Lewis Wolpert (19 October 1929 – 28 January 2021) was a South African-born British developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster. Wolpert popularized his French flag model of embryonic development, using the colours of the French flag as a visual aid to explain how embryonic cells interpret genetic code for expressing characteristics of living organisms and explaining how signalling between cells early in morphogenesis could inform cells with the same genetic regulatory network of their position and role. He wrote several science books, including: Triumph of the Embryo (1991), Malignant Sadness (1999), Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: the Evolutionary Origins of Belief (2006), and How We Live And Why We Die: The Secret Lives of Cells (2009).
Early life Wolpert was born on 19 October 1929, in Johannesburg to Sarah (née Suzman) and William Wolpert in a South African Jewish family of Lithuanian Jewish origin. His father was a bookshop manager and newsagent. His aunt, Helen Suzman, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. He completed his BSc in civil engineering at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he was exposed to progressive politics and communist ideas, and met Nelson Mandela in 1952. He worked as an assistant to the director of Building Research Institute, Pretoria, before going to Israel and working for the Water Planning Board. He went on to study soil mechanics at Imperial College London and later completed his doctorate from King's College London under biophysicist James Danielli.
Career and research Wolpert shifted focus from applying his knowledge of soil mechanics to studying the science of dividing cells on the recommendation of a friend in South Africa. Partnering with Trygve Gustafson he worked toward measuring the mechanical forces in cellular division. He served as a lecturer and then a reader in King's College London. He went on to hold the position of Emeritus Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at University College London until his retirement at 74. Wolpert was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2002.
French flag model Wolpert was best known for the French flag model of embryonic development, which he put forward in a 1969 paper titled Positional Information and the Spatial Pattern of Cellular Differentiation in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. The model uses the French tricolor flag to visually depict how embryonic cells interpret genetic code to create the same patterns, even when some pieces of the embryo are removed. The model further explains how signalling between cells early in morphogenesis could be used to inform cells with the same genetic regulatory network of their position and role. The model was based on Wolpert's research on sea urchin eggs and provided a framework for research into gastrulation, the embryonic process during which a living organism's body plan is established. Wolpert is credited with the quote: "It is not birth, marriage, or death, but gastrulation which is truly the most important time in your life." Biologists recognise Wolpert for elaborating and championing the ideas of positional information and positional value: molecular signals and internal cellular responses to them that enable cells to do the right thing in the right place during embryonic development. The essence of these concepts is that there is a dedicated set of molecules for spatial co-ordination of cells, identical across many species and across different developmental stages and tissues. The discovery of Hox gene codes in flies and vertebrates has largely vindicated Wolpert's positional-value concept, while identification of growth-factor morphogens in many species has supported the concept of positional information.
Ideas In a 2005 article entitled "Spiked", The Guardian asked a series of scientists "What is the one thing everyone should learn about science?" Wolpert responded:
I would teach the world that science is the best way to understand the world, and that for any set of observations, there is only one correct explanation. Also, science is value-free, as it explains the world as it is. Ethical issues arise only when science is applied to technology – from medicine to industry.
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