Isadore Nabi (sometimes ''Isidore Nabi'' or ''Isador Nabi'') was a pseudonym used by a group of scientists including
Richard Lewontin
Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021) was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, ...
,
Richard Levins
Richard Levins (June 1, 1930 – January 19, 2016) was a Marxist biologist, a population geneticist, biomathematician, mathematical ecologist, and philosopher of science who researched genetic diversity, diversity in human populations. Until his ...
,
Robert MacArthur
Robert Helmer MacArthur (April 7, 1930 – November 1, 1972) was a Canadian-born American ecologist who made a major impact on many areas of community and population ecology. He is considered to be one of the founders of ecology.
Early life ...
, and
Leigh van Valen
Leigh Van Valen (August 12, 1935 – October 16, 2010) was an American evolutionary biologist. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.
Research and interests
A ...
in the 1960s. Inspired by the work of
Nicolas Bourbaki
Nicolas Bourbaki () is the collective pseudonym of a group of mathematicians, predominantly French alumni of the École normale supérieure (Paris), École normale supérieure (ENS). Founded in 1934–1935, the Bourbaki group originally intende ...
, they allegedly hoped to create a unified approach to evolutionary biology. However, the project was aborted and the name was reused in the 1980s for satirical purposes.
Nabi's biography was listed in ''American Men and Women of Science'', articles and letters were published in prominent journals under his name, and he was listed on the editorial board of ''Evolutionary Theory''.
He has primarily written on
sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within the study of ...
. His article, "An Evolutionary Interpretation of the English Sonnet" was delivered as the First Annual
Piltdown Lecture on Man and Nature and appeared under the heading "Advances in Sociobiopsy". (The author was noted as a "Satirical Commentator".)
[
] He has also written articles critical of the systems-theoretical approach to
mathematical ecology, as illustrated by what our laws of motion in physics would look like if early physicists had used the methods of the systems ecologists (this time listing the author as "Intrepid Investigator").
[ Reprinted in ] In 2002 he published a piece (under the name "Isador Nabi") on stock tips in ''Gene Watch''. It was identified as humor.
Biography
His biography in ''American Men and Women of Science'' reads:
:NABI, ISIDORE, b
Brno, Czech, July 22, 10; m 30; c 6. POPULATION BIOLOGY. Educ: Cochabamba Univ, AB, 30; Nat Univ Mex, MD. 36. Hon Degrees: PhD, Cochabamba Univ, 50; LLB. Nat Univ Mex, 39. Prof Exp: Petrol geologist. Ministeno de Fomento, Venezuela, 40-42; instr biol. Hunter Col, 45-47; resident path, Kings County Hosp. Brooklyn, 47-49; ed & publisher, Boletin de Medicina Forensics, Caracas, 49-51; lectr & res assoc path, Univ Venezuela, 51-56; Guggenheim fel biol, Yeshiva Univ, 56-57; res assoc pharmacol, NY Univ, 62-65; res assoc anat, 65-67, evolutionary biol, 67-71, RES ASSOC BIOL, UNIV CHICAGO, 71- Concurrent Pos: Consult, Standard Oil Co, 45-47 & Kings County Coroner, 47-49; NIH res grant, 65. Mem: Soc Study Evolution; Am Col Legal Med; Int Acad Path Res: Cytopathology; forensic cytology; paleocytopathology. Mailing Add: Dept of Biol Univ of Chicago Chicago IL 60637.
Nabi was supposedly born in 1910 in
La Paz
La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...
,
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
. After a precocious stay in
medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
, he received an M.D. in 1936. He went on to attend
grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
and
secondary schools
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
, finally receiving a
Ph.D. at the
Cochabamba University. For a period he resided in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
,
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, as well as
Caracas
Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
,
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
, where he headed the local affiliate of what was then called
Esso
Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...
Oil. He also was a practicing brain surgeon and editor of the revolutionary journal El Fomento. Despite his multi-tasking, he managed to publish a number of articles and addresses in population
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
,
evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
, and
ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
.
Controversy
In 1981, Nabi had a letter published in ''Nature'' complaining that
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator and author. He is an Oxford fellow, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was Simonyi Professor for the Publ ...
suggested both that we were "robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes ... they control us body and mind" and that we need to fight against the tendencies of our genes. Similarly,
E. O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, ecologist, and entomologist known for developing the field of sociobiology.
Born in Alabama, Wilson found an early interest in nature and frequ ...
has said that neurobiology provided "a genetically accurate and hence completely fair code of ethics" but also warned against the
naturalistic fallacy
In metaethics, the naturalistic fallacy is the claim that it is possible to define good in terms of merely described entities, properties, or processes such as ''pleasant'', ''desirable'', or '' fitness''. The term was introduced by British phil ...
.
Wilson complained to ''Nature'' magazine that Nabi was an invented character and insisted that he "lifted the two 1975 phrases of mine out of context in a way that reverses the meaning of one". The editors suggested that Nabi was a pseudonym of Lewontin's.
Lewontin wrote to insist he was not "Isidore Nabi", citing Nabi's biography in ''American Men and Women of Science'' and editorial board position on ''Evolutionary Theory''.
Isidore Nabi replied to insist that he was not Isadore Nabi, the author of the letter.
This all led to a ''Nature'' editorial in the fall of 1981 which stated that Nabi was the pen name of
Richard Lewontin
Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021) was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, ...
,
Leigh van Valen
Leigh Van Valen (August 12, 1935 – October 16, 2010) was an American evolutionary biologist. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.
Research and interests
A ...
, and Richard Lester and decrying its use as deceptive.
Richard Lester wrote an outraged reply insisting that he had not been involved at all and suggesting ''Nature'' was irresponsible in not checking with him first. The editors suggested that Richard Lester was a pseudonym of Richard Levins.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nabi, Isadore
Hoaxes in science
Academic shared pseudonyms
Fictional academics
Fictional Czech people
Fictional Bolivian people