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Notes
Motoo Kimura, interview on 28 July 1993. Translated by the author.
Naoyuki Takahata, interview on 9 December 1992.
Motoo Kimura, personal conversation. Translated by the author.
Ohta developed her nearly neutral theory around 1973. Despite intense scientific disagreements between Kimura and Ohta from the late 1970s throughout the 1980s, both Ohta and Kimura reported that this disagreement never influenced their friendship and Kimura did not force Ohta to abandon her theory.
Kimura reported to this author this conversation with a British journalist. Translated by the author.
This section is based on the series of interviews with Kimura between 1 July and 28 July 1993.
Motoo Kimura, interview, 1 July 1993. Tranlated by the author.
Motoo Kimura, interview, 9 December 1992. Translated by the author. Kimura told me about this comment by a Japanese journalist during this interview.
When Kimura read the preprint of the paper published by King and Jukes, he suggested that the authors change the provocative title ‘Non-Darwinian evolution’. Kimura told me that he did not want to provoke controversy over the neutral theory. I had also heard about this story from William Provine a year before I interviewed Kimura.
The original Darwinian theory synthesized with Mendelian genetics since the early 1900s in the US is called the ‘synthetic theory’.
Motoo Kimura, interview on 3 July 1993.
The original book was written by T. Dobzhansky:Genetics and the Origin of Species, New York: Columbia University Press, 1941.
Motoo Kimura, interview on 28 July 1993.
Kimura later found out that Dr Tamura is actually a cousin of Ohta’s mother.
This institute was later moved to Yokohama. Ohta also worked at this institute just before she came to the US for her Ph. D. work at North Carolina State University. The institute was a stepping stone for young cytogeneticists back then.
Sewall Wright,Genetics 16: 97–159 (1931).
Iden 6 (March 1952): cover page.
ABCC gathered data on the biological effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and hired local physicians and provided medical treatment to victims of the atomic blasts.
I shall not discuss this issue here since William B. Provine describes this period in detail in his article in this issue.
Emile Zuckerkandl and Linus Pauling, ‘Evolutionary divergence and convergence in proteins’ InEvolving Genes and Proteins, eds. V. Bryson and H. J. Vogel (New York: Academic Press, 1965), pp. 97–166.
See J. B. S. Haldane, ‘The cost of natural selection’Journal of Genetics 55: 511–524 (1957)
Motoo Kimura, ‘Evolutionary rate at the molecular level’Nature 217: 624–626 (1968).
Motoo Kimura,Nature 217: 624–626 (1968).
J. L. King and T. H. Jukes, ‘Non-Darwinian evolution’Science 164: 788–798 (1968).
Motoo Kimura, interview on 26 July 1993. Translated by the author. Kimura’s collaboration with his colleague Ohta was indeed characterized by mutual trust and respect.
This photo was taken by Kimura’s younger brother, Dr Katsumi Kimura.
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Steen, T.Y. Always an eccentric?: A brief biography of Motoo Kimura. J. Genet. 75, 19–25 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02931748
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02931748