book several of these had yet to make their distinctive contribution. Certainly, for Huxley, E. B. Ford and his co-workers in

were at least as important; and Cyril Darlington, the chromosome expert, was a notable source of facts and ideas.An analysis of the 'authorities cited' index of ''Evolution the modern synthesis'' shows indirectly those whom Huxley regarded as the most important contributors to the synthesis up to 1941 (the book was published in 1942, and references go up to 1941). The authorities cited 20 or more times are: Darlington, Darwin,

Dobzhansky Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky (russian: Феодо́сий Григо́рьевич Добржа́нский; uk, Теодо́сій Григо́рович Добржа́нський; January 25, 1900 – December 18, 1975) was a prominent ...

Fisher Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, Goldschmidt, Haldane, J. S. Huxley,

Muller Muller is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: A–H * A. Charles Muller (born 1953), translator *Bauke Muller (born 1962), Dutch bridge player * Bennie Muller (born 1938), Dutch footballer *Bill Muller (1965–2007), US journalis ...

, Rensch, Turrill,

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright i ...

. Goldschmidt was an influential geneticist who advocated evolution by saltation, and was sometimes mentioned in disagreement. Turrill provided Huxley with botanical information. The list omits three key members of the synthesis who are listed above:

Mayr Mayr is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrea Mayr (born 1979), Austrian female long-distance runner * Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), German American evolutionary biologist * Georg Mayr (1564–1623), Bavarian Jesuit pries ...

, Stebbins the botanist and

Simpson Simpson most often refers to: * Simpson (name), a British surname *''The Simpsons'', an animated American sitcom **The Simpson family, central characters of the series ''The Simpsons'' Simpson may also refer to: Organizations Schools *Simpso ...

the palaeontologist. Mayr gets 16 citations and more in the two later editions; all three published outstanding and relevant books some years later, and their contribution to the synthesis is unquestionable. Their lesser weight in Huxley's citations was caused by the early publication date of his book. Huxley's book is not strong in palaeontology, which illustrates perfectly why Simpson's later works were such an important contribution. Huxley coined the terms ''the new synthesis'' and ''evolutionary synthesis''; he also invented the term ''

cline Cline may refer to: Science * Cline (biology), a measurable gradient in a single trait in a species across its geographical range * Cline (hydrology), a fluid layer with a property that varies * Cline (mathematics) or generalised circle, a circl ...

'' in 1938 to refer to species whose members fall into a series of sub-species with continuous change in characters over a geographical area. The classic example of a cline is the circle of subspecies of the gull ''

Larus ''Larus'' is a large genus of gulls with worldwide distribution (by far the greatest species diversity is in the Northern Hemisphere). Many of its species are abundant and well-known birds in their ranges. Until about 2005–2007, most gulls ...

'' round the Arctic zone. This cline is an example of a ''

ring species In biology, a ring species is a connected series of neighbouring populations, each of which interbreeds with closely sited related populations, but for which there exist at least two "end" populations in the series, which are too distantly relate ...

''.
Some of Huxley's last contributions to the evolutionary synthesis were on the subject of

. He noted how widespread polymorphism is in nature, with visible morphism much more prevalent in some groups than others. The immense diversity of colour and pattern in small bivalve molluscs, brittlestars, sea-anemones, tubicular polychaetes and various grasshoppers is perhaps maintained by making recognition by predators more difficult.

Evolutionary progress

Although Huxley believed that on a broad view evolution led to advances in organisation, he rejected classical Aristotelian

teleology Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...

: "The ordinary man, or at least the ordinary poet, philosopher and theologian, always was anxious to find purpose in the evolutionary process. I believe this reasoning to be totally false.". Huxley coined the phrase ''Progress without a goal'' to summarise his case in ''Evolution the modern synthesis'' that evolutionary progress was "a raising of the upper level of biological efficiency, this being defined as increased control over and independence of the environment." In ''Evolution in action'' he wrote that

Natural selection plus time produces biological improvement… 'Improvement' is not yet a recognised technical term in biology … however, living things are improved during evolution… Darwin was not afraid to use the word for the results of natural selection in general… I believe that improvement can become one of the key concepts in evolutionary biology.
Can it be scientifically defined? Improvements in biological machinery… the limbs and teeth of grazing horses… the increase in brain-power… The eyes of a dragon-fly, which can see all round tin every direction, are an improvement over the mere microscopic eye-spots of early forms of life.

ver Ver or VER may refer to: * Voluntary Export Restraints, in international trade * VER, the IATA airport code for General Heriberto Jara International Airport * Volk's Electric Railway, Brighton, England * VerPublishing, of the German group VDM P ...
the whole range of evolutionary time we see general advance—improvement in all the main properties of life, including its general organization. 'Advance' is thus a useful term for long-term improvement in some general property of life. utimprovement is not universal. Lower forms manage to survive alongside higher".

Huxley's views on progressive evolution were similar to those of G. Ledyard Stebbins and

, and were challenged in the latter part of the twentieth century with objections from Cladists, among others, to any suggestion that one group could be scientifically described as 'advanced' and another as 'primitive'. Modern assessments of these views have been surveyed in Nitecki and Dawkins.

Secular humanism

Huxley's

humanism Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...

came from his appreciation that mankind was in charge of its own destiny (at least in principle), and this raised the need for a sense of direction and a system of ethics. His grandfather

T. H. Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...

, when faced with similar problems, had promoted agnosticism, but Julian chose humanism as being more directed to supplying a basis for ethics. Julian's thinking went along these lines: "The critical point in the evolution of man… was when he acquired the use of anguage�� Man's development is potentially open… He has developed a new method of evolution: the transmission of organized experience by way of tradition, which… largely overrides the automatic process of natural selection as the agent of change." Both Huxley and his grandfather gave

Romanes Lectures The Romanes Lecture is a prestigious free public lecture given annually at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, England. The lecture series was founded by, and named after, the biologist George Romanes, and has been running since 1892. Over the year ...

on the possible connection between evolution and ethics (see

evolutionary ethics Evolutionary ethics is a field of inquiry that explores how evolutionary theory might bear on our understanding of ethics or morality. The range of issues investigated by evolutionary ethics is quite broad. Supporters of evolutionary ethics have ...

). Huxley's views on God could be described as being that of an agnostic atheist. Huxley had a close association with the British rationalist and

secular humanist Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality ...

movements. He was an Honorary Associate of the

Rationalist Press Association The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor ...

from 1927 until his death, and on the formation of the

in 1963 became its first President, to be succeeded by

AJ Ayer Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) ...

in 1965. He was also closely involved with the

International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Foun ...

. Many of Huxley's books address humanist themes. In 1962 Huxley accepted the American Humanist Association's annual "Humanist of the Year" award. Huxley also presided over the founding Congress of the

and served with John Dewey,

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

and

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

on the founding advisory board of the First Humanist Society of New York.

Religious naturalism

Huxley wrote that "There is no separate supernatural realm: all phenomena are part of one natural process of evolution. There is no basic cleavage between science and religion;… I believe that drastic reorganization of our pattern of religious thought is now becoming necessary, from a god-centered to an evolutionary-centred pattern."Huxley, Julian. 1969. The New Divinity in ''Essays of a Humanist''. Penguin, London. Some believe the appropriate label for these views is

religious naturalism Religious naturalism combines a naturalist worldview with ideals, perceptions, traditions, and values that have been traditionally associated with many religions or religious institutions. "Religious naturalism is a perspective that finds religi ...

Many people assert that this abandonment of the god hypothesis means the abandonment of all religion and all moral sanctions. This is simply not true. But it does mean, once our relief at jettisoning an outdated piece of ideological furniture is over, that we must construct something to take its place.

Parapsychology

Huxley took interest in investigating the claims of

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...

and

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (w ...

. He joined the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to co ...

in 1928. After investigation he found the field to be unscientific and full of

charlatan A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. Synonyms for ''charlatan'' include '' ...

s. In 1934, he joined the

International Institute for Psychical Research The International Institute for Psychical Research (IIPR) was a short-lived psychical organization based in London that was formed in 1934. It was criticized by scientists for its spiritualist leanings and non-scientific approach to the subject.''Bl ...

but resigned after a few months due to its members' spiritualist bias and non-scientific approach to the subject. After attending

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

s, Huxley concluded that the phenomena could be explained "either by natural causes, or, more usually by fraud". Huxley,

Harold Dearden Harold Dearden (13 December 1882 – 6 July 1962) was a British psychiatrist and screenwriter. Biography Dearden was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and London Hospital. He qualified as a phys ...

and others were judges for a group formed by the ''

Sunday Chronicle The ''Sunday Chronicle'' was a newspaper in the United Kingdom, published from 1885 to 1955. The newspaper was founded in Manchester by Edward Hulton in August 1885. He was known for his sporting coverage, already publishing the ''Sporting Chro ...

'' to investigate the materialization medium Harold Evans. During a séance Evans was exposed as a fraud. He was caught masquerading as a spirit, in a white nightshirt. In 1952, Huxley wrote the foreword to Donovan Rawcliffe's ''

The Psychology of the Occult ''The Psychology of the Occult'' is a 1952 skeptical book on the paranormal by psychologist D. H. Rawcliffe. It was later published as ''Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult'' (1959) and ''Occult and Supernatural Phenomena' ...

''.

Eugenics and race

Huxley was a prominent member of the British Eugenics Society, and was Vice-President (1937–1944) and President (1959–1962). He thought eugenics was important for removing undesirable variants from the human gene pool, though after

he believed

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

was a meaningless concept in biology, and its application to humans was highly inconsistent. Huxley was an outspoken critic of the most extreme eugenicism in the 1920s and 1930s (the stimulus for which was the greater fertility of the 'feckless' poor compared to the 'responsible' prosperous classes). He was, nevertheless, a leading figure in the eugenics movement (see, for example, Eugenics manifesto). He gave the

Galton Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto- ...

memorial lecture twice, in 1936 and 1962. In his writing he used this argument several times: "''no one doubts the wisdom of managing the germ plasm of agricultural stocks, so why not apply the same concept to human stocks?"'' The agricultural analogy appears over and over again as it did in the writings of many American eugenicists. Huxley was one of many intellectuals at the time who believed that the lowest class in society was genetically inferior. In this passage, from 1941, he investigates a hypothetical scenario where

Social Darwinism Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...

, capitalism, nationalism and the class society is taken for granted:

If so, then we must plan our eugenic policy along some such lines as the following:... The lowest strata, allegedly less well-endowed genetically, are reproducing relatively too fast. Therefore birth-control methods must be taught them; they must not have too easy access to relief or hospital treatment lest the removal of the last check on natural selection should make it too easy for children to be produced or to survive; long unemployment should be a ground for sterilization, or at least relief should be contingent upon no further children being brought into the world; and so on. That is to say, much of our eugenic programme will be curative and remedial merely, instead of preventive and constructive.

Here, he does not demean the working class in general, but aims for ''"the virtual elimination of the few lowest and most degenerate types"''. The sentiment is not at all atypical of the time, and similar views were held by many geneticists ( William E. Castle, C. B. Davenport, H. J. Muller are examples), and by other prominent intellectuals. Huxley advocated ensuring the lower classes have a nutritious diet, education and facilities for recreation:

We must therefore concentrate on producing a single equalized environment; and this clearly should be one as favourable as possible to the expression of the genetic qualities that we think desirable. Equally clearly, this should include the following items. A marked raising of the standard of diet for the great majority of the population, until all should be provided both with adequate calories and adequate accessory factors; provision of facilities for healthy exercise and recreation; and upward equalization of educational opportunity. ... we know from various sources that raising the standard of life among the poorest classes almost invariably results in a lowering of their fertility. In so far, therefore, as differential class-fertility exists, raising the environmental level will reduce any dysgenic effects which it may now have.

Concerning a public health and racial policy in general, Huxley wrote that "…unless ivilised societiesinvent and enforce adequate measures for regulating human reproduction, for controlling the quantity of population, and ''at least preventing the deterioration of quality of racial stock'', they are doomed to decay …" and remarked how biology should be the chief tool for rendering social politics scientific. In the opinion of Duvall, "His views fell well within the spectrum of opinion acceptable to the English liberal intellectual elite. He shared ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

''s enthusiasm for birth control, and 'voluntary' sterilization." However, the word 'English' in this passage is unnecessary: such views were widespread. Duvall comments that Huxley's enthusiasm for centralised

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

and economic planning and anti-industrial values was common to leftist ideologists during the inter-war years. Towards the end of his life, Huxley himself must have recognised how unpopular these views became after the end of

. In the two volumes of his autobiography, there is no mention of eugenics in the index, nor is Galton mentioned; and the subject has also been omitted from many of the obituaries and biographies. An exception is the proceedings of a conference organised by the British Eugenics Society. In response to the rise of European fascism in the 1930s, he was asked to write ''We Europeans'' with the ethnologist A. C. Haddon, the zoologist Alexander Carr-Saunders and the historian of science

Charles Singer Charles Joseph Singer (2 November 1876 – 10 June 1960) was a British historian of science, technology, and medicine. He served as medical officer in the British Army. Biography Early years Singer was born in Camberwell in London, where hi ...

. Huxley suggested the word 'race' be replaced with ethnic group. After the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

, he was instrumental in producing the

statement ''

The Race Question The Race Question is the first of four UNESCO statements about issues of race. It was issued on 18 July 1950 following World War II and Nazi racism to clarify what was scientifically known about race, and as a moral condemnation of racism.< ...

'', which asserted that:

A race, from the biological standpoint, may therefore be defined as one of the group of populations constituting the species ''Homo sapiens''"… "National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cult groups do not necessary coincide with racial groups: the cultural traits of such groups have no demonstrated genetic connexion with racial traits. Because serious errors of this kind are habitually committed when the term 'race' is used in popular parlance, it would be better when speaking of human races to drop the term 'race' altogether and speak of ''ethnic groups''"… "Now what has the scientist to say about the groups of mankind which may be recognized at the present time? Human races can be and have been differently classified by different anthropologists, but at the present time most anthropologists agree on classifying the greater part of present-day mankind into three major divisions, as follows: The Mongoloid Division; The Negroid Division; The Caucasoid Division." … "Catholics, Protestants, Moslems and Jews are not races … The biological fact of race and the myth of 'race' should be distinguished. For all practical social purposes 'race' is not so much a biological phenomenon as a social myth. The myth 'race' has created an enormous amount of human and social damage. In recent years it has taken a heavy toll in human lives and caused untold suffering. It still prevents the normal development of millions of human beings and deprives civilization of the effective co-operation of productive minds. The biological differences between ethnic groups should be disregarded from the standpoint of social acceptance and social action. The unity of mankind from both the biological and social viewpoint is the main thing. To recognize this and to act accordingly is the first requirement of modern man ...

Huxley won the second

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

for ''We Europeans'' in 1937. In 1951, Huxley coined the term ''

transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

'' for the view that humans should better themselves through science and technology, possibly including eugenics, but also, importantly, the improvement of the social environment.

Public life and popularisation

Huxley was a capable and willing popularizer of science. Well over half his books are addressed to an educated general audience, and he wrote often in periodicals and newspapers. The most extensive bibliography of Huxley lists some of these ephemeral articles, though there are others unrecorded. These articles, some reissued as ''Essays of a Biologist'' (1923), probably led to the invitation from H. G. Wells to help write a comprehensive work on biology for a general readership, ''The Science of Life''. This work was published in stages in 1929–30, and in one volume in 1931. Of this

Robert Olby Robert Cecil Olby (born in Beckenham on October 4, 1933; died December 31, 2020) was a research professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Formerly Reader at the University of Leeds, UK, Robert ...

said "Book IV ''The essence of the controversies about evolution'' offers perhaps the clearest, most readable, succinct and informative popular account of the subject ever penned. It was here that he first expounded his own version of what later developed into the evolutionary synthesis". In his memoirs, Huxley says that he made almost £10,000 from the book. In 1934 Huxley collaborated with the naturalist

Ronald Lockley Ronald Mathias Lockley (8 November 1903 – 12 April 2000) was a Welsh ornithologist and naturalist. He wrote over fifty books on natural history, including a major study of shearwaters, and many articles. He is perhaps best known for his book ...

to create for

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)The Private Life of the Gannets ''The Private Life of the Gannets'' is a 1934 British short documentary film, directed by Julian Huxley, about a colony of Northern Gannets (''Morus bassanus'') on the small rocky island of Grassholm, off the coast of Wales. It received a spec ...

''. For the film, shot with the support of the Royal Navy around Grassholm off the Pembrokeshire coast, they won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

for best documentary. Huxley had given talks on the radio since the 1920s, followed by written versions in '' The Listener''. In later life, he became known to an even wider audience through television. In 1939 the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

asked him to be a regular panelist on a

Home Service Home Service is a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album ''Alright Jack'', and has had an ...

general knowledge show, ''

The Brains Trust ''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was ...

'', in which he and other panelists were asked to discuss questions submitted by listeners. The show was commissioned to keep up war time morale, by preventing the war from "disrupting the normal discussion of interesting ideas". The audience was not large for this somewhat elite programme; however, listener research ranked Huxley the most popular member of the Brains Trust from 1941 to 1944. Later, he was a regular panelist on one of the

...

's first quiz shows (1955) ''Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?'' in which participants were asked to talk about objects chosen from museum and university collections. In 1937 Huxley was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on ''Rare Animals and the Disappearance of Wild Life''. In his essay ''The Crowded World'' Huxley was openly critical of Communist and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

attitudes to birth control,

population control Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from ...

and

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scal ...

. Based on variable rates of compound interest, Huxley predicted a probable

world population In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded 8 billion in November 2022. It took over 200,000 years of human prehistory and history for th ...

of 6 billion by 2000. The

United Nations Population Fund The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies a ...

marked 12 October 1999 as The Day of Six Billion. There is a public house named after Sir Julian in

Selsdon Selsdon is an area in South-East London, England, located in the London Borough of Croydon, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Prior to 1965 it was in the historic county of Surrey. It is located south of Coombe and Addiscombe, west of ...

London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon () is a London borough in south London, part of Outer London. It covers an area of . It is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the historic town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name; ...

, close to the

Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve Selsdon Wood is a woodland area located in the London Borough of Croydon. The park is owned by the National Trust but managed by the London Borough of Croydon. It is a Local Nature Reserve. The wood has a Friends group - the Friends of Selsdon ...

which he helped establish.

Terms coined

* Clade (1957): a monophyletic

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

; a single species and its descendants *

Cline Cline may refer to: Science * Cline (biology), a measurable gradient in a single trait in a species across its geographical range * Cline (hydrology), a fluid layer with a property that varies * Cline (mathematics) or generalised circle, a circl ...

(1938): a gradient of

gene frequencies Allele frequency, or gene frequency, is the relative frequency of an allele (variant of a gene) at a particular locus in a population, expressed as a fraction or percentage. Specifically, it is the fraction of all chromosomes in the population that ...

in a population, along a given transect * Ethnic group (1936): as opposed to

Evolutionary grade A grade is a taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity. The term was coined by British biologist Julian Huxley, to contrast with clade, a strictly phylogenetic unit. Definition An evolutionary grade is a group of sp ...

(1959): a level of evolutionary advance, in contrast to a clade * Mentifact (1955): objects which consist of ideas in people's minds * Morph (1942): as more correct and simpler than polymorph *

Ritualization Ritualization is a behavior that occurs typically in a member of a given species in a highly stereotyped fashion and independent of any direct physiological significance. It is found, in differing forms, both in non-human animals and in humans. In ...

(1914): formalised activities in bird behaviour, caused by inherited behaviour chains * Sociofact (1955): objects which consist of interactions between members of a social group *

Transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

(1957): the transforming of human beings

Titles and phrases

* ''Religion Without Revelation'' (1927, 1957) * ''The New Systematics'' (1940) * ''The Uniqueness of Man'' (1941) * ''Evolution: The Modern Synthesis'' (1942) * ''

Evolutionary Ethics Evolutionary ethics is a field of inquiry that explores how evolutionary theory might bear on our understanding of ethics or morality. The range of issues investigated by evolutionary ethics is quite broad. Supporters of evolutionary ethics have ...

'' (1943) * ''Evolution as a Process'' (1954) * ''Essays of a Humanist'' (1964) * ''The Future of Man'' (1966)

Selected works

Articles

"Transhumanism."
''

Journal of Humanistic Psychology ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Psychology. The journal's editor is Sarah R. Kamens. It has been in publication since 1961 Powers, Robin. Counseling and Spirituality: A ...

'', vol. 8, no. 1 (January 1968): 73-76. . ::"Huxley gives the outline of what he believes future humanity could – and should – look like. By pointing out the numerous limitations and feebleness the human nature is – at the time – prone to, and by confronting them with the possibilities humankind has, Huxley expresses the need to research and put into use all possible measures that would enable man achieve utmost perfection."

Books

''The Individual in the Animal Kingdom''

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

(1912) * ''Courtship Habits of the Great Crested Grebe'' (1914) "A landmark in

." * ''Essays of a Biologist'' (1923) * ''Essays in Popular Science'' (1926) * ''The Stream of Life'' (1926) * '' The Tissue-Culture King'' (1926) hort story* ''Animal Biology'', with

(1927) * ''Religion Without Revelation'' (1927) evised ed. 1957* ''Ants'' (1929) * ''Science of Life: A Summary of Contemporary Knowledge About Life and its Possibilities'', with H. G. & G. P. Wells (1929–30) ** First issued in 31 fortnightly parts published by

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

, 1929–31, bound up in three volumes as publication proceeded. First issued in one volume by Cassell in 1931, reprinted 1934, 1937, popular edition, fully revised, 1938. Published as separate volumes by Cassell 1934–37: I ''The Living Body''. II ''Patterns of life'' (1934). III ''Evolution—fact and theory''. IV Reproduction, heredity and the development of sex. V ''The history and adventure of life''. VI ''The drama of life''. VII ''How animals behave'' (1937). VIII ''Man's mind and behaviour''. IX ''Biology and the human race''. Published in New York by Doubleday, Doran & Co. 1931, 1934, 1939; and by The

Literary Guild The Literary Guild of America is a mail order book club selling low-cost editions of selected current books to its members. Established in 1927 to compete with the Book of the Month Club, it is currently owned by Bookspan. It was a way to encourag ...

1934. Three of the Cassell spin-off books were also published by Doubleday in 1932: ''Evolution, fact and theory''; ''The human mind and the behavior of Man''; ''Reproduction, genetics and the development of sex''. * ''Bird-watching and Bird Behaviour'' (1930) * ''An Introduction to Science'' with

Edward Andrade Edward Neville da Costa Andrade FRS (27 December 1887 – 6 June 1971) was an English physicist, writer, and poet. He told ''The Literary Digest'' his name was pronounced "as written, i.e., like ''air raid'', with ''and'' substituted for ''air' ...

(1931–34) * ''What Dare I Think?: The Challenge of Modern Science to Human Action and Belief''. London: Chatto & Windus; New York:

Harper Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name Places ;in Canada * Harper Islands, Nunavut *Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County * Harper, Il ...

(1931) * ''Africa View'' (1931) * ''Captive Shrew and Other Poems'' (1932) * ''Problems of Relative Growth'' (1932) (on

allometry Allometry is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and finally behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in '' On Growth and Form'' and by Julian Huxley in 1932. Overview Allom ...

) * ''A Scientist Among the Soviets'' (1932) * ''If I Were Dictator''. London: Methuen; New York:

(1934) * ''Scientific Research and Social Needs'' (1934) * ''Elements of Experimental Embryology'', with

(1934) * ''Thomas Huxley's Diary of the Voyage of HMS ''Rattlesnake'''' (1935) * ''We Europeans'', with A.C. Haddon (1936) * ''Animal Language'' (1938) eprinted 1964Photographs and audio recordings of animal calls by

Ylla Camilla "Ylla" Koffler ( hu, Koffler Kamilla; 16 August 1911 – 30 March 1955) was a Hungarian photographer who specialized in animal photography. At the time of her death she "was generally considered the most proficient animal photographer in ...

. * Present Standing of the Theory of Sexual Selection. In:

(ed). ''Evolution: Essays on Aspects of Evolutionary Biology''. Oxford:

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

(1938): 11-42. * ''Living Thoughts of Darwin'' (1939) * ''New Systematics''. Oxford (1940) ::"...this multi-author volume, edited by Huxley, is one of the foundation stones of the '

Modern synthesis Modern synthesis or modern evolutionary synthesis refers to several perspectives on evolutionary biology, namely: * Modern synthesis (20th century), the term coined by Julian Huxley in 1942 to denote the synthesis between Mendelian genetics and s ...

', with essays on

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. ...

Mendelian genetics Mendelian inheritance (also known as Mendelism) is a type of biological inheritance following the principles originally proposed by Gregor Mendel in 1865 and 1866, re-discovered in 1900 by Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns, and later populari ...

and

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as Adaptation (biology), adaptation, ...

." * ''Democracy Marches''. London: Chatto & Windus with

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and n ...

; New York:

(1941). Foreword by Lord Horder. .
''The Uniqueness of Man''.
London: Chatto & Windus (1941
(Reprinted 1943)
** Published in U.S. as ''Man Stands Alone''. New York:

(1941) * ''On Living in a Revolution''. New York:

(1944)
''Evolution: The Modern Synthesis.''
London: Allen & Unwin (1942); New York:

(1943) ** "Summarizes research on all topics relevant to the modern synthesis of

and

up to the Second World War." *** Reprinted (1943), (1944), (1945), (1948), (1955). *** 2nd ed. (1963) New introduction and bibliography by the author. *** 3rd ed. (1974) New introduction and bibliography by nine contributors. *** New ed. (2010) Cambridge:

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

. Foreword by

Massimo Pigliucci Massimo Pigliucci (; born January 16, 1964) is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the '' Rationally Speaking Podcast'', and former editor in chief for the online magazine ''Scientia Salon''. He is a critic o ...

and Gerd B. Müller. * ''Evolutionary Ethics'' (1943) * ''TVA: Adventure in Planning'' (1944) * ''Evolution and Ethics, 1893–1943''. London: Pilot. ** Published in U.S. as ''Touchstone for Ethics'' New York:

(1947) with text from T. H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley.
''Man in the Modern World''
(1947) Essays selected from ''The Uniqueness of Man'' (1941) and ''On Living in a Revolution'' (1944) * ''Soviet Genetics and World Science: Lysenko and the Meaning of Heredity''. London: Chatto & Windus ** Published in U.S. as ''Heredity, East and West.'' New York: Schuman (1949). * ''Evolution in Action'' (1953) * ''Evolution as a Process'' with Hardy A. C. and Ford E. B. (editors). London: Allen & Unwin (1954) * ''From an Antique Land: Ancient and Modern in the Middle East'' (1954) ** Revised ed. (1966) * ''Kingdom of the Beasts'' with W. Suschitzky (1956) * ''Biological Aspects of Cancer'' (1957) * ''New Bottles for New Wine''. London: Chatto & Windus; New York:

(1957) ** Reprinted as ''Knowledge, Morality, Destiny''. New York:

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publish ...

(1960) . ** Reprinted as "Knowledge, Morality, Destiny, I." ''Psychiatry'', vol. 14, no. 2 (1960): 129-140. . .
The Treasure House of Wild Life
13 Nov
More meat from game than cattle
13 Nov
Cropping the wild protein
20 Nov
Wild life as a World Assetsecond page
27 Nov;

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

newspaper articles that led to the setting up of the

(1960) * ''The Humanist Frame'' (editor) (1961) * ''The Coming New Religion of Humanism'' (1962) * ''Essays of a Humanist'' (1964) eprinted 1966, 1969, 1992 . * ''The Human Crisis'' (1964) * ''Darwin and his World'' with Bernard Kettlewell (1965) * ''Aldous Huxley 1894–1963: A Memorial Volume''. (editor) (1965) * ''The Future of Man: evolutionary Aspects''. (1966) * ''The Wonderful World of Evolution'' (1969) * ''Memories'' ( autobiography). ** volume 1 (1970) ** volume 2 (1973) * ''Mitchell Beazley Atlas of World Wildlife''. London:

Mitchell Beazley Mitchell Beazley Publishers Limited is a British book publisher which is particularly specialised in atlases, reference books, natural history books, cook books, garden books and wine books. History The London-based company Mitchell Beazley was ...

(1973) ** Republished as ''The Atlas of World Wildlife''. Cape Town: Purnell (1973)

Notes

References

Biographies

* Baker John R. 1978. ''Julian Huxley, scientist and world citizen, 1887–1975''. UNESCO, Paris. * Clark, Ronald W. 1960. ''Sir Julian Huxley''. Phoenix, London. * Clark, Ronald W. 1968. ''The Huxleys''. Heinemann, London. * Dronamraju, Krishna R. 1993. ''If I am to be remembered: the life & work of Julian Huxley, with selected correspondence''. World Scientific, Singapore. * Green, Jens-Peter 1981. ''Krise und Hoffnung, der Evolutionshumanismus Julian Huxleys''. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. * Huxley, Julian. 1970, 1973. ''Memories'' and ''Memories II''. George Allen & Unwin, London. * Huxley, Juliette 1986. ''Leaves of the tulip tree''. Murray, London er autobiography includes much about Julian* Keynes, Milo and Harrison, G. Ainsworth (eds) 1989. ''Evolutionary studies: a centenary celebration of the life of Julian Huxley''. Proceedings of the 24th annual symposium of the Eugenics Society, London 1987. Macmillan, London. * Biography of Julian Huxley by Chloé Maurel in the Biographical Dictionary of SG IOs

* Chloé Maurel, L'Unesco de 1945 à 1974, PhD history, université Paris 1, 2005
[archive] (on J. Huxley, p. 47–65)
* Olby, Robert 2004. Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975). In ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. (2680 words) * Waters, C. Kenneth and Van Helden, Albert (eds) 1993. ''Julian Huxley: biologist and statesman of science''. Rice University Press, Houston. cholarly articles by historians of science on Huxley's work and ideas

External links

Short biography.

''A Guide to the Papers of Julian Sorell Huxley''
by Sarah C. Bates and Mary G. Winkler. Houston, Tex.:

Woodson Research Center Woodson Research Center is an archive located in Fondren Library at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The Center is named for Benjamin N. Woodson and houses the special collections of Rice University's Fondren Library which includes manuscript ...

. Rev. ed. (June 1987) ebruary 1984 . "...with the assistance of Christina Riquelmy."
Julian Huxley’s philosophy
By John Toye and

Richard Toye Richard John Toye (born 1973) is a British historian and academic. He is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He was previously a Fellow and Director of Studies for History at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, from 2002 t ...

. In ''60 Years of Science at UNESCO 1945–2005'', UNESCO, 2006.
One World, Two Cultures? Alfred Zimmern, Julian Huxley and the Ideological Origins of UNESCO
By John Toye and Richard Toye. ''History'', 95, 319: 308–331, 2010
"Guide to the Julian Sorell Huxley Papers, 1899–1980"
(Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA)—"Julian Huxley papers documenting his career as a biologist and a leading intellectual. 180 boxes of materials ranging in date from 1899–1980." Extent: 91 linear feet.
"Transhumanism"
in ''New Bottles for New Wine''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1957.
''Essays of a Biologist'' (1923)
at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

"The New Divination"
in ''Essays of a Humanist''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1964.

* Archival material at * {{DEFAULTSORT:Huxley, Julian 1887 births 1975 deaths Academics of King's College London Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War I British officials of the United Nations Critics of creationism Critics of Lamarckism Critics of parapsychology Developmental biologists English atheists English humanists English eugenicists English people of Cornish descent English science writers English sceptics Ethologists Evolutionary biologists Fellows of New College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society Fullerian Professors of Physiology Julian Intelligence Corps officers Kalinga Prize recipients Knights Bachelor Modern synthesis (20th century) People educated at Eton College People with bipolar disorder Rice University faculty Secular humanists Secretaries of the Zoological Society of London Writers from London UNESCO Directors-General Zoo directors 20th-century British zoologists Royal Army Service Corps officers