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Darwin's Neuroscientist: Gerald M. Edelman, 1929-2014 Darwin's neuroscientist: Gerald M. Edelman, 1929-2014 Article (Published Version) Seth, Anil K (2014) Darwin’s neuroscientist: Gerald M. Edelman, 1929-2014. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. p. 896. ISSN 1664-1078 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/56167/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk OPINION ARTICLE published: 14 August 2014 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00896 Darwin’s neuroscientist: Gerald M. Edelman, 1929–2014 Anil K. Seth* Department of Informatics, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, School of Informatics and Engineering, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK *Correspondence: [email protected] Edited and reviewed by: Axel Cleeremans, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Keywords: consciousness, neural Darwinism, gamma globulin, reentry, selection “The brain is wider than the sky. (NSI). In 1992 the NSI moved lock, stock, most brain regions. Uncovering the impli- For, put them side by side, and barrel into new purpose-built lab- cations of re-entry remains a profound Theonetheotherwillinclude, oratories in La Jolla, California, where challenge today. With ease, and you beside.” Edelman continued as Director for more Edelman was convinced that scien- than twenty years. A dedicated man, he tific breakthroughs require both sharp Dr. Gerald M. Edelman often used these continued working at the NSI until a week minds and inspiring environments. The lines from Emily Dickinson to introduce before he died. NSI was founded as a monastery of sci- the deep mysteries of neuroscience and In 1972 Edelman won the Nobel Prize ence, supporting a small cadre of exper- consciousness. Dr. Edelman (it was always in Physiology or Medicine (shared inde- imental and theoretical neuroscientists “Dr.”), who has died in La Jolla, aged 84, pendently with Rodney Porter) for show- and enabling them to work on ambi- was without doubt a scientific great. He ing how antibodies can recognize an tious goals free from the immediate pres- was a Nobel laureate at the age of 43, a pio- almost infinite range of invading antigens. sures of research funding and paper pub- neer in immunology, embryology, molec- Edelman’s insight, the principles of which lication (Figure 1C). This at least was ular biology, and neuroscience, a shrewd resonate throughout his entire career, was the model, and Edelman struggled hero- political operator, and a Renaissance man based in variation and selection: antibodies ically to maintain its reality in the face of striking erudition who displayed a mas- undergo a process of “evolution within the of increasing financial pressures and the terful knowledge of science, music, litera- body” in order to match novel antigens. shifting landscape of academia. That he ture, and the visual arts who at one time Crucially, he performed definitive experi- was able to succeed for so long attests to could have been a concert violinist. He ments on the chemical structure of anti- his political nous and focal determination quoted Woody Allen and Jascha Heifetz bodies to support his idea (Edelman et al., as well as his intellectual abilities. I as readily as Linus Pauling and Ludwig 1961)(Figure 1B). remember vividly the ritual lunches that Wittgenstein, a compelling raconteur who Edelman then moved into embryology, exemplified life at the NSI. The entire loved telling a good Jewish joke just as discovering an important class of pro- scientific staff ate together at noon every much as explaining the principles of neu- teins known as “cell adhesion molecules” day (except Fridays), at tables seemingly ronal selection. And he was my mentor (Edelman, 1983). Though this, too, was designed to hold just enough people so from the time I arrived as a freshly minted a major contribution, it was the biologi- that the only common topic could be Ph.D. at the Neuroscience Institute in San cal basis of mind and consciousness—one neuroscience; Edelman, of course, held Diego, in 2001. His influence in biol- of the “dark areas” of science, where mys- court at one table, brainstorming and ogy and the neurosciences is inestimable. tery reigned - that drew his attention for story-telling in equal measure. The NSI While his loss marks the end of an era, his the rest of his long career. Over more itself is a striking building, housing not legacy is sure to continue. than three decades Edelman developed only experimental laboratories but also Gerald Maurice Edelman was born in his theory of neuronal group selection, a concert-grade auditorium. Science and Ozone Park, New York City, in 1929, to also known as “neural Darwinism,” which art were, for Edelman, two manifestations parents Edward and Anna (see Figure 1A). again took principles of variation and of a fundamental urge toward creativity He trained in medicine at the University selection, but here applied them to brain and beauty. of Pennsylvania, graduating cum laude development and dynamics (Edelman, Edelman did not always take the eas- in 1954. After an internship at the 1978, 1987, 1989, 1993; Edelman and iest path through academic life. Among Massachusetts General Hospital and three Gally, 2001). The theory is rich and still many rivalries, he enjoyed lively clashes years in the US Army Medical Corp underappreciated. At its heart is the real- with fellow Nobel laureate Francis Crick in France, Edelman entered the doctoral ization that the brain is very different from who, like Edelman himself, had turned program at Rockefeller University, New a computer: as he put it, brains don’t work his attention to the brain after resolving York. Staying at Rockefeller after his Ph.D. with “logic and a clock.” Instead, Edelman a central problem in a different area of he became Associate Dean and Vincent emphasized the rampantly “re-entrant” biology. Crick once infamously referred to Astor Distinguished Professor, and in 1981 connectivity of the brain, with massively neural Darwinism as “neural Edelmanism” he founded The Neurosciences Institute parallel bidirectional connections linking (Crick, 1989), a criticism which nowadays www.frontiersin.org August 2014 | Volume 5 | Article 896 | 1 Seth Darwin’s neuroscientist: Gerald M. Edelman, 1929–2014 FIGURE 1 | (A) Gerald M. Edelman, 1929–2014. (B) Dr. Edelman at Rockefeller University in 1972, explaining his model of gamma globulin. (C) The campus of The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California. seemslessforcefulasattentionwithinneu- neural dynamics. In short, this meant had fallen into the habit of giving him rosciences increasingly focuses on neu- coming up with explanations rather than ahardcopyofmylatestefforteach ronal population dynamics (just before his mere correlations, the idea being that such Friday evening. One Monday morning death in 2004, Crick met with Edelman an approach would demystify the dualistic I noticed the appearance of a thick sheaf and they put aside any remaining feelings schism between “mind” and “matter” first of papers on my desk. Over the week- of enmity). In 2003 both men published invoked by Descartes. This approach was end Edelman had cut and paste—with influential papers setting out their respec- first outlined in his book The Remembered scissors and glue, not Microsoft Word— tive ideas on consciousness (Crick and Present (Edelman, 1989) and later ampli- paragraphs, sentences, and individual Koch, 2003; Edelman, 2003); these papers fied in A Universe of Consciousness, awork words, to almost entirely rewrite my ten- put the neuroscience of consciousness at co-authored with Giulio Tononi (Edelman tative text. Needless to say, it was much last, and for good, back on the agenda. and Tononi, 2000). It was this approach improved. The biological basis of consciousness to consciousness that first drew me to the The abiding memory of anyone who had been central to Edelman’s scientific NSI and to Edelman, and I was not dis- has spent time with Dr. Edelman is agenda from the late 1980s. Consciousness appointed. These ideas, and the work they however not the scientific accomplish- hadlongbeenconsideredbeyondthe enabled, will continue to shape and define ments, not the achievements encompassed reach of science; Edelman was at the fore- consciousness science for years to come. by the NSI, but instead the impres- front its rehabilitation as a serious subject MyownmemoriesofEdelmanrevolve sion of an uncommon intellect moving within biology. His approach was from entirely around life at the NSI. It was more quickly and ranging more widely the outset more subtle and sophisticated immediately obvious that he was not a than seemed possible. The New York than those of his contemporaries. Rather distant boss who might leave his min- Times put it this way in a 2004 profile than simply looking for “neural correlates ions to get on with their research in (March 27, 2004): of consciousness”—brain areas or types of isolation.
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