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Macfarlane Burnet

Australian evolutionary biologist and ecologist who proposed a novel mechanism for evolutionary change.

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He was named the first Australian of the Year in 1960 for his contributions to science.[1][2] Burnet is best known for developing the clonal selection theory of immunity and the concept of immunological self and tolerance.[3][4]

Life and work

His father Frank was a Scottish emigrant bank manager, and his mother Hadassah was the daughter of a middle-class Scottish immigrant.[5] As a child, Burnet enjoyed exploring nature and began collecting beetles while living in Terang.[6][7] He attended Geelong College on a full scholarship from 1913, where he was bookish and not athletically inclined.[7][8] He left for England in 1925, serving as ship's surgeon, and later received a Ph.D. from the University of London in 1928.[9][10]

He became director of the Institute in 1944 and shifted its research focus to immunology in 1957.[11][12] Burnet and Peter Medawar shared the 1960 Nobel Prize for their work on acquired immunological tolerance.[13] Frank Macfarlane Burnet, the second child in a family of seven, was born in Traralgon, Victoria, and went by the nickname "Mac" starting in his early years.[5] Upon his return to Australia, Burnet assumed the role of assistant director at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.[14]

What the cited sources add

According to declassified files, Burnet wrote a 1947 memo recommending biological and chemical weapons to target tropical food crops and spread infectious diseases.[15][16] The Federation of American Scientists account notes that Burnet was the principal author of a report titled "Note on War from a Biological Angle".[16] Fenner's biographical memoir records that Burnet's first scientific paper was published in 1924 and his last in 1983.[17] Fenner also notes that Burnet's first semipopular book went through four editions and was translated into German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.[17]

A 2002 newspaper report claims that Burnet privately advised the government to create biological weapons aimed at Indonesia and other nations in South-East Asia that he considered "overpopulated".[15] According to the same memoir, Burnet authored 32 papers concerning bacteriophages during the period from 1924 to 1937.[17]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lewis, Wendy, "Australians of the Year", Pier 9 Press, 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Open Library record, ISBN 9781741968095 ("Australians of the Year"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Park, Hyung Wook, "Germs, hosts, and the origin of Frank Macfarlane Burnet's concept of 'self' and 'tolerance', 1936–1949", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 2006, p. 492–534 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burnet FM, "A modification of Jerne's theory of antibody production using the concept of clonal selection", CA Cancer J Clin, 1976, p. 119–21 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Biographical Memoirs, p. 101.; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Biographical Memoirs, p. 102.; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Biographical Memoirs, p. 102. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sexton 1999, p. 9–10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Biographical Memoirs, p. 104. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Biographical Memoirs, p. 104.; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Biographical Memoirs, p. 106. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Biographical Memoirs, p. 107.; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Doherty, P. C., "Burnet Oration: Living in the Burnet lineage", Immunology and Cell Biology, 1999, p. 167–176; Biographical Memoirs, p. 107.; Fenner F, "Frank Macfarlane Burnet", Historical Records of Australian Science, 1987, p. 39–77; Biographical Memoirs, p. 108. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Production of Antibodies", Macmillan, 1949; "The failure of antibody production in the chick embryo", Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science, 1950, p. 291–297; "'Actively Acquired Tolerance' of Foreign Cells", Nature, 1953, p. 603–606; Biographical Memoirs, p. 134. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Macfarlane Burnet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Biographical Memoirs, p. 104.; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Sexton 1999, p. 9–10; Biographical Memoirs, pp. 116–117. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Nicholson, Brendan, "Burnet's solution: The plan to poison S-E Asia", The Age, 9 March 2002. facts only, no text reused. theage.com.au
  16. Bromage, David, "Australia: Biological weapons", Federation of American Scientists, 2 September 2002. facts only, no text reused. fas.org
  17. Fenner, F. 1987. Frank Macfarlane Burnet. Historical Records of Australian Science 7:39–77. This article also contains a full list of Burnet's publications. It . facts only, no text reused. asap.unimelb.edu.au

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Macfarlane Burnet (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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1. In what year was Macfarlane Burnet born?

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Not quite. The answer is 1899.

From the source: “Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (3 September 1899 – 31 August 1985), usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for predicting acquired immune”

2. In which place was Macfarlane Burnet born?

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Not quite. The answer is Traralgon, Victoria, Australia.

3. In what year did Macfarlane Burnet die?

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Not quite. The answer is 1985.

From the source: “Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (3 September 1899 – 31 August 1985), usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for predicting acquired immune”

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