George R. Price
George R. Price | |
---|---|
Born | October 16, 1922 New York, United States |
Died | January 6, 1975 London, United Kingdom | (aged 52)
Alma mater | University of Chicago |
Spouse | Julia Madigan (m. 1947 div. 1955) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Population genetics, physical chemistry |
George Robert Price (October 16, 1922 – January 6, 1975) was an American population geneticist. Price is often noted for his formulation of the Price equation in 1967.
Originally a
Price converted to Christianity and gave all his possessions to the poor. Price grew depressed in the setting of thyroid disease[1] and non-compliance with his medications, and committed suicide.
Early life
Price was born in 1922 in the U.S. state of New York.[2] His father, an electrician, died when Price was four. His mother was a former theater actress, and the family struggled through the Great Depression.[3]
Price attended Birch Wathen School[4] followed by Stuyvesant High School in New York. He graduated with a degree in chemistry from University of Chicago in 1943 and received his doctorate in the subject from the same institution in 1946.[3]
In 1947 he married Julia Madigan, but their relationship was contentious as George was a
in 1955, having had two daughters, Annamarie and Kathleen.Career
Early career
Price was a member of the Manhattan Project as a chemist looking into the characteristics of
Continuing with science journalism, Price tried to write a book titled No Easy Way about the
From 1961 to 1967, Price was employed by
In Britain
Conversion to Christianity
On 6 June 1970,
Other work in evolutionary theory
Price developed a new interpretation of Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection, the Price equation, which has now been accepted as the best interpretation of a formerly enigmatic result.[9] He wrote what is still widely held to be the best mathematical, biological and evolutionary representation of altruism. He also pioneered the application of game theory to evolutionary biology, in a co-authored 1973 paper with John Maynard Smith.[13] Furthermore, Price reasoned that in the same way as an organism may sacrifice itself and further its genes (altruism) an organism may sacrifice itself to eliminate others of the same species if it enabled closely related organisms to better propagate their related genes. This negative altruism was described in a paper published by W. D. Hamilton and is termed Hamiltonian spite.
Price's 'mathematical' theory of altruism reasons that organisms are more likely to show altruism toward each other as they become more genetically similar to each other. Thus, in a species that requires two parents to reproduce, an organism is most likely to show altruistic behavior to a biological parent, full sibling, or direct offspring. The reason for this is that each of these relatives' genetic makeup contains (on average in the case of siblings) 50% of the genes that are found in the original organism. So if the original organism dies as a result of an altruistic act it can still manage to propagate its full genetic heritage as long as two or more of these close relatives are saved. Consequently, an organism is less likely to show altruistic behavior to a biological grandparent, grandchild, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew or
Helping the homeless
Price grew increasingly depressed by the implications of his equation. As part of an attempt to prove his theory right or wrong, he began showing an ever-increasing amount (in both quality and quantity) of
He was eventually evicted from his rented house owing to a construction project in the area, making him unhappy because he could no longer provide housing for the homeless. He moved to various squats in the North London area, and became depressed over Christmas, 1974.[16]
Death
Possibly due to the long-term complications of his thyroid treatment,[1] Price committed suicide on January 6, 1975, by cutting his carotid artery with a pair of nail scissors. His body was identified by his close colleague, W.D. Hamilton.[17]
A memorial service was held for Price in Euston. The only persons present from academia were Hamilton and Maynard Smith, the other few mourners being those who had come to know him through his community work. He is buried in St Pancras Cemetery.[18]
Recognition
Price's contributions were largely overlooked for 20 years; he had worked in
In media
- The story of Price's equation, its application to altruism, and the profound effects this supposedly had on its discoverer's life were featured in an episode of Dark Matters: Twisted But True, in a segment entitled "Killed by Kindness".
- Similar coverage, both of Price's contributions to studies of altruism and his efforts to disprove the supposed selfishness of altruism, was discussed in "The Good Show" episode of the NPR series Radiolab in December 2010.
- The life and work of Price and his work with Bill Hamilton is the central theme of the third and final documentary of the series All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Adam Curtis and includes an interview with his daughter Kathleen.
- The life story of George R. Price was dramatized in 2010 by Craig Baxter, whose play "The Altruists" Archived 16 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine won the S.T.A.G.E. (Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration) Archived 25 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine International Playwriting Competition in that year;[20] and again in 2016 by Lydia Adetunji as a play titled "Calculating Kindness".
- Northern Irish singer songwriter Joshua Burnside wrote about Price and his fate in his song George Price [23]
Legacy
The Papers of George R Price are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.[24]
Bibliography
- Price, G.R. (1955). "Science and the supernatural". PMID 13246641.
- Price, G.R. (1956). "Where is the definitive experiment?". PMID 13281471.
- Price, G.R. (1970). "Selection and covariance" (PDF). S2CID 4264723.
- Price, G.R. (1971). "Extension of the Hardy–Weinberg law to assortative mating". S2CID 32368574.
- Price, G.R. (1972a). "Extension of covariance selection mathematics". S2CID 37828617.
- Price, G.R.; S2CID 44809525.
- Price, G.R. (1972c). "Fisher's fundamental theorem made clear". S2CID 20757537.
- S2CID 4224989.
- Price, G.R. (1995). "The nature of selection". ] (written c. 1971)
- ISBN 978-1-84792-062-1
References
- ^ PMID 15213796.
- ^ Regnier, Michael (12 September 2016). "George Price: The altruistic man who died trying to prove selflessness doesn't exist". The Independent.
- ^ ISBN 978-1400841431.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-393-06778-1
- PMID 13246641.
- PMID 13281471.
- S2CID 5310280.
- PMID 5875340.
- ^ S2CID 20757537.
- ISBN 978-0-7167-4530-3.
- .
- S2CID 4182121.
- S2CID 4224989.
- ^ Interviews with Price's biographer and daughter in "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" by Adam Curtis: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1958138/
- ^ https://vimeo.com/80799354
- ^ Harman O. 2020 When science mirrors life: on the origins of the Price equation. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 375: 20190352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0352
- ISBN 978-0-684-85145-7.
- ^ Harman, O. (2010). The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness. W. W. Norton & Company.
- ^ Schwartz, James (July–August 2000). "Death of an Altruist. Was the man who found the selfless gene too good for this world?". Lingua Franca. 10 (5). Archived from the original on 18 October 2000. (also available at http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/0007/altruist.html, https://bio.kuleuven.be/ento/pdfs/schwartz2000.pdf and https://pages.uoregon.edu/myagkov/Death%20of%20an%20Altruist.html)
- ^ a b "THE ALTRUISTS, by Craig Baxter. Winner of the 4th STAGE International Script Competition". STAGE - Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration. The Regents of the University of California. 1 April 2015. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ "How Discovering an Equation for Altruism Cost George Price Everything". Archived from the original on 24 June 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
- ^ Regnier, Michael (13 September 2016). "The man who gave himself away - How discovering an equation for altruism cost George Price everything". Mosaic. Wellcome Trust. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ "Joshua Burnside 'George Price' (Live)". YouTube.
- ^ The Papers of George R Price, archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 15 May 2020
Further reading
- Harman, Oren (2010). The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness (New York, W.W. Norton) The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness by Oren Harman
- Frank, S.A. (1995). George Price's contributions to Evolutionary Genetics. Journal of Theoretical Biology 175: 373-388 abstract - full text, pdf 412 KB (both from Steven A. Frank's Home Page)
- Frank, S.A. (1997). The Price Equation, Fisher's fundamental theorem, kin selection, and causal analysis. Evolution 51:1712–1729 full text, pdf 551 KB
- Frank, S.A. (2002). Price, George. In: M. Pagel (ed) Encyclopedia of Evolution pp930–1 pdf file
- Van Veelen, M. (2005). "On the use of the Price equation". Journal of Theoretical Biology. 237 (4): 412–426. PMID 15953618.
- "The mystery of kindness, Selflessness of strangers, The search for an evolutionary theory". The Economist. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- "Death of an Altruist" (PDF). Lingua Franca Volume 10, No. 5. July–August 2000.
- "Radiolab: "The Good Show"". The Good Show. Season 9. Episode 1. New York. 14 December 2010. WNYC, Radiolab.
- Regnier, Michael (13 September 2016). "The man who gave himself away". Mosaic. Wellcome. Retrieved 12 November 2016.