Jean Edmond Cyrus Rostand (30 October 1894 – 4 September 1977) was a French

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

, historian of science, and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. Active as an experimental biologist, Rostand became famous for his work as a

science writer Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists and the public. Origins Modern science journalism originated in weather and other natural history obs ...

, as well as a

and an activist. His scientific work covered a variety of biological fields such as

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

embryology Embryology (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the Prenatal development (biology), prenatal development of gametes (sex ...

parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek + ) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which the embryo develops directly from an egg without need for fertilization. In animals, parthenogenesis means the development of an embryo from an unfertiliz ...

and teratogeny, while his literary output extended into popular science,

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

and philosophy. His work in the area of

cryogenics In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th International Institute of Refrigeration's (IIR) International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington, DC in 1971) endorsed a universa ...

gave the idea of

cryonics Cryonics (from ''kryos'', meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticism by the mainstream scien ...

to Robert Ettinger. He took an interest in ethics and morality in biology and wrote against pseudoscience, the use of science for war, wrote against racism and supported human equality and freedom.

Rostand Island Rostand Island is a rocky island 400 m long and 200 m south-east of Petrel Island in the Géologie Archipelago of Antarctica. It was charted in 1951 by the French Antarctic Expedition and named by them for Jean Rostand, noted French b ...

in Antarctica is named after him.

Biography

Rostand was born in Paris to

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with th ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Rosemonde Gérard. He was the brother of novelist and playwright Maurice Rostand. His paternal grandfather Eugène Rostand had been a political scientist and economist. The family moved to

Cambo-les-Bains Cambo-les-Bains (; ) is a town in the traditional Northern Basque Country, Basque province of Labourd, now in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments of France, department in south-western France. It lies on the south-western bank of the river Nive ...

in 1900 and Rostand grew up with a fascination for natural history in these surroundings. He was educated by home tutors and read the works of J. H. Fabre, Claude Bernard and Charles Darwin. He then went to study natural sciences at the

University of Sorbonne The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

and graduated in 1914. Rostand's biological research began with work on paedogenesis in flies, studies on silkworms and dragonflies before beginning to work on embryology in frogs. In 1910 he was able to induce parthenogenesis in the eggs of ''Rana temporaria''. He then examined

polydactyly Polydactyly is a birth defect that results in extra fingers or toes. The hands are more commonly involved than the feet. Extra fingers may be painful, affect self-esteem, or result in clumsiness. It is associated with at least 39 genetic mut ...

and its induction by chemical agents in frogs and studied the preservation of sperm vitality using glycerine. He also examined the determination of sex in frogs. For his work in biology he received the Henry de Parville Prize in 1934 and the Binoux Prize in 1941. Following in the footsteps of his father, Rostand was elected to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in 1959. Rostand was active in several causes, in particular against

nuclear proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as List of states with nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonl ...

and the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

. An

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

, he demonstrated humanist convictions. He wrote several books on the question of eugenism and the responsibilities of mankind regarding its own fate and its place in nature. Rostand took a special interest in the history of science and especially stressed the slow process by which scientific facts were determined and how they emerged from the interactions of numerous people and highlighted the need for modesty, especially because of the fallibility of individual workers. For his work in the popularization of science he received a

Kalinga Prize The Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is an award given by UNESCO for exceptional skill in popularization of science, presenting scientific ideas to lay people. It was created in 1952, following a donation from Biju Patnaik, Founder ...

in 1959. Rostand is famous for the quotation: "Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a God" from ''Thoughts of a Biologist'', 1938. In the preface of the 1959 Italian edition of his ''Artificial man'', Rostand foresaw artificial

oviparity Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

, gender mutation, virgin births, as well as

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

modifications before and after the birth. Rostand married a cousin Andrée Mante in 1920 and they had a son François who became a mathematician. After 1922 he set up a laboratory in his home at Ville d’Avray and began to conduct most of his research there, free of institutional demands. He would meet people from a wide range of interests at his home on Sundays. He died following prolonged ill-health at home.

Works

* ''Le retour des pauvres '', 1919 - ''Return of the poor'' * ''La loi des riches'', 1920 - ''The law of the rich'' * ''Pendant qu’on souffre encore'', 1921 - ''While suffering endures'' * ''Ignace ou l'Écrivain '', 1923 - ''Ignace or the writer'' * ''Deux angoisses : la mort, l’amour'', 1924 - ''Two anguishes: love and death'' * ''De la vanité et de quelques autres sujets '', 1925 - ''Of vanity and several other subjects'' * ''Les familiotes et autres essais de mystique bourgeoise'', 1925 - ''The familiotes and other essays of the bourgeois mystique'' * ''De l’amour des idées '', 1926 - ''On the love of ideas'' * ''Le mariage'', 1927 - ''Marriage'' * ''Valère ou l’Exaspéré'', 1927 - ''Valère or The exasperated '' * ''Julien ou Une conscience'', 1928 - ''Julien or A conscience'' * ''Les chromosomes, artisans de l’hérédité et du sexe'', 1929 - ''Chromosomes, artisans of heredity and sex'' * ''De la mouche à l’Homme'', 1930 - ''From fly to man'' * ''L’état présent du transformisme'', 1931 - ''The current state of transformism'' * ''Journal d’un caractère'', 1931 - ''Journal of a character'' * ''L’Évolution des espèces'', 1932 - ''The evolution of species'' * ''Les problèmes de l’hérédité et du sexe'', 1933 - ''The problems of heredity and sex'' * ''L’aventure humaine'', 1933 - ''The human adventure'' * ''La vie des libellules'', 1935 - ''The life of dragonflies'' * ''Insectes'', 1936 - ''Insects'' * ''La nouvelle biologie'', 1937 - ''The new biology'' * ''Biologie et médecine'', 1938 - ''Biology and medicine'' * ''Hérédité et racisme'', 1938 - ''Heredity and racism'' * ''Pensée d’un biologiste'', 1938 - ''Thoughts from a biologist'' * ''La vie et ses problèmes'', 1938 - ''Life and its problems'' * ''Science et génération'', 1940 - ''Science and generation'' * ''Les idées nouvelles de la génétique'', 1941 - ''New ideas in genetics'' * ''L’Homme, introduction à l’étude de la biologie humaine '', 1941 - ''Man, introduction to the study of human biology'' * ''L’Homme, maître de la vie'', 1941 - ''Man, master of life'' * ''Hommes de vérité'', 1942 - ''Men of truth'' * ''L’avenir de la biologie'', 1943 - ''The future of biology'' * ''La genèse de la vie, histoire des idées sur la génération spontanée '', 1943 - ''Genesis of life, a history of the ideas on spontaneous generation'' * ''La vie des vers à soie '', 1944 - ''The life of silkworms'' * ''Esquisse d’une histoire de la biologie '', 1945 - ''Sketch of a history of biology'' * ''L’avenir de la biologie'', 1946 - ''The future of biology'' * ''Qu’est-ce qu’un enfant ?'', 1946 - ''What is a child?'' * ''Charles Darwin'', 1947 * ''Nouvelles pensées d’un biologiste'', 1947 - ''New thoughts from a biologist'' * ''L’hérédité humaine '', 1948 - ''Human heredity'' * ''Hommes de vérité II '', 1948 - ''Men of truth II'' * ''La biologie et l’avenir humain'', 1949 - ''Biology and the human future'' * ''L’Homme devant la biologie'', 1949 - ''Man facing biology'' * ''La parthénogenèse, reproduction virginale chez les animaux'', 1949 - ''Parthenogenesis, virginal reproduction in animals'' * ''La parthénogenèse animale'', 1949 - ''Animal parthenogenesis'' * ''La génétique des batraciens'', 1951 - ''Batrachian genetics'' * ''Les grands courants de la biologie '', 1951 - ''Great trends in biology'' * ''Les origines de la biologie expérimentale et l’abbé Spallanzani'', 1951 - ''The origins of experimental biology and the Abbé Spallanzani'' * ''L’hérédité humaine'', 1952 - ''Human heredity'' * ''Pages d’un moraliste '', 1952 - ''Pages by a moralist'' * ''Ce que nous apprennent les crapauds et les grenouilles'', 1953 - ''What toads and frogs teach us'' * ''La vie, cette aventure'', 1953 - ''Life, that adventure'' * ''Ce que je crois'', 1953 - ''What I believe'' * ''Instruire sur l’Homme'', 1953 - ''To instruct on Man'' * ''Notes d’un biologiste '', 1954 - ''Notes from a biologist'' * ''Les crapauds et les grenouilles et quelques grands problèmes biologiques'', 1955 - ''Toads, frogs and a few great problems in biology'' * ''Le problème biologique de l’individu'', 1955 - ''The biological problem of the individual'' * ''L’Homme en l’an 2000'', 1956 - ''Man in the year 2000'' * ''Peut-on modifier l’Homme?'', 1956 - ''Can we modify Man?'' * ''L’atomisme en biologie'', 1956 - ''Atomism in biology'' * ''Bestiaire d’amour'', 1958 - ''A bestiary of love'' * ''Aux sources de la biologie'', 1958 - ''At the sources of biology'' * ''Anomalies des amphibiens anoures'', 1958 - ''Anomalies of anurian amphibians'' * ''Science fausse et fausses sciences'', 1958 - ''Erroneous science and false science'' * ''Les origines de la biologie expérimentale'', 1959 - ''Origins of experimental biology'' * ''Carnet d’un biologiste'', 1959 - ''Notepad of a biologist'' * ''Espoirs et inquiétudes de l’homme'', 1959 - ''The hopes and worries of Man''

References

External links

Jean Rostand "homme de vérité"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rostand, Jean 1894 births 1977 deaths Writers from Paris 20th-century French philosophers French philosophers of science Members of the Académie Française French science writers French male non-fiction writers French eugenicists French agnostics Kalinga Prize recipients 20th-century French male writers Historians of science

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links