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Alfred Henry Sturtevant
(21 Nov 1891 - 5 Apr 1970)
American geneticist.
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Science Quotes by Alfred Henry Sturtevant (1 quote)
There is a reference in Aristotle to a gnat produced by larvae engendered in the slime of vinegar. This must have been Drosophila.
— Alfred Henry Sturtevant
A History of Genetics (1965). Epigraph cited in M. M. Green, James F. Crow (ed.) and William F. Dove (ed.), 'It Really Is Not a Fruit Fly', Genetics (Sep 2002), 162, 1. The article points out that Drosophila melanogaster now called the fruit fly, was historically known in general genetics texts as the pomace fly (e.g. Castle, 1911) or the vinegar fly (e.g. Morgan, Bridges and Sturtevant, 1925). The article footnotes the origin as a sentence in Aristotles History of Animals, book 5, section 19: The conops comes from a grub engendered in the slime of vinegar. Whereas that insect would seen to be the vinegar fly, from descriptions elsewhere in Aristotle's writing, he also used the word conops for an insect like a mosquito.
See also:
- 21 Nov - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Sturtevant's birth.
- History Of Genetics, by A. H. Sturtevant. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
