Olivia Judson: The Human Phenome Project, Thanks to Francis Galton
[Olivia Judson, an evolutionary biologist, writes every Wednesday in the New York Times about the influence of science and biology on modern life. She is a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London.]
In 1884, a man called Francis Galton opened the doors of his “Anthropometric Laboratory.” This was “for the use of those who desire to be accurately measured in many ways, either to obtain timely warning of remediable faults in development, or to learn their powers.” The many ways included height, hand strength, acuity of sight and hearing, lung capacity and the power of a blow with the fist.
Galton was one of Charles Darwin’s cousins. This was no particular distinction: Darwin had many cousins. Indeed, he married one, and was married by one — the vicar who presided at the wedding was a cousin too. But Galton was distinguished in other ways: he was one of the great scientists and polymaths of the 19th century.
Among his achievements: he was the first to make rigorous weather maps, and he discovered the anticyclone. He developed methods to describe and classify fingerprints, and showed that they were a reliable way of telling one person from another. He made major contributions to statistics, discovering the concept of correlation and calculating the first correlation coefficients. (We talk of correlations when disparate phenomena occur together, either because one causes the other — as in smoking and lung cancer — or because both are the result of some other factor. For example, people with red hair tend to have pale skin; both are due to a particular gene involved in pigmentation. Correlation coefficients are a measure of the strength of the association.)...
Read entire article at NYT
In 1884, a man called Francis Galton opened the doors of his “Anthropometric Laboratory.” This was “for the use of those who desire to be accurately measured in many ways, either to obtain timely warning of remediable faults in development, or to learn their powers.” The many ways included height, hand strength, acuity of sight and hearing, lung capacity and the power of a blow with the fist.
Galton was one of Charles Darwin’s cousins. This was no particular distinction: Darwin had many cousins. Indeed, he married one, and was married by one — the vicar who presided at the wedding was a cousin too. But Galton was distinguished in other ways: he was one of the great scientists and polymaths of the 19th century.
Among his achievements: he was the first to make rigorous weather maps, and he discovered the anticyclone. He developed methods to describe and classify fingerprints, and showed that they were a reliable way of telling one person from another. He made major contributions to statistics, discovering the concept of correlation and calculating the first correlation coefficients. (We talk of correlations when disparate phenomena occur together, either because one causes the other — as in smoking and lung cancer — or because both are the result of some other factor. For example, people with red hair tend to have pale skin; both are due to a particular gene involved in pigmentation. Correlation coefficients are a measure of the strength of the association.)...