Quakers in science
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The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, encouraged some values which may have been conducive to encouraging scientific talents. A theory suggested by David Hackett Fischer in his book Albion's Seed indicated early Quakers in the US preferred "practical study" to the more traditional studies of Greek or Latin popular with the elite. Another theory suggests their avoidance of dogma or clergy gave them a greater flexibility in response to science.
Despite those arguments a major factor is agreed to be that the Quakers were initially discouraged or forbidden to go to the major law or humanities schools in Britain due to the
Because of these issues it has been stated that Quakers are better represented in science than most religions. Some sources, including Pendlehill (Thomas 2000) and Encyclopædia Britannica, indicate that for over two centuries they were overrepresented in the Royal Society. Mention is made of this possibility in studies referenced in religiosity and intelligence and in a book by Arthur Raistrick. Regardless of whether this is still accurate, there have been several noteworthy members of this denomination in science.
Other notable scientists had Quaker backgrounds without being practicing Quakers themselves. These include John Bardeen, whose mother was a Quaker,[1] and Karl Barry Sharpless, who attended a Quaker school and stated that Quaker values contributed to his success as a chemist.[2] Together with Frederick Sanger (listed below), this means that three of the four individuals who as of 2023 have won two Nobel Prizes in science categories were raised by Quakers.
Some Quakers in science
- penal reform; a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society of London
- author abbreviation"Backh"
- organic chemist
- John Bartram – described as the "father of American botany"; founded Bartram Botanical Gardens in Kingsessing on the bank of the Schuylkill River
- Anna McClean Bidder – marine zoologist and first president of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge
- systems theorist and economist
- neurologist known for Brain's reflex; became a Quaker in 1931 and gave the Swarthmore Lecture in 1944, "Man, Society and Religion", in which he stressed the importance of a social conscience
- Jocelyn Bell Burnell – discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis advisor Antony Hewish; raised Quaker in Northern Ireland; volunteered in local and national Quaker activities up to at least the 1970s;[3] her Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Broken for Life"; still an active Quaker
- ornithologist
- entomologist
- Peter Collinson – botanist with some interest in electricity; his family belonged to the Gracechurch meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
- Cope's Ruleis named
- atomic theory.[4]
- Jeremiah Dixon – surveyor and astronomer known for the Mason–Dixon line
- horticulturistand lace designer
- astrophysicist known especially for the Eddington experiment and as a populariser of science, active in the Quaker Guild of Teachers, attended meetings regularly;[5]his Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Science and the Unseen World"
- George Ellis – co-authored The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time with University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking; won the 2004 Templeton Prize and got involved with the Quaker Service Fund[6]
- John Fothergill – physician and botanist; Fothergilla (witch alder) is named for him
- British Association for the Advancement of Science
- geophysicistwho discovered the diurnal variation of the terrestrial magnetic field
- John Gummere – astronomer
- naturalist
- Hodgkin's diseaseis named for him
- Luke Howard – meteorologist known for work in cloud types and nomenclature[10]
- George Barker Jeffery – known for Jeffery's equations and translating works on the theory of relativity to English; his Swarthmore Lecture was "Christ, Yesterday and Today"
- conchologistborn a Quaker
- ornithologistand social reformer
- Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, was a pioneer in surgical sterile techniques, but left the Quakers and joined the Scottish Episcopal Church
- Holloway prisonduring World War II because she refused to register for civil defense duties or to pay the resulting fine; her Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Removing the Causes of War"
- Christian Unitarianism
- Frank Morley – mathematician specializing in algebra and geometry and known for Morley's trisector theorem. Was the son of two Quakers
- Frederick Parker-Rhodes – plant pathologist and linguistics researcher, also active in other fields
- William Philips – founder of the Geological Society of London
- Lewis Fry Richardson – meteorologist; his Quaker beliefs exempted him from military service during World War I
- Frederick Sanger - biochemist, two-time winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry; raised Quaker
- Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
- herpetologist
- astrophysicist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery with Russell Alan Hulse of a "new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation"[11]
- Silvanus P. Thompson – known for his book Calculus Made Easy; developed an idea of a telegraph submarine cable; his Swarthmore Lecture was titled "The Quest for Truth"
- William Homan Thorpe – President of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1955 to 1960; his Swarthmore Lecture was titled "Quakers and Humanists"
- Daniel Hack Tuke – expert on mental illness; came from a long line of Quakers from York who were interested in mental illness and concerned with those afflicted
- anatomistin colonial America
- Thomas Young – polymath and child prodigy; raised Quaker.[12]
See also
- List of Friends schools
- List of Quakers
- Relationship between religion and science
- Christianity and science
References
- ISBN 9780309169547.
John's mother, Althea, had been reared in the Quaker tradition, and his stepmother, Ruth, was Catholic, but John was resolutely secular throughout his life.
- ^ "Sharpless 2001 Nobel Lecture" (PDF). Nobel Prize. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
- ISBN 978-0-309-07270-0– via www.nap.edu.
- ^ "John Dalton". Science History Institute. June 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- ^ Sections 3 and 4 Archived 2008-09-22 at the Wayback Machine, also this Archived November 17, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Speaking of Faith from American Public Media | Science and Hope". Archived from the original on November 26, 2005. Retrieved November 18, 2005.
- ^ "The Ursula Franklin Reader". Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved April 12, 2008.
- ^ "N.J. Congressman: I beat Watson | the Social - CNET News". Archived from the original on March 26, 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
- ^ "Q&A;: The congressman who beat "Watson" on "Jeopardy" - War Room - Salon.com". Archived from the original on March 6, 2011. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
- ^ Ltd, Not Panicking. "h2g2 - Luke Howard, the Namer of Clouds - Edited Entry". h2g2.com.
- ^ "I was educated mostly at Quaker institutions, in particular Moorestown Friends School and Haverford College." ... "Perhaps related to my Quaker upbringing, I've always valued personal involvement in a difficult task." - from his Nobel autobiographical essay
- ^ "Thomas Young". School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
Further reading
- Quakers in Science and Industry by Arthur Raistrick. ISBN 1-85072-106-8
- Thomas, Anne (April 24, 2000), This I Know Experimentally, Spring 2000 Monday Night Lecture Series: Science and Religion, Pendle Hill (published October 6, 2003), archived from the original on May 1, 2006, retrieved June 29, 2009