| Lee Spetner | |
|---|---|
| Born | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Physics, Biophysics |
| Institutions | Johns Hopkins University |
| Alma mater | MIT |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Williams, Bruno Rossi |
| Known for | Critique of modern evolutionary synthesis |
Lee M. Spetner is an American physicist and author, known best for his critique of the modern evolutionary synthesis. In spite of his opposition to neo-Darwinism, Spetner accepts a form of non-random evolution outlined in his 1996 book "Not By Chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution"[1]
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Spetner received his BS degree in mechanical engineering at Washington University in 1945.[2] and his Ph.D in physics from MIT in 1950, where his PhD. Thesis advisors were Robert Williams and Bruno Rossi.[3]
Spetner continued to study at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 1951 to 1970 working on guided-missile systems. In 1970 he became technical director of Eljim, Ltd., later a subsidiary of Elbit, Ltd. in Nes Tsiona, Israel where he was a manager, a period that lasted a further 20 years.[2][4] His work here was on military electronic systems including electronic countermeasures, and a military electronic navigation system.[2]
He taught courses at the Johns Hopkins University, Howard University and the Weizman Institute including classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory, real-variable theory, probability theory, and statistical communication theory.[2]
Spetner first became interested in evolution in 1970 after moving to Israel. In Israel he indulged in searching for evidence which contradicted the modern evolutionary synthesis. Spetner was inspired by the rabbi David Luria (1798 - 1855), who calculated that according to Talmudic sources that there was 365 originally created species of beasts and 365 of birds. Spetner developed what he called his "nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis", which (in common with Christian young earth creationists) accepted microevolution (which he attributed to Lamarckian-like inheritance), but rejected macroevolution.[5]
Spetner has been described as a Jewish Creationist.[6] In 1980 at a conference for Jewish scientists, Spetner claimed the Archaeopteryx was a fraud. Spetner continued his attack on the modern evolutionary synthesis in his book Not by chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution.[7]
Spetner is a critic of the role of mutations in the modern evolutionary synthesis. Spetner claims mutations lead to a loss of genetic information.
We see then that the mutation reduces the specificity of the ribosome protein and that means a loss of genetic information. ... Rather than saying the bacterium gained resistance to the antibiotic, it is more correct to say that is lost sensitivity to it. ... All point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce the genetic information and not increase it.—Lee Spetner, Not by Chance, Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution[8]
Spetner continued to study after retirement, pursuing interests in evolution[4] and cancer cures.[3]