Edwin Grant Conklin

Edwin Grant Conklin (November 24, 1863 – November 20, 1952) was an American biologist and zoologist.

Quotes

 * Heredity is to-day the central problem of biology. This problem may be approached from many sides—that of the breeder, the experimenter, the statistician, the physiologist, the embryologist, the cytologist—but the mechanism of heredity can be studied best by the investigation of the germ cells and their development.
 * Edwin Grant Conklin, "The Mechanism of Heredity,", Science, Vol 27, nr 691, January 17, 1908


 * When I had felt compelled by increasing knowledge of nature to revise some of my traditional articles of religious faith, I was delighted to find that these changes had not modified in any essential respects my system of ethics. As I expressed it in my presidential address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1937: "The ethics of science regards the search for truth as one of the highest duties of man; it regards noble human character as the finest product of evolution; it considers the service of all mankind as the universal good; it teaches that human nature and humane nurture may be improved, that reason may replace unreason, cooperation supplement competition, and the progress of the human race through future ages be promoted by intelligence and goodwill."
 * Edwin Grant Conklin, in: p. 74 Thirteen Americans: their spiritual autobiographies Louis Finkelstein (ed.), 1953, p. 74


 * The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the Unabridged Dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing factory.
 * Quoted in: Cliffe Knechtle (1986) Give Me an Answer, p. 70


 * Life is not found in atoms or molecules or genes as such, but in organization; not in symbiosis but in synthesis.
 * Edwin Grant Conklin, in: Evolution by Association : A History of Symbiosis: A History of Symbiosis, Oxford University Press, 22 August 1994

Quotes about Edwin Grant Conklin

 * A man of vigorous, definite, judicial, but amiable personality. It seems almost unnecessary to attempt to put into words a characterization of one so well known to zoologists of this country. He is easy to meet, interested in those with whom he comes in contact, and gifted with a good memory for names and faces. A genuine sense of humor crops out unexpectedly to illuminate many a situation, as in his famous remark that 'wooden legs are not inherited, although wooden heads may be' or his equally well-known observation in regard to the anti-evolutionists, 'Apparently the anti-evolutionist expects to see a monkey or an ass transformed into a man, though he must be familiar enough with the reverse process.
 * Aute Richards, cited in: "Edwin Grant Conklin 1863-1952 : A Biographical Memoir" by E. Newton Harvey, National Academy of Sciences, 1958