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Description: | D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson held the Chair of Biology at Dundee from 1884-1917 before becoming Professor of Natural History at the University of St Andrews from 1917 until his death in 1948. A renowned polymath, he was a Greek scholar and mathematician as well as a naturalist. Thompson produced over 300 scientific articles and books. His seminal work, On Growth and Form, was published in 1917. In it, he argued that biological form very largely reflects physical and mathematical principles. He claimed that animals and plants could be understood in terms of pure mathematics. He demonstrated that mathematical functions could be applied to drawings of organisms to transform their shapes into those of related species, and considered how this discovery could be related to an understanding of evolution and developmental mechanisms. One of his most striking examples involves the use of linear and non-linear functions to alter a drawing of a human skull into the skull-shapes of other primates. Thompson's work, which is of international renown, laid the foundations for future research in bio-mathematics.
Thompson served as Scientific Advisor to the Fishery Board for Scotland and as British Representative on the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. He was responsible for planning and co-ordinating investigations of tides, currents, sea temperatures and salinities, and migrations of marine life. To this end he purchased a trawler (H.M.S. Goldseeker) in 1902 and had her fitted out as a biological and hydrographical research vessel. Thompson also carried out work on seal fur fisheries on behalf of the British government. He was knighted in 1937.
Thompson was a popular and entertaining lecturer, and is still fondly remembered by older alumni and townspeople. While at St. Andrews, D’Arcy built up the Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History and added considerably to its displays, collecting material from all over the world. Several specimens collected by him are on display in the Bell Pettigrew Museum, (including a huge Japanese spider crab - an example of the largest living arthropod - bought in a fishing market in Japan during his Bering Sea expedition), while others are held in storage. The material includes whale foetuses obtained by Thompson from whaling skippers in Dundee. | Subjects: | ZOOLOGY Bell Pettigrew Museum | Source: | University of St Andrews | Address: | KY16 9AJ | Creator: | D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson | Contributor: | University of St Andrews; D'Arcy Thompson | Identifier: | BP:C82 | Language: | en-GB | Relation: | MC:C48 |
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