I have just finished reading Richard Dawkins’ book ‘An Appetite for Wonder, the making of a scientist’ in which he speaks of evolutionary biologist John Maynard Smith. He explained that Maynard Smith ‘had been an engineer designing aircraft, but gave it up beacuse he noticed that ‘aircraft were noisy and old fashioned’
Wikapedia states that he worked in the aircraft industry between 1942 and 1947 but I have drawn a blank regarding further information. Are there any forum members out there who can put more meat on these particular bones?
By: Sideslip - 18th October 2013 at 19:02
Thank you for that David. Looking further I have found a document, ‘The Marriage of Mathematics and Biology’ by John Maynard Smith, that includes this paragraph.
‘In normal times, I would probably have switched from engineering to biology while at Cambridge. But times were not normal. The war broke out, and a half trained engineer had no choice but to complete his training and enter industry. I became an aircraft stressman reponsible for ensuring that the aircraft structure did not break under loads imposed. I worked at Miles Aircraft, a company that built training aircraft. I worked very hard, but I do not think I made any useful contribution to Britain’s war effort, although aeroplanes I worked on were widely used after the war.
Finally in 1947 I left the aircraft industry and returned to university to study biology.’
By: charliehunt - 18th October 2013 at 17:08
How interesting.
By: David_Kavangh - 18th October 2013 at 16:23
On an old obituary I found this,
“After graduating, Maynard Smith worked as a “stress man” for a small company called Myles Aircraft, calculating the stresses in aircraft wings”
I assume they mean “Miles”
By: charliehunt - 18th October 2013 at 08:11
Interesting. I just knew him as one of the finest evolutionary biologists of his generation and read his “Theory of Evolution” many years ago.
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October 18, 2013 at 7:21 am