biology

Patrick Bateson

Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Paul Patrick Gordon Bateson, (31 March 1938 – 1 August 2017) was an English biologist with interests in ethology and phenotypic plasticity. Bateson was a professor at the University of Cambridge and served as president of the Zoological Society of London from 2004 to 2014.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sir Paul Patrick Gordon Bateson, (31 March 1938 – 1 August 2017) was an English biologist with interests in ethology and phenotypic plasticity. Bateson was a professor at the University of Cambridge and served as president of the Zoological Society of London from 2004 to 2014.

Education Bateson was educated at Westminster School and King's College, Cambridge where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology in 1960 and a PhD for research on animal behaviour supervised by Robert Hinde.

Career and research Bateson was a biologist who specialised in researching the behaviour of animals and how it is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. He was a world authority on imprinting in birds – the process of learning to recognise their parents and members of their own species – and his work led to new principles in behavioural development. Bateson devised original experiments that showed how characteristics of imprinting depend on the bird's early life experiences. Bateson's investigation of learning in birds has led to greater understanding of the neural basis of memory. He had an interest in how developmental and behavioural processes influence evolution. Bateson was concerned with the ethics of using animals in research and the analysis of animal pain and suffering. This led to a study exploring the effects hunting with hounds had on red deer, an inquiry into dog breeding, and a review of the use of animals in research. Previous academic positions include a Harkness Fellowship at Stanford University and ten years as head of the Cambridge sub-department of Animal Behaviour. Bateson served five years as biological secretary to the Royal Society and fifteen years as provost of King's College, Cambridge, retiring from both in 2003. He retired from his Cambridge Chair in 2005. Bateson published on such topics as ethology, animal welfare, behavioral development and evolution.

Selected publications

Awards and honours Bateson was knighted for services to science in the 2003 Birthday Honours list. He received an Honorary Doctor of Science (ScD) degree from the University of St Andrews and an honorary fellowship from Queen Mary University of London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1983. In 2014 he received the Frink Medal from the Zoological Society of London.

Personal life Patrick Bateson's grandfather's cousin was the geneticist William Bateson. Patrick's daughter is Melissa Bateson, also a professor of ethology, at Newcastle University. Patrick Bateson was an atheist. He died on 1 August 2017 at the age of 79.

External links Quotations related to Patrick Bateson at Wikiquote Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane December 2007 (video)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Patrick Bateson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson

In research: Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson 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: Patrick Bateson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1938 births, 2017 deaths, Alumni of King's College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Patrick Bateson in simple terms?

Why does Patrick Bateson 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 Patrick Bateson?

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 Patrick Bateson.