Steve Jones (biologist)

Steve Jones, (born March 24, 1944) is a professor of genetics and head of the biology department at University College London. His studies are conducted in the Galton laboratory. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology, especially evolution. He is one of the best known contemporary popular writers on evolution. His popular writing shows a wry, sometimes rather dark, sense of humour. In 1996 his writing won him the Royal Society Michael Faraday prize "for his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media".

Jones was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, and has degrees from the University of Edinburgh and University of Chicago. Much of his research has been concerned with snails and the light their anatomy can shed on biodiversity and genetics. His book "In the Blood" explores, confirms and debunks some commonly held beliefs about inheritance and genetics. Topics explored include issues as diverse as "lost tribes", European royal families, and haemophilia.

Professor Jones is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. He was awarded the second Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society on 7 October 2006.In two separate radio interviews, on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and again on BBC Five Live on 7th October 2008, Professor Jones claimed that the human race had stopped evolving. His view that in humans " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7D9133AF937A25750C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Natural selection has to some extent been repealed] " dates back at least to 1995. His views are largely based on his claim that reduced juvenile mortality, decreasing age of fathers and greater interconnectedness of populations in Western societies reduce evolution. Both the data supporting these assertions and his views of the way these factors influence evolution in populations have been [http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/evolution/selection/jones-evolution-stopping-2008.html extensively criticised] by other academics however.

Views on creationism

Jones has stated that creationism is "anti-science" and criticised creationists such as Ken Ham. Jones suggested in a BBC Radio Ulster interview in 2006 that Creationists should be disallowed from being medical doctors because "all of its (Creationism's) claims fly in the face of the whole of science" and he further claimed that no serious biologist can believe in biblical creation.

Bibliography

Books by Steve Jones

*cite book | author=Jones, Steve | title=The Language of the Genes| publisher=Flamingo | year=1993 | id=ISBN 0-00-655243-9 winner of (Aventis Prize winner)
*cite book | author=Jones, Steve; Dawkins, Richard; Martin, Robert D.; Pilbeam, David R. | title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human evolution | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1994 | id=ISBN 0-521-46786-1
*cite book | author=Jones, Steve | title=In the Blood: God, Genes and Destiny | publisher=Houghton Miffin | year=1997 | id=ISBN 0-00-255512-3
*cite book | author=Jones, Steve | title= | publisher=Doubleday | year=1999 | id=ISBN 0-385-40985-0
*cite book | author=Jones, Steve | title=Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated | publisher=Ballantine Books | year=2000 | id=ISBN 0-345-42277-5
*cite book | author=Jones, Steve | title=Y: The Descent of Men | publisher=Flamingo | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-618-13930-3
*cite book | author=Jones, Steve and Van Loon, Borin | title=Introducing Genetics | publisher=Totem Books | year=2005 | id=ISBN 1-84046-636-7
*cite book | author=Jones, Steve | title=Coral | publisher=Little, Brown | year=2007 | id=ISBN 978-0-316-72938-3

Articles by Steve Jones

* [http://www.connected.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2005/04/13/ecflabview13.xml Steve Jones view from the lab: Scientist or media tart?]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2002/11/12/ecrlab12.xml&sSheet=/connected/2002/11/13/ixconn.html Steve Jones View from the lab: dinosaurs, academics and the case against ginger biscuits]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2005/07/20/crlab20.xml Steve Jones View from the lab: the hard cell]
* [http://www.edge.org/documents/ThirdCulture/l-Ch.5.html Steve Jones: Why is there so much genetic diversity]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,191890,00.html Steve Jones: Don't blame the genes]

Articles about Steve Jones

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4065640,00.html Steve Jones: A highly original species]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4348751,00.html Steve Jones: Is human evolution finally over?]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian_jobs_and_money/story/0,3605,1085189,00.html Professor Steve Jones: My work space]

Television

Steve Jones presented "In the Blood", a six-part TV series on human genetics first broadcast in 1996, see book of same name in bibliography.

Quotation

*"Evolution is inevitable. It depends on mistakes in reproduction."
*"... the key to evolution, design without a designer: the preservation of favorable variations and rejection of those injurious."

External links

* [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/biology/academic-staff/jones/jones.htm Professor Steve Jones homepage at UCL]
* [http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/jones.html Professor Steve Jones biography at Edge.org]
* [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1784 Michael Faraday previous winners 2004 - 1986 (inc. Steve Jones)]
* [http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/2 'GM Foods - Safe?' Steve Jones gives his views] Freeview video provided by the Vega Science Trust.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/realmedia/religion/sundaysequence/evolution_fights.ram Steve Jones radio interview on "Sunday Sequence" - BBC Radio Ulster 19-03-06]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/rams/inourtime_20071206.ram BBC Radio 4 "In Our Time" - GENETIC MUTATION - with Steve Jones] - streaming audio