Talk:W. D. Hamilton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the Project's quality scale. [FAQ]
(If you rated the article, please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)
Charles Darwin This article is part of WikiProject Evolutionary biology, an attempt at building a useful set of articles on evolutionary biology and its associated subfields such as population genetics, quantitative genetics, molecular evolution, phylogenetics, evolutionary developmental biology. It is distinct from the WikiProject Tree of Life in that it attempts to cover patterns, process and theory rather than systematics and taxonomy. If you would like to participate, there are some suggestions on this page (see also Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ for more information) or visit WikiProject Evolutionary biology.

Thanks Duncharris, this page now looks like a true memorial. Great research. I especially liked the poetic bit from his will. A world away from the stub that i started as an anonymous contributor. Shyamal 04:35, 3 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] postscript

I'm confused by the postscript... his [obituary in The Guardian] refers to his wish to be decomposed by beetles as a "fantasy," but the article seems to imply that it was actually carried out. It also seems contradictory since it says he was interred in Wytham Woods but his "directions" refer to a location in Brazil. Delmonte 16:47, 11 March 2006 (UTC)


hello, the piece of information that says Bill wanted to be buried in the amazon forest is correct, but he had his funeral service in the UK. So it doesn~t really make sense to say it was "according to his request". --Lucasayres 03:40, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hamilton's Rule (last paragraph)

Well, for starters Homoptera and Isoptera aren't haplodiploid and I'm not too sure about the rest of the paragraph either! I'll re-write the paragraph once I gather my facts and find the time! Shayno 20:01, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
Update: Shayno 19:35, 1 November 2006 (UTC): Removed the mention of aphids and termites. I wrote something longer explaining eusociality in termites but it got a little technical, to the point where it was out of place on a biography page. I'll go spend my efforts on the Eusociality article!

[edit] British academic jargon

The article states, "Working through the stodgy prose, Hamilton later blamed Fisher's book for only getting 2:1 degree." Would someone be able to clarify this? From the context, I gather that a "2:1 degree" is somehow inferior to something else that a student might get, but I'm not sure. Also, does it mean that the "blame" arose because the book was hard to understand, or because Hamilton spent so much time on it that he neglected his regular coursework? Thanks for any help you can give! JamesMLane t c 13:05, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Added a link to British undergraduate degree classification to explain 2:1 degree. Shayno 10:47, 5 March 2007 (UTC)