Julian Huxley

Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, FRS (June 22, 1887 – February 14, 1975) was a British biologist, author, humanist and internationalist, known for his popularisations of science in books and lectures. He was the first director of UNESCO and was knighted in 1958.

Public life and science popularisation

Huxley discovered the lucrative business of popular science writing after publishing articles in newspapers. In the late 1920s he was introduced to book writing when asked to collaborate on two projects, a textbook of animal biology with his Oxford colleague J. B. S. Haldane, and by H. G. Wells on a definitive nine-volume set of popular science books on biology, The Science of Life. Other notable publications include Essays of a Biologist and '.

Related Topics:
1920s - J. B. S. Haldane - H. G. Wells - Essays of a Biologist

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In 1934 Huxley collaborated with Alexander Korda to create the world's first natural history documentary, The Private Life of the Gannet, on the Pembrokeshire coast, for which they won an Oscar for best documentary.

Related Topics:
1934 - Alexander Korda - Gannet - Pembrokeshire - Oscar

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In later life, he became known to an even wider audience through television and radio appearances. In 1939 the BBC asked him to be a regular pannelist on a Home Service general knowledge show, The Brains Trust, in which he and other panelists were asked to discuss questions submitted by listeners. The show was commissioned to keep up war time morale, by preventing the war from "disrupting the normal discussion of interesting ideas". He was a regular panellist on one of the BBC's first quiz shows, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?, in 1955.

Related Topics:
Television - Radio - 1939 - BBC - Home Service - The Brains Trust - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral - 1955

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Huxley had a close association with the British rationalist and humanist movements. He was an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist Press Association from 1927 until his death, and on the formation of the British Humanist Association in 1963 became its first President, to be succeeded by AJ Ayer in 1965. He was also the first President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Many of Huxley's books address humanist themes.

Related Topics:
Rationalist - Humanist - Rationalist Press Association - 1927 - British Humanist Association - AJ Ayer - International Humanist and Ethical Union

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