A TRAIN RIDE

In 1982 I had the pleasure of riding in a train across part of southern Ontario in Canada with the late Bill Hamilton who many think introduced the greatest innovation in the theory of evolution since Darwin – the theory which came to be known as “kin selection” or “inclusive fitness” (1964 a,b). Hamilton had pointed out that selection would act on (and hence calculations of fitness should take into account) not only the effect of our genes on our own behaviour, but also their effect on relatives, because the latter, to varying degrees depending upon the relationship, are carriers of the same genes identical by descent. For example, a gene which influenced one to assure the survival of a little more than two full siblings at the cost of one's own life would be favoured by selection because, on average, it would be transmitted through a relative rather than personally. His insight, model and initially suggested applications went on to give rise to a vast lineage of research on cooperation among relatives in nature. It was this work that stimulated Edward O. Wilson to write his Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975) which had caused such a stir among social scientists while I was a graduate student.

We were leaving a conference in Kingston Ontario and ended up on the same train. I was getting off at my home, Toronto, while he was going on further.