Lee Spetner

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Lee Spetner PP MAN
Washington University
MIT
Known forCritique of modern synthesis
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, biophysics
InstitutionsJohns Hopkins University
Doctoral advisorBruno Rossi

Lee M. Spetner is an American and Israeli

biophysicist, and physicist, known best for his disagreements with the modern synthesis. In spite of his opposition to neo-Darwinism, Spetner accepts a form of non-random evolution outlined in his 1996 book "Not By Chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution".[1]

Biography

Education

Spetner received his BS degree in mechanical engineering from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis in 1945[2] and his Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1950, where his Ph.D. thesis advisors were Robert Williams and Bruno Rossi.[3]

Career

Spetner continued to study at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 1951 to 1970, working on guided-missile systems. In 1970, he became technical director of Eljim, Ltd., later a subsidiary of Elbit, Ltd. in Nes Tsiona, Israel, where he was a manager, a period that lasted a further 20 years.[2][4] His work here was on military electronic systems, including electronic countermeasures, and a military electronic navigation system.[2]

He taught courses at the Johns Hopkins University,

Weizmann Institute, including classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory, real-variable theory, probability theory, and statistical communication theory.[2]

Spetner first became interested in

birds. Spetner developed what he called his "nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis," which proposed rapid microevolution (which he attributed to a "built-in ability" in animals and plants to "respond adaptively to environmental stimuli"), and suggested that even some cases of macroevolution could be explained by his hypothesis.[10][11] Spetner' critical stance on the plausibility of the evolutionary theory of the appearance of beneficial mutations was supported by the Australian statistician Professor Michael Hasofer.[12][13]

Spetner, an avowed theist, has been described as a

scientists, Spetner claimed that Archaeopteryx was a fraud. Spetner continued his attack on the modern synthesis in his book Not by chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution.[17]

Spetner is a critic of the role of

genetic information
and that there is no scientific evidence to support common descent:

We see then that the mutation reduces the specificity of the ribosome protein and that means a loss of genetic information. ... Rather than saying the bacterium gained resistance to the antibiotic, it is more correct to say that is lost sensitivity to it. ... All point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce the genetic information and not increase it.

— Lee Spetner, Not by Chance, Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution[18]

Spetner continued to study after retirement, pursuing interests in evolution[4] and cancer cures.[3]

Spetner's latest book "The Evolution Revolution: Why Thinking People are Rethinking Evolution" develops his nonrandom hypothesis (NREH) and was published in 2014 by Judaica Press.[10]

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-880582-24-4
  2. ^ a b c d Worldscientific Biographies Retrieved December 2010
  3. ^ a b MIT Alumni report 2008 Archived 2010-02-15 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved December 2010
  4. ^ a b Biography of Lee M. Spetner at B'Or Ha'Torah Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved December 2010
  5. ISBN 1-880582-24-4
    .
  6. PMID 5875346
    .
  7. ^ "Mutation -- a pacemaker for evolution". Proceedings 2nd International Congress on Biophysics, Vienna. 1966.
  8. doi:10.1109/tit.1968.1054070
    .
  9. S2CID 4201339
    .
  10. ^ a b "The Evolution Revolution". Judaica Press. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  11. ISBN 978-1-60763-155-2
    .
  12. ^ Hasofer, A.M. "A Statistician Looks at Neo-Darwinism." Archived 2019-01-11 at the Wayback Machine B'Or Ha'Torah Vol. 3. (1983): 13-21.
  13. ^ Hasofer, A. M. "A simplified treatment of Spetner's natural selection model." Journal of Theoretical Biology 11, no. 2 (1966): 338-342.
  14. ^ Tom McIver, Anti-evolution: an annotated bibliography, 2008 p. 277
  15. ISBN 1-880582-24-4
    .
  16. ISBN 978-1-60763-155-2
    .
  17. ^ Randy Moore, Mark Decker, Sehoya Cotner, Chronology of the evolution-creationism controversy, 2010, pp. 286 - 287.
  18. ^ Lee Spetner, Not by Chance, Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution, 1996, pp 131 - 138

External links

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