biology

Jerry Coyne

Jerry Coyne is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jerry Coyne rather than just read about it. In short: Jerry Allen Coyne (born December 30, 1949) is an American biologist and skeptic known for his work on speciation and his commentary on intelligent design. A professor emeritus of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, he has published on the theory of evolution.

Key takeaways

Jerry Coyne belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jerry Coyne to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jerry Coyne from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jerry Allen Coyne (born December 30, 1949) is an American biologist and skeptic known for his work on speciation and his commentary on intelligent design. A professor emeritus of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, he has published on the theory of evolution. His concentration is speciation and ecological and evolutionary genetics, particularly as they involve the fruit fly, Drosophila. In 2023 he became a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is the author of the text Speciation and the bestselling non-fiction book Why Evolution Is True. Coyne maintains a website and writes for his blog, also called Why Evolution Is True. He is a hard determinist. Coyne gained attention outside of the scientific community as a public critic of religion. As a proponent of New Atheism, he is often cited with atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. He is the author of the book Faith Versus Fact.

Early life and education Jerry Allen Coyne was born December 30, 1949. He was raised by Jewish parents. He graduated with a B.S. in biology from the College of William & Mary in 1971, receiving the Botetourt Medal for academic achievement. According to Coyne, while in college, he was involved in activism against apartheid and protested against the Vietnam War. His graduate work at Rockefeller University under Theodosius Dobzhansky was interrupted when he was drafted. He earned a Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University in 1978, studying under Richard Lewontin, and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Davis, with Timothy Prout.

Career Coyne was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. He received the Emperor Has No Clothes Award from the Freedom from Religion Foundation in 2011. Coyne has served as Vice President (1996) and President (2011) of the Society for the Study of Evolution. He has been associate editor of the publications Evolution (1985–1988; 1994–2000) and The American Naturalist (1990–1993). He has taught evolutionary biology, speciation, genetic analysis, social issues and scientific knowledge, scientific speaking and writing. He considers evolutionary biology to be "... more like the fine arts of science, in that it's aesthetically quite satisfying, but it also happens to be true, which is an extra bonus." His writing has been published in the scientific journals Nature, and Science, as well as news and magazine publications including The New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and The New Republic. His research interests include population and evolutionary genetics, speciation, ecological and quantitative genetics, chromosome evolution, and sperm competition. Coyne was a consultant for the defense during the murder trial of O. J. Simpson and expressed concerns that the DNA evidence implicating Simpson could be faulty. In 2024, shortly after Simpson's death, Coyne shared his belief that Simpson was "guilty as hell" and the verdict was "a miscarriage of justice largely due to the incompetence of the prosecution", which had caused him to refuse subsequent requests to serve as an expert witness. In a 1996 critique of the theory of intelligent-design creationism, Coyne wrote a New Republic article on Of Pandas and People (a book review), which started a long history of writing on evolution and creationism. The Ecuadoran frog Atelopus coynei is named after Coyne, who collected the holotype in a swamp on a frogging trip to western Ecuador as a student in the late 1970s.

Critiques of creationism Coyne is a critic of creationism, theistic evolution, and intelligent design, which he calls "the latest pseudoscientific incarnation of religious creationism, cleverly crafted by a new group of enthusiasts to circumvent recent legal restrictions."

Beliefs

Atheism and skepticism

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jerry Coyne

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jerry Coyne claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jerry Coyne before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jerry Coyne ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jerry Coyne

In research: Jerry Coyne appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jerry Coyne in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jerry Coyne is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1949 births, 20th-century American Jews, 20th-century American biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jerry Coyne outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jerry Coyne in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jerry Coyne means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jerry Coyne out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jerry Coyne in simple terms?

Why does Jerry Coyne matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jerry Coyne?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jerry Coyne.