The Man Who Invented the Chromosome by Oren Solomon Harman, Harvard University Press, $49.95/拢32.95, ISBN 0674013336 Reviewed by Marek Kohn
LIKE his senior colleagues J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher, the biologist Cyril Darlington was overbearing, fascinated by heredity, evolutionarily minded, drawn to philosophy and inclined to dramatic views about society.
Unfortunately for him, he had a knack for not being where the action was. He explored heredity through chromosomes in the 1930s and 1940s, which were then sidelined by molecular discoveries, and latterly devoted himself to arguing for the existence of human racial hierarchies, just as psychologists took over that cause. He insisted that his views on race were scientifically based, but in the end the most conclusive evidence he offered was of his own bias, if not bigotry.
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Darlington鈥檚 archives are a rich seam to which Oren Solomon Harman brings a keen eye. He combines impressive contextual knowledge with touches of biographical flair 鈥� but he doesn鈥檛 manage to find any redeeming features in Darlington鈥檚 comprehensively unpleasant personality.