"Our amazing JBS"

British geneticist and biochemist John Burton Sanderson Holdin (1892–1964) was a walking encyclopedia and a master of shocking. He is known for his works on the theory of evolution and the origin of life, but he was fed in a wide variety of topics, in the range from ancient philosophy to cosmology. In his youth, he was equally easily given mathematics and classic languages. He enlightened the proletariat on the pages of the Daily Worker newspaper, held prominent posts in the leadership of the British Communist Party and was under the attention of counterintelligence, but put a party party on the table at the end of the forties. In recent years, I spent in India, which I fell in love with a lifetime, when I went to travel along it on foot, instead of leaving for a hospital after a wound on the First World War. He generally loved to experiment on himself and hated routine. On his deathbed, he composed a humorous poem about the cancer of the rectum and bequeathed his body for medical research. We publish an essay to Vitaly Matsar , dedicated to this extraordinary person.

John Holdin was born on November 5, 1892, on the day of Guy Fox, in Oxford. He later responded about his father: “He was born with a historically marked Y chromosome. In other words, its ancestors on the paternal line can be traced up to about 1250. ”

Father, also John, but Scott, was a descendant of the Scottish clan and a professor of physiology at Oxford University. He was calm, adhered to moderately liberal glances and was entirely devoted to science. It is so devoted to many experiments on himself, and sometimes on his own children. His wife, Louise Kathleen Trotter, came from an old Irish family and adhered to the views of very right, extremely conservative, and even possessed a cool disposition, which is why the family often arose about politics. In addition to their son, they also had a daughter Naomi, in the marriage of Mitchson, who later became a famous writer and described the family life of parents in an autobiographical story. Among the friends of the family was, for example, the Danish physiologist Christian Bor, father of Niels Bor.

John Jr., whom the mother, in order to distinguish from her father, called Jack, grew up with a fat awl. Physical clumsiness was compensated by early developed mental abilities. By the age of five, he had already read reports in the newspaper on meetings of the British Society for the Promotion of Science. Very quickly and forever remembered poems. Even before school, he learned Latin. At school, he won all prizes in mathematics and physics, for which he received a scholarship for admission to Iton, one of the most expensive and prestigious closed educational institutions of Great Britain.

In such educational institutions, homosexuality and hazing flourished. The newcomers became the "moneylers" of the old -timers, they had to clean their clothes and shoes, remove them and generally fulfill the duties of servants for everything. For the slightest fault, the students were subjected to bodily punishments, and at first the clumsy John was poured almost every day. He suffered terribly, begged his father to take him from there, but he remained inexorable. It was believed that such an education creates a true gentleman.

John fell into the "Denmers" to Julian Haxley, five years older than his subsequently famous evolutionary biologist, public figure and first CEO of UNESCO. Huxley later recalled that another 13-year-old Holdine was distinguished by eccentric behavior and not by age developed intelligence. Julian, by the way, was the brother of the later writer Oldos Huxley, the author of the anti -utopia “On the marvelous new world”, and their grandfather was Thomas Henry Huxley (in the old transcription - Huxley), a comrade -in -arms and propagandist of the ideas of Charles Darwin.

Over time, John was injured to the contribution. He grew up and added in weight, so contacting him became more expensive. He was even elected the “captain” of the school, and in this capacity he talked with the king when he visited iton. He did not play for the Rugby team (as a result, Rugby was considered a game for the aristocracy, and football for plebs), but he distinguished himself in a cry, an incomprehensible British game, the passion for which he has preserved for life. Later he became interested in rowing.

But his main achievements were in physics, mathematics, languages ​​and literature. By the end of the college in 1911, when Holdeen was 18 years old, he freely read in Latin and Greek, spoke great French and German, and also versed well in chemistry. He received a scholarship for training in Oxford thanks to success in mathematics. In Oxford, he became the first in mathematics, as well as in philosophy and classical languages ​​and even thought about whether they should be professionally engaged in them. Having consulted with his father, he did so, plunging with fervor in ancient languages ​​and ancient philosophy. Fortunately, not for long. He was generally very capable of languages. They say that by the end of his life, Holdine could read original scientific articles in eleven languages.

Father began to accustom John from John with young nails, so already in 1908 he read a breathing report to the college of college. A year before he talked about parasitic worms, and in 1910 he read a report on the structure and functions of the blood there. In his father’s experiments, he began to participate even earlier. John Jr. was just four years old when his father took him with him to the mine, where he was supposed to determine the quality of air. The kid was very scared, but his father continued to carry him with him underground so that he was not afraid of the darkness and closed space. When the boy grew up a little, his father lifted him in the mine higher and forced him to recite Mark Anthony from Shakespeare's play “Julius Caesar” (he already knew it by heart) until his son began to lose consciousness, breathing in methane. Then his father lowered him down, gave his breath and continued measurements. At the age of six, Little John, leaning out of the window of the London subway, caught air into the bottles, then to determine the degree of his cunning with soot.

When the British Admiralty was concerned about the improvement of diving equipment, the Holdein Sr. was attracted as a specialist in breathing and quality of air. Everyone knew that he saved a lot of human lives at the cost of the life of mice and canaries, which he suggested taking into mines as indicators of the presence of carbon monoxide there. The danger of caisson illness was already known, and Holdeen had to develop a methodology for a safe rise in divers to the surface. The 13-year-old John Jr. took part in the compilation of the relevant tables and calculations, for which he was allowed to go down under the water in the spacesuit to a depth of about 12 m. The spacesuit was great for him, leaning, and the water spent at a depth of half an hour managed to rise to the level of the neck, but it was pulled out on time.

Holdine was very proud that in 1911, when he was still in the end, the rector received a request from his father to let his son go to a lecture that John Sr. was supposed to read before the physiological section of the London Royal Society. He wrote that the presence of his son was necessary, since he proposed an important mathematical formula for his results, the validity of which John Sr. could not defend.

Despite the passion for classic languages ​​and philosophy, John attended lectures on zoology and genetics, and at home, with the participation of sister, he conducted genetic experiments first over the guinea pigs, and then over the mice - and received interesting results. But then the First World War began, and the training had to be interrupted. Holdine went into the army two months after the end of the course. He never got a degree, but later universities of the whole world awarded him a dozen honorary degrees.

Holdine entered the elite Scottish regiment, in which many of his ancestors served, and ended up in France. There he became the commander of a small unit, who was developing and testing new explosive devices. His division was not popular, because after the tests on the enemy, even on the most calm section of the front, he began to viciously snapping and massively shelling the positions of the British.

After the first gas attack, Holdeen was withdrawn to help his father, who developed a gas mask based on soda carbonate. The task of John Jr. was the testing of gas masks, so that he swallowed chlorine. Soon he returned to the front, immediately fell under the enhanced shelling and was wounded in his right hand and the left side. All the infirmas were clogged, and he himself went to the rear, where he stumbled upon the Prince of Wales, who went around his position in his personal car. He delivered Holdyn to the hospital.

After recovery, his relatives attached him to the position at the headquarters, but John fled to his regiment, which by that time was transferred to Mesopotamia. There he was wounded again, and he was sent for treatment to India. Unable to sit still, he went to travel around the country on foot. He ate and drank the same as ordinary people, but almost did not get sick, and only transferred a slight form of jaundice, and he wrote off the excessive consumption of meat. He fell in love with India for life.

In January 1919, Holdeena was commissioned with 25 percent disability.

Holdine stated that he was happy in the war, as he really liked to feel in constant danger. He allowed himself more shocking statements: for example, that he was pleased to kill, and once on the bus he proclaimed: “There was a brothel in that house during the war, where I lost innocence.” He liked to shock others all his life.

Of course, he could not remain idle and resumed science. John returned to Oxford and soon published several works on genetics, and in addition, he took up physiology, conducting experiments on himself. In 1923, he accepted the proposal to go to Cambridge University and give lectures on biochemistry there. Then he met a young journalist Charlotte Burges, and they began a stormy romance. She was married. The noisy divorce proceedings with the participation of a private detective and the payment of compensation for a deceived husband followed. It would still go, but in 1925 the university authorities, referring to the ancient Code, demanding an immediate dismissal of a morally decomposed employee, decided to expel him from work. Holdin opposed, appealed and won the case. It was not only restored at work, but also canceled the ancient Code as an intervention in personal life. He was very proud of this victory.

Charlotte, now Holdine, entered her husband into a circle of intellectuals with very left glances. Many were members of the UK Communist Party or supported it, and also sympathized with Soviet Russia - in those circles it was then fashionable. This circle was visited, for example, Anthony Blant, who later turned out to be one of the members of the famous Cambridge five Soviet spies along with Kim Filby. Holdine tried to stay away from writers, especially after Oldos Huxley portrayed him in one of his novels in the form of a burned materialist, who is only interested in the functioning of the kidneys.

In Cambridge, John became the right hand of the head of the biochemical laboratory, Frederick Hopkins, who later, in 1929, was awarded the Nobel Prize for the opening of vitamins. Holdine did not particularly succeed in the laboratory. Colleagues said that he was unable to conduct even the easiest experiment, as he behaved like an elephant in a chimney shop, but appreciated him as a walking encyclopedia.

In March 1928, Holdin received an invitation to take part in the third congress of Soviet physiologists, biochemists and pharmacologists, scheduled for May 28 - June 22 in Moscow. He accepted the invitation and went with his wife in the USSR. There he met many leading Soviet scientists. A little earlier he met in England and made friends with the Timofeev-Resovsky who worked since 1925 in Germany.

Upon completion of the work of the congress, at the suggestion of Vavilov, Holdeen made reports at his institutes in Moscow and Leningrad. There were trips around the country, visiting theaters, museums, mausoleum - in a word, a complete cultural program for foreigners. Charlotte was taken to the Krasny October factory, where exemplary nursery was shown. Later, she sarcastically remarked that the particularly -owned instinct, even in the minds of babies, had not yet been eradicated, since each child was tenacious by his pot.

The most pleasant impressions remained of the USSR (by the way, he never went there anymore). He assured everyone that in the Soviet Union the most important people are workers and scientists. After this trip, he first fell into the field of view of British counterintelligence, Mi5, which began to conduct routine supervision behind him - read mail, listen to telephone conversations and pick up their recordings in the dossier. Just in case.

In the Union, Holdine read reports on the mathematical theory of natural and artificial selection, on which he then worked. Obviously, he realized that nothing shines in the laboratory, and therefore took up the application of mathematical methods to genetics (he showed much more abilities for mathematics). His first article on this subject was published in 1924 in the works of the Cambridge philosophical society, and the latter in 1934 in the journal Genetics. He tried this series of work, one of the first to put on a strict mathematical basis the theory of evolution Charles Darwin. The subtitles of some of his articles are very eloquent: “The influence of partial self -fertilization, inbreeding, asrtic mating and selective fertilization on the composition of Mendelev populations and natural selection”, “Selection and mutations”, “The intensity of selection depending on the level of mortality”. Now it is believed that Holdine has become one of the ancestors of population genetics, along with Ronald Fisher and Suwalle Wright.

Reflections on the Darwin evolution inevitably led Holdine to the thoughts of the emergence of life on Earth. Darwin himself did not dare to put forward any hypotheses in his works, but expressed only a vague idea in a private letter to a friend, where he suggested that life could arise from inanimate matter in a “warm pond”, but did not speculate how this could happen. In the same letter, Darwin expressed himself very clearly: “... life appeared during some completely unknown process. To talk now about the origin of life is complete nonsense; In the same way, one can talk about the origin of matter . ” But he was still a certified priest, he could not do without the Creator, and therefore wrote in the sixth edition of his “origin of species”: “... there is greatness in the view, according to which life with its various manifestations originally breathed into one or limited number of forms; And meanwhile, our planet continues to rotate according to the constant laws of gravity, an infinite number of the most beautiful and most amazing forms has developed and continues to develop from such a simple beginning . ”

The atheist Holdeen disobeyed Darwin and decided to speculate about the origin of life without the participation of the Creator. In 1928 and in 1929, he published two articles, in which he suggested that in an ancient vanity atmosphere under the influence of sunny ultraviolet, the ocean containing carbon dioxide and ammonia acquired the consistency of the diluted broth. It somehow formed large and growing molecules, gradually acquiring the structure. In his opinion, these were amino acids. Holdine optimistically believed that the experiment would soon allow us to determine how believable his model is.

Hold, apparently, did not know about the work of A. I. Oparin, who put forward a similar idea in 1924. Unlike Holdeen, Oparin believed that not amino acids, but proteins should have formed in his coacers . Now these two hypotheses are customary to unite and call Oparin’s hypothesis - Holdeen. Its authors met at an international conference in Florida only in 1963, when Holdine was already seriously ill.

Sharp on the tongue of Timofeev-Resovsky from the answer to questions about the origin of life evaded and answered: “I don’t remember, I was small then. Ask Oparin, he seems to remember. ” And Holdine, when he was asked what he thinks about the plan of God, allegedly answered: "The Lord seems to have been distinguished by a great addiction to beetles." He had in mind that there are more than 400 thousand species of beetles, almost half of all known species of insects. (For details, see the article of the entomologist Nikita Vikhrev “ So who was the Creator loved? ” On page 1-2. - Ed. )

In 1932, Holdeena was elected a member of the Royal Society - the highest difference for the British scientist. But he was not satisfied with his position. Despite all his scientific achievements, colleagues in the University of Cambridge were in no hurry to make him a member of the college, to recognize themselves equal. He was considered rude and uncontrollable. For some reason, they did not like that once, in a hurry for lunch in college, he took a flask with him in the urine, from which he conducted experiments, and, not knowing where to put it, put it on the table. They did not find anything funny and in his manner to crack off the walnuts of his forehead. Тогда же он познакомился с приехавшим в Кембридж отцом кибернетики Норбертом Винером, который вспоминал, что не встречал никого, с кем было бы так интересно поговорить.

В 1932 году Холдейн покинул Кембридж и занял пост профессора генетики в Лондонском университетском колледже. С приходом к власти Гитлера Холдейн стал больше участвовать в политической деятельности, в том числе активно помогал беженцам из Германии. О своих политических взглядах он тогда говорил так: «Я диалектический материалист, но не коммунист». В подтверждение этих слов в 1937 году он опубликовал эссе «Диалектическое изложение эволюции», в 1938 году — брошюру «Марксистская философия и наука», а в 1939 году написал обширное предисловие к переводу на английский труда Фридриха Энгельса «Диалектика природы».

Холдейн публично поддерживал республиканцев во время гражданской войны в Испании, а в конце 1936 — начале 1937 года побывал там, хотя помог лишь советами, как защититься против возможных газовых атак и рекомендациями по устройству индивидуальных убежищ. Там, на передовой, он встретился с Эрнестом Хемингуэем, который велел ему не высовываться и не лезть на рожон.

Под влиянием всех этих событий Холдейн всё больше тяготел к компартии, и осенью 1942 года вступил в нее. Он и до того сотрудничал с газетой британских коммунистов Daily Worker , для которой еженедельно вел колонку о науке. Его рассказы были настолько увлекательны и информативны, что их читали даже те, кого никак нельзя было отнести к сочувствующим коммунистам. Всего он написал более 300 статей по самым разным областям знаний, а интересовался он очень многим. Вскоре Холдейн вошел в редколлегию газеты, а потом стал и одним из видных членов руководства компартии. В 1942 году его избрали иностранным членом АН СССР.

Холдейн не мог не знать о начавшихся в 1936 году в СССР гонениях на его коллег-генетиков. До него доходили не только слухи, но и прямые свидетельства очевидцев. Об арестах и исчезновениях биологов сообщал, например, еле унесший в 1937 году из Москвы ноги американский генетик Герман Мёллер (позднее нобелевский лауреат), который привез Тимофееву-Ресовскому совет Вавилова не возвращаться домой, куда его настоятельно звали. В биологии началось полное «облысение», как потом назвали воцарение Трофима Денисовича Лысенко.

Холдейн колебался, не зная, как к этому относиться. Он считал, что «… ни один из ныне живущих людей не понимает природу общества лучше Сталина. Это он сыграл решающую роль в двух великих переломах — свержении капитализма и построении социализма ». Такой человек не мог ошибаться. Потому в 1937 году Холдейн высказывался осторожно. « Нападки Лысенко на Вавилова и других русских генетиков, о которых сообщает Nature, похожи на нападки доктора Дингла на профессора Милна. Если эти нападки действительно пагубно сказались на работе Вавилова, то это весьма прискорбно, и тогда ситуация в советской генетике на самом деле серьезна. Если же это лишь слова, то положение там не более серьезно, чем в Лондоне, где, как мне известно, только что закрыли единственный факультет генетики ».

К 1945 году Шарлотта Холдейн разочаровалась и в коммунизме, и в муже. Она вышла из партии, а потом и развелась с Джоном. Тот тоже стал испытывать сомнения и в конце концов последовал ее примеру — положил на стол свой партбилет и в 1948 году потихоньку отказался от членства в АН СССР. Потихоньку — потому, что, по его словам, не хотел еще более усугублять положение своих коллег-генетиков, подвергшихся после войны полному разгрому.

Прежде чем поведать о закате его жизни, расскажу о вторжении Холдейна в космологию. Он очень увлекся теорией кинематического релятивизма, предложенной в начале 1930-х Эдуардом Артуром Милном в качестве альтернативы общей теории относительности Эйнштейна. Согласно Милну, Вселенную можно описывать либо кинематически, и тогда она возникла конечное время назад, либо динамически, и тогда ее начало отодвигается в бесконечно далекое от нас время. Отсюда Холдейн сделал занятные выводы. Он полагал, что скорость химических реакций должна была зависеть от времени, и чем дальше в прошлое, тем медленнее они протекали, так что, например, реакция окисления не могла снабдить клетки достаточным количеством энергии и обеспечить их деление. Отзывы коллег представить себе не составляет труда, и неудивительно, что Холдейн сам называл свои взгляды «немодными».

Попробовал он применить теорию Милна и к проблеме происхождения Солнечной системы. Холдейн рассчитал, что, согласно представлениям Милна, в очень далекие времена фотоны могли быть в невообразимое число раз тяжелее, чем сейчас. По его мнению, современные ему теории о прохождении мимо древнего Солнца другой звезды, вызвавшей выброс из него вещества, из которого потом сконденсировались планеты, были несостоятельны из-за малой вероятности такого события. Он сосчитал, что соударения с Солнцем одного такого неимоверно тяжелого фотона было бы достаточно, чтобы выбросить достаточное для формирования планет количество вещества. Э. А. Милн воспринял эту статью с энтузиазмом. Реакцию других коллег на эту работу мне найти не удалось. Возможно, ее просто не было.

Холдейн внимательно следил за новостями физики и не мог не заметить открытия несохранения четности в некоторых типах взаимодействий элементарных частиц. Он тут же откликнулся на это открытие Ли и Янга короткой заметкой «Пастер и космическая асимметрия». Холдейн отметил, что еще в 1874 году Луи Пастер обращал внимание на хиральность молекул в живых организмах. Великий француз полагал, что эта асимметрия связана с асимметрией всей Вселенной. Так же считал и Холдейн.

В июле 1957 года Холдейн снова шокировал широкую общественность. Вместе со второй женой Элен Сперуэй он навсегда покинул Великобританию и отправился жить в Индию. В качестве причин такого поступка он упоминал недовольство внешней и внутренней политикой тогдашнего правительства. Его возмущала, как он говорил, «оккупация» Великобритании американскими войсками, которых тогда было в стране действительно немало, а также разразившийся незадолго до того Суэцкий кризис. Он заявлял, что уезжает жить в свободную страну.

В Индии его встретили с восторгом. Он тут же занял созданную для него должность профессора Индийского статистического института, где занялся применением статистики к биологии, в частности к генетике. Такое направление работ не соответствовало планам руководства института. Последовали конфликты. Холдейн институт вскоре покинул и возглавил лабораторию генетики и биометрии. Он продолжал активно работать, написал несколько статей, а также всерьез занялся изучением индийской философии и истории.

На смертном одре он написал поэму о раке прямой кишки, который свел его в могилу. Она начиналась так: «Будь я Гомером, а не гномом, как я воспел бы карциному!» (перевод Н. В. Тимофеева-Ресовского).

Умер Холдейн 1 декабря 1964, завещав отдать свое тело для медицинских исследований.

В 2018 году в США вышла книга «Товарищ Холдейн слишком занят, чтобы съездить отдохнуть» с подзаголовком «Гений, шпионивший на Сталина». Ее автор получил доступ к рассекреченному досье Холдейна, которое на протяжении всей его жизни вела британская контрразведка. Несмотря на кричащий подзаголовок, никаких свидетельств шпионской деятельности Холдейна в книге нет. Да, его обхаживали советские агенты, много раз приглашали приехать в СССР «отдохнуть», но он каждый раз отговаривался занятостью. Отсюда и заглавие книги — цитата из перехваченного донесения одного из агентов в Москву.

Шпионом Холдейн не был. Поначалу он, видимо, был одним из тех, кого Ленин называл «полезными идиотами» (теперь их именуют «агентами влияния»). Но со временем он прозрел, особенно когда узнал, что случилось со многими его советскими коллегами и друзьями-генетиками. В политике, в отличие от науки, он был простодушен и наивен. But not for long.

Здесь не хватило места, чтобы рассказать обо всех научных достижениях Холдейна, ведь, помимо упомянутых работ по популяционной генетике и о происхождении жизни, он писал о сцепленном наследовании, передаче приобретенных признаков, кинетике ферментов, предположил, что серповидноклеточная анемия есть генетическое заболевание, предвидел возможность клонирования человека и оплодотворения in vitro, занимался поведением животных, предложил использовать рудничный газ для производства электроэнергии. Во время Второй мировой войны привлекался к совершенно секретным разработкам оборудования для очистки воздуха в подводных лодках. Кроме того, писал фантастические рассказы и повести для детей. Полагаю, что и сказанного должно быть достаточно, чтобы понять, насколько талантливым и незаурядным был этот человек.

Окружающий мир поражал его и вызывал восхищение и изумление. Под конец жизни он сказал: «… подозреваю, что Вселенная не только более странна, чем мы полагаем, но и гораздо более странна, чем мы в состоянии предположить ».

Vitaly Matsarsky

Bibliography

Фельдман Г. Э. Джон Бэрдон Сандерсон Холдейн. М.: Наука, 1976.
Pirie NWJBS Haldane // Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1966. V. 12. P. 218–249.
Clark RW The Life and Work of Haldane. Oxford University Press, 1984.
Tredoux G. Comrade Haldane Is Too Busy To Go On Holiday: The Genius Who Spied For Stalin. Encounter Books, New York, 2018.