Abstract
COPLEY MEDAL THE COPLEY MEDAL has been awarded to Prof. THOMAS HUNT MORGAN. The establishment of definite laws of heredity, and the discovery of the mechanism, the gene, by which hereditary qualities are carried on from generation to generation, has revolutionized our outlook on the function of the nucleus of the cell and of the chromosomes it contains; it lias enabled us to understand the significance of the maturation of the germ cells and of fertilization as they occur in higher animals and plants, and thus led to a very rapid development of nuclear cytology. the theory of the gene has given us a now outlook on the determination of the development of an animal or plant. But nowhere has genetics produced greater changes than in our attitude to evolution. The observations that mutations arise de novo at a definite rate, that the number of different mutations occurring in a single species may be very large and that the mutations in allied species are essentially identical, have shown us for the first time the materials which are available as a basis for evolutionary change. The quantitative nature of genetics has made it possible to examine the effects which result after many generations from the establishment of a community by a few individuals of different hereditary composition, and to estimate the effect of a definite advantage attaohing to one particular quality on the ultimate composition of a population. It has thus put the theory of natural selection on a sound theoretical basis. Furthermore, it has enabled us to observe indirectly the effects of natural selection in wild populations, and to plan experiments to determine its effects.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Medal Awards of the Royal Society*. Nature 144, 986–987 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144986a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144986a0