T. H. Huxley, (born May 4, 1825, Ealing, Middlesex, Eng.—died June 29, 1895, Eastbourne, Sussex), British biologist. The son of a schoolmaster, he earned a medical degree. After working as a surgeon on a surveying expedition in the South Pacific (1846–50), during which he carried out extensive studies of marine organisms, he taught for many years at the Royal School of Mines in London (1854–85). In the 1850s he established his reputation with his important papers on animal individuality, certain mollusks, the methods of paleontology, the methods and principles of science and science education, the structure and functions of nerves, and the vertebrate skull. He was one of the earliest and strongest supporters of Darwinism; his 1860 debate with Bishop Samuel Wilberforce gained widespread attention. In the 1860s Huxley did valuable work in paleontology and classification, especially classification of birds. Later in life he turned to theology; he is said to have coined the word agnostic to describe his views. Few scientists have been as influential over such a wide field of scientific development and as effective in the total movement of thought and action within their own generation.
Thomas Henry Huxley Article
T. H. Huxley summary
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Aldous Huxley Summary
Aldous Huxley was an English novelist and critic gifted with an acute and far-ranging intelligence whose works are notable for their wit and pessimistic satire. He remains best known for one novel, Brave New World (1932), a model for much dystopian science fiction that followed. Aldous Huxley was a
T.H. Huxley on evolution and biology Summary
Although his formal education occurred between the ages of 8 and 10, plus four or five years at medical school, T.H. Huxley (Thomas Henry, 1825–95) displayed outstanding scholarship and research abilities on a Royal Navy exploratory expedition to the South Seas in his early 20s and soon was
agnosticism Summary
Agnosticism, (from Greek agnōstos, “unknowable”), strictly speaking, the doctrine that humans cannot know of the existence of anything beyond the phenomena of their experience. The term has come to be equated in popular parlance with skepticism about religious questions in general and in particular
taxonomy Summary
Taxonomy, in a broad sense the science of classification, but more strictly the classification of living and extinct organisms—i.e., biological classification. The term is derived from the Greek taxis (“arrangement”) and nomos (“law”). Taxonomy is, therefore, the methodology and principles of