British biologist Steve Jones is renowned as both a geneticist and a best-selling author of popular science books. His latest book, Darwin's Ghost, provides an update of Darwin's theory in the context of current science. You can now buy Darwin's Ghost (known in the UK as Almost like a whale)
Born
Position
Biography
How would you describe yourself?
Middle-aged.
What first inspired you to go into your field?
A juvenile and somewhat embarrassing interest in birds.
Are you still a "birder"?
No.
How did you get your current job?
Through a takeover of my previous department by UCL - a process that took 20 years to complete.
Why do you think your boss picked you?
He had no choice; I came with the package.
What do you enjoy about your work?
Teaching and, when I get a chance, field research.
What do you dislike about your research field?
Lack of funding because it lacks commercial relevance.
Will that ever change?
I hope it does, otherwise science will die.
Are there aspects you would change?
The endless drip-drip of assessment by biased judges.
What was your first scientific experiment?
To move 20,000 snails around the countryside in the hope of picking up differences in fitnesses from place to place.
What were the results?
It failed because the experimental design was weak, and because after a year, the marked ones proved annoyingly difficult to find.
How did the experience increase your maturity as a scientist?
I went back for a while to doing more descriptive fieldwork; but then I tried some more experiments, which worked - for example, testing the thermal environment of fruit flies in the wild with a temperature-sensitive eye mutant.
What was your high-school science teacher like?
Most of them were rotten, but - as usual - there was one brilliant one who, fortunately, was a biologist.
Did that inspire you?
Yes.
What is your proudest achievement?
Giving the BBC Reith lectures.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
You don't expect me to admit that! It has nothing to do with science.
What advice would you give a younger scientist?
Don't do it, in Britain at least, until the entire system is revolutionized, the pay goes up, and it turns into a job rather than a temporary vocation.
In what areas do you think you need advice yourself?
Unguarded comments to the press.
But aren't you rather practiced at speaking to the press?
I may be practiced, but still have a tendency to be less than diplomatic.
What would you be if not a scientist?
A teacher.
Why that occupation?
Because teaching is one of the few things I know I am good at.
Which scientist from history would you like to meet?
Alfred Russel Wallace - English naturalist who independently formulated the theory of natural selection.
What would you ask him?
Why he believed in spiritualism and campaigned against vaccination.
If you could guess, what do you think his answer would be?
Because he took evolution too seriously and thought it could do anything.
Which living scientist do you most admire?
Dick Lewontin of Harvard University, who founded the idea of the evolution of molecules.
Why?
For inspiring a generation of evolutionists.
What has been the greatest scientific discovery this century?
Do I have to say the double helix?
Why that?
Obvious.
What will be the great discoveries of the next century?
That genetics tells us almost nothing about ourselves that we did not know before.
So, the relevance of the discovery of the double helix in the twentieth century is that it allows us to recognize that genetics does not reveal anything more about being human than we knew thousands of years ago . . . ?
Yes. Genetics answers all the questions about the human condition, except for the interesting ones.
What research goals do scientists need to set themselves?
Not to overestimate what science can say.
How has the Internet influenced what you do?
It has provided a patina of scholarship at the touch of a button.
Why do you think the public fears science?
Because scientists cannot explain what they are doing.
Should scientists be doing anything to gain more acceptance?
Yes, say more about their work and explain what the risks are.
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