Intellectual pursuits of Nicolas Rashevsky. The queer duck of biology (Q530582)

This book is a passionate account of the life and ideas of Nicolas Rashevsky (1899--1972), one of the earliest proponents of employing quantitative and deductive methods in theoretical biology and a great contributor towards the establishment and recognition of mathematical biology as an independent, institutionalized discipline. Animated by the goal to make mathematical biology (he himself preferred to use ``mathematical biology'' instead of ``biomathematics'' and insisted that these terms are not interchangeable) to be as efficient and as structured as mathematical physics, Rashevsky crossed many boundaries in his 50 years of scientific career. Notably, he published more than 500 articles and seven books, established the first program granting Ph.D.'s in mathematical biology at the University of Chicago, founded the \textit{Bulletin of Mathematical Biology} (also the first journal in the newly created field) and formed an organization, \textit{Mathematical Biology Incorporated}, which was the precursor of the \textit{Society for Mathematical Biology}. The author has succeeded at writing a remarkably vivid and well-documented chronicle of the evolution of Rashevsky's scientific ideas and of his struggle to materialize his vision of establishing a new discipline, equipped with its own methodology (although the proposed methodology changed over the years, from the early ``abstractize and simplify'' or ``paper and pencil'' approach to a more diversified one in the 50s), which did not put experiments first, but the search for general principles. Rashevsky's efforts to institutionalize his research agenda are also presented, in spite of inherent administrative difficulties and the opposition of many of his peers. The exposition, editorialized at times, concentrates mostly on the philosophy behind research (the ``intellectual pursuits'' mentioned in the title), not on very specific research details, and on the role of Rashevsky as an initiator and pathfinder, while being an outsider in biology. Shmailov sees Rashevsky as an unorthodox thinker, a ``queer duck of biology'' and, in any case, a ``consummate outsider'' (Rashevsky was a physics prodigy, obtaining his doctorate at the age of 19 from the University of Kiev). Consequently, the author explores the ways in which Rashevsky's outsider identity, in need to legitimize his \textit{magnum opus}, shaped the intellectual genesis of mathematical biology, and illustrates the interplay between the personal and academic factors, using a wealth of information from first-hand sources. The book is potentially of interest not only to mathematical biologists (although some familiarity with mathematical biology will take the reader a long way towards the understanding of the true dimension of Rashevsky's endeavour), but to anyone with interest in the biographies of 20th century remarkable scientists.