J.B.S. Haldane applied his expertise in mathematics on a cross-disciplinary basis, conducting studies in enzymes, the genetic linkage between hemophilia and color blindness, and hereditary mutation in population genetics. Using mathematical equations, Haldane was able to calculate the rates of enzyme reactions and prove that the laws of thermodynamics regulate enzyme reactions. He developed a provisional map of the X chromosome that showed genes responsible for color blindness, night blindness, skin diseases, and eye abnormalities. Experiments conducted by Haldane on carbon dioxide in the blood provided ground breaking studies in respiratory physiology.

John Burdon Sanderson Haldane was born on November 5, 1892 in Oxford, England. At an early age, John Burdon began to study science cultivated by his father, John Scott Haldane, a renowned physiologist. By the age of eight, he was helping in his father's lab by taking mathematical notes and by age nine, his interest in...