Wallace Arthur facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Wallace Arthur
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Wallace Arthur in 2016
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| Born | 30 March 1952 |
| Nationality | British and Irish |
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| Known for | evo-devo, popular science |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary Biology |
| Institutions | University of Galway |
Wallace Arthur, born on March 30, 1952, is a scientist who studies how living things change over time. He also writes books about science. He used to be a professor of zoology (the study of animals) at the University of Galway in Ireland.
His latest book, Understanding Life in the Universe, explores if life exists on other planets and what it might be like. He helped start a science magazine called Evolution & Development. He worked on it for almost 20 years. He has also worked at famous universities like Harvard University.
Early Life and School
Wallace Arthur was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1952. He went to Friends School Lisburn and Campbell College for his schooling. He earned his first degree in biology from the University of Ulster in 1973. Later, he received his PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Nottingham in 1977.
What Wallace Arthur Studies
Arthur describes himself as a scientist who likes to connect different areas of study. His early work looked at how evolution and ecology (the study of how living things interact with their environment) are linked. Later, he focused on how evolution and development (how living things grow and form) are connected. This field is often called 'evo-devo'.
His main ideas have been about how animal body plans first appeared. He also studied how the way an animal develops can guide its evolution. He looked at how arthropods (like insects and spiders) got their segmented bodies.
His newest work connects biology with astronomy (the study of space). He explores two main questions:
- How likely is it that life has evolved on many exoplanets (planets outside our solar system)?
- How similar or different might that life be to life on Earth?
Arthur supports an idea called the extended evolutionary synthesis. This idea suggests that we should include new discoveries from fields like evo-devo when we think about how evolution works.
Books by Wallace Arthur
Wallace Arthur has written many books about his scientific ideas for both scientists and the general public.
- Mechanisms of Morphological Evolution: 1984, Wiley
- Theories of Life: Darwin, Mendel and Beyond: 1987, Penguin
- The Niche in Competition and Evolution: 1987, Wiley
- A Theory of the Evolution of Development: 1988, Wiley
- The Green Machine: Ecology and the Balance of Nature: 1990, Blackwell
- The Origin of Animal Body Plans: 1997, Cambridge University Press
- Biased Embryos and Evolution: 2004, Cambridge University Press
- Creatures of Accident: The Rise of the Animal Kingdom: 2006, Hill & Wang
- Evolution: A Developmental Approach: 2011, Wiley-Blackwell
- Evolving Animals: 2014, Cambridge University Press
- Life through Time and Space: 2017, Harvard University Press
- The Biological Universe: Life in the Milky Way and Beyond: 2020, Cambridge University Press
- Understanding Evo-Devo: 2021, Cambridge University Press
- Understanding Life in the Universe: 2022, Cambridge University Press
