Secondary Literature.
His success as an experimentalist depended on a wise blending of field and laboratory research; whenever possible, he combined both in the study of a problem, using laboratory studies to ascertain or to confirm the causal processes involved in the phenomena discovered in nature. These differing genes would grow incompatible with the genes of the original group they derived from. In contrast, tropical life seems to have flung all restraints to the winds. What did this discovery help explain about genetics and the changes that occur in a species over time? He was given a prognosis of “a few months to a few years” to live. Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900–1975) was a key author of the Synthetic Theory of Evolution, also known as the Modern Synthesis of Evolutionary Theory, which embodies a complex array of biological knowledge centered around Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection couched in genetic terms. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. ... Dobzhansky was born the only child of Grigory Dobzhansky and Sophia Voinarsky in Nemyriv, Dnieper Ukraine, Russian Empire Pictured is one of the two 19th century churches of the town which would have been frequented by a young and religous Dobzhansky. He died of heart failure on 18 December 1975, as he was being rushed to the hospital. He was a good naturalist and never lacked time for a hike, whether in the California Sierras, the Dobzhansky recognized and generously praised the achievements of other scientists; he admired the intellect of his colleagues, even when admiration was alloyed with disagreement. He obtained the collaboration of mathematicians to design theoretical models for experimental testing and to analyze his empirical observations statistically. He made many lasting friendships, usually started by professional interactions. Ayala, Francisco J. nor can it be adequately described as a history of culture. The Modern Synthesis itself was not coined by Dobzhansky, instead it is the combination of Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's genetics that Dobzhansky greatly influenced. The Dobzhansky Papers are a remnant of the correspondence and writings of the geneticist and evolutionary biologist, Theodosius Dobzhansky. The zoologist Julian Huxley, the first to use the term “the Modern Synthesis”, contributes his own evolutionary ideas to Dobzhansky in his book The theory of evolution has a long history. Theodosius' modern synthesis writings are based in part on his studies with fruit flies which was first established by Thomas Hunt Morgan. This 1970 book (like several of Dobzhansky's later works) covers more than simply evolutionary theory. For the original article on Fisher see DSB, vol. In 1910 the family moved to the outskirts of Kiev. Though he only worked with fruit flies (drosophila pseudoobscura), Dobzhansky's evolutionary genetics gave a definitive definition to evolution and natural selection; all stemming from his chromosome research. Kimura was the chie… The Modern Synthesis describes the fusion (merger) of Mendelian genetics with Darwinian evolution that resulted in a unified theory of evolution. Dobzhansky probably dedicated more research effort to the study of genetic variation in natural populations than to any other single problem. It follows, as Dobzhansky saw it, that individuals should be evaluated by what they are, not by the race to which they belong.Dobzhansky considered human diversity a fact belonging to the realm of observable natural phenomena; “People are innately, genetically, and therefore irremediably diverse and unlike” Dobzhansky’s lasting interest in the relevance of biology, and particularly evolutionary theory, to human affairs is evident in scores of articles that he wrote on the subject and in the titles of some of his books: Dobzhansky was concerned with the role of religion in human life and explored the evolutionary basis of religion in several articles published in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and in his Dobzhansky often expressed his frustration at the limited influence of biology on the thinking of philosophers. These differences may be recognized by distinguishing populations of a given species as races. Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975), a creator of the "evolutionary synthesis" and the author of its first modern statement, Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), founded modern Western population genetics and wrote many popular books on such topics as human evolution, race and racism, equality, and human destiny.