A Short Note on Ronald Fisher | Ronald Fisher Theory of Evolution

Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher was born on 17th January 1890 in London, England. He was the youngest among his brothers and sisters. He had poor eyesight throughout his life, due to which the British Army rejected him during World War I. Although, due to his poor vision, he developed his skill to visualise problems from a geometrical perspective. He attended Harrow School, where he honed his mathematical skills. After that, he attended Gonville and Caius College (Cambridge) to study Mathematics on scholarship. In 1912, he received his first-class honours in Mathematics. After passing from Cambridge, he got a job as a statistician in the Rothamsted Experimental Station in Central England and also taught Mathematics and Physics in public schools. He had a family with his wife, Eileen Guinness and eight children (six daughters and two sons).

In 1933, he was hired at University College London as a Professor of Eugenics until the closure of the department in 1939. After that, he returned to his old job at Rothamsted Experimental Station. He was also elected as the Balfour Chair of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. 

Ronald Fisher’s Contributions to Science

Being a polymath, Ronald Fisher had contributed to a lot of scientific domains. But his major breakthroughs were recorded in the field of Biology and Mathematics. Below are some of Ronald Fisher contributions to science:

1. Ronald Fisher Theory of Evolution

Fisher had a lot of new ideas in the field of biology. Ronald Fisher Theory of Evolution had a mathematical approach to answering biological questions, which were sometimes difficult to understand and attracted resistance from other scientists. Ronald Fisher understood the genetics of blood groups of human beings. Furthermore, he explained the Rhesus system and invented the Fisher-Race notation, which is used to date. 

Fisher is credited with unifying Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection with Mendel’s law of inheritance in his book ‘The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection’. This helped in the creation of a new field of genetics and reinvigorated the theory of sexual selection. In this book, he introduced a lot of new and essential concepts in the field of biology. He came up with the concept of the relationship between the degree of a mutation and the probability of the mutation defining an organism’s health. He also introduced the Sexy Son Hypothesis, which states that a female organism’s ideal choice for mating among the potential mates would be the one whose genes will create male organisms with the best chances of reproducing further. He also demonstrated the heterozygous advantage, which refers to the state of inheriting different forms of a certain gene from each of the parents.

2. Ronald Fisher Statistics

Ronald Fisher introduced the term ‘Variance’ in statistics and invented the statistical method called ANOVA or Analysis of Variance. He also invented the concept of likelihood and a method of maximum likelihood. He continued working on the concept of maximum likelihood to improve the method for a decade. He also demonstrated that, in statistics, there is a sample mean which varies from the population mean. After joining the post of a statistician, he had access to a database which had recorded biological data since 1842. He analysed the data and came up with various tools of modern experimental design. He is also known to be the inventor of the Frequency distribution chart or the F distribution chart. Ronald Fisher Statistics also introduced the concept of the null hypothesis. 

Facts About Ronald Fisher

• Ronald Fisher was a twin-born son; his elder twin was stillborn
• Ronald Fisher was a pipe smoker. He was also hired by tobacco companies as a consultant. He was not convinced that smoking causes cancer after British medical journals suggested a strong link between smoking and cancer
• Ronald Fisher had a reputation for being temperamental. He behaved rudely toward people with whom he disagreed and had a lot of scientific feuds with such people
• Karl Pearson offered Ronald Fisher a job, but he rejected it
• Ronald Fisher was elected to the Royal Society and joined the other elite scientists in 1929
• Ronald Fisher was very good friends with Charles Darwin’s son Leonard Darwin
• Ronald Fisher’s book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection is considered to be “the natural successor to The Origin of Species
• Ronald Fisher is considered to be ‘the greatest of Darwin’s successors because of his contributions to biology
• When Ronald Fisher was working as the Professor of Eugenics, many students would quit attending his lectures in midterm. Only the group of the smartest students who would understand his theories stuck with his course.

Conclusion

Ronald Fisher retired from the Balfour Chair of Genetics at the University of Cambridge in 1957. But he continued to work for two more years at the University of Cambridge. Then he relocated to Adelaide, Australia, at the age of 69. He underwent surgery for colon cancer which caused post-operation complications. Ronald Fisher died on 29th July 1962 in Adelaide, Australia. Ronald Fisher is credited with writing 7 books and about 400 academic papers by the end of his career.