View source for Alister Hardy

{{Short description|British marine biologist (1896–1985)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Sir Alister Hardy
| image             = Sir Alister Clavering Hardy 1896-1985.jpg
| honorific_suffix  = FRS
| birth_name        = Alister Clavering Hardy
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1896|02|10|df=y}}
| parents           = [[Richard Hardy (architect)|Richard Hardy]]  and Elizabeth Hannah Clavering
| birth_place       = [[Nottingham]], [[Nottinghamshire]], England
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1985|05|22|1896|02|10|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Oxford]], [[Oxfordshire]], England
| fields            = [[Marine zoology]]
| workplaces        = [[University of Hull]], [[University of Aberdeen]],  [[University of Oxford]]
| alma_mater        = 
| known_for         = [[RRS Discovery|RRS ''Discovery'']] work<br/>[[Continuous Plankton Recorder]]<br/>[[Aquatic ape hypothesis]]
| spouse            = Sylvia Garstang
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| awards            = Fellow of the [[Royal Society]], [[Templeton Prize]]

}}
'''Sir Alister Clavering Hardy''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSE|FLS}}<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Marshall | first1 = N. B. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1986.0008 | title = Alister Clavering Hardy. 10 February 1896-22 May 1985 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 32 | pages = 222–226 | year = 1986 | doi-access = free }}</ref> (10 February 1896 – 22 May 1985) was a British [[Marine biology|marine biologist]], an expert on [[marine ecosystem]]s spanning organisms from [[zooplankton]] to [[whale]]s. He had the artistic skill to illustrate his books with his own drawings, maps, diagrams, and paintings.

Hardy served as [[zoologist]] on the [[RRS Discovery|RRS ''Discovery'']]{{'}}s [[Discovery Investigations|voyage to explore the Antarctic]] between 1925 and 1927. On the voyage he invented the [[Continuous Plankton Recorder]]; it enabled any ship to collect plankton samples during an ordinary voyage.

After retiring from his academic work, Hardy founded the [[Religious Experience Research Centre]] in 1969; he won the [[Templeton Prize]] for this in 1985.

==''Camoufleur'' and artist==

[[File:Hardy Fish and Fisheries Plate 2.jpg|thumb|220px|Hardy's artistry in the service of science:<br/>''Rare and Unusual Fish in British Waters''. {{olist
    |Opah, ''[[Lampris guttatus]]''
    |Sea Horse, ''[[Hippocampus europaeus]]''
    |Red Bandfish, ''[[Cepola rubescens]]''
    |Rabbit-fish, ''[[Chimaera monstrosa]]''
}}]]

Hardy was born in [[Nottingham]], the son of [[Richard Hardy (architect)|Richard Hardy]], an architect, and his wife, Elizabeth Hannah Clavering.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|access-date=10 September 2016|archive-date=24 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was educated not far away at [[Oundle School]]. He had intended to go to [[Oxford University]] in 1914, but on the outbreak of war he instead volunteered for the army, and was made a ''[[List of camoufleurs|camoufleur]]'', a [[camouflage]] officer. Hardy wrote that he had been<ref name=Behrens>{{cite journal | title=Revisiting Abbott Thayer: non-scientific reflections about camouflage in art, war and zoology | author=Behrens, Roy R | journal=Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B |date=February 2009 | volume=364 | issue=1516 | pages=497–501 | doi=10.1098/rstb.2008.0250 | pmid=19000975 | pmc=2674083}}</ref>

{{blockquote|equally drawn to science and art, and if the truth be known, I must confess that it is the latter that has the greater appeal. I am lucky in not having been torn between the two; I have managed to combine them.<ref name=Behrens/>}}

He was selected for camouflage work by the artist [[Solomon J. Solomon]], who apparently mistook him for a different Hardy who was a professional artist.<ref name=Forbes>Forbes, Peter. ''[[Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage]]''. Yale, 2009. p. 101.</ref> Hardy however did have sufficient artistic skill to serve his military and scientific work. He illustrated his [[New Naturalist]] books with his own line drawings, maps, diagrams, photographs, and paintings.<ref>Hardy, The Open Sea, 1956 and 1959.</ref> For example, plate 2 of ''Fish and Fisheries'' illustrates the depicted "''Rare and Unusual Fish in British Waters''" both accurately and vividly. Hardy described the camoufleurs as including artists and "scientists with artistic inclinations", himself perhaps among them.<ref name=Forbes/>

In later life, Hardy travelled in [[India]], [[Sri Lanka]], [[Burma]], [[Cambodia]], [[China]] and [[Japan]], recording his visits to temples in all those countries in watercolour paintings. Many of these are in the [[University of Wales Trinity Saint David]] collection.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://studyspiritualexperiences.weebly.com/hardys-art.html | title=Sir Alister Hardy's Art | publisher=The Alister Hardy Society | year=2012 | access-date=16 October 2012 | author=Schmidt, Bettina | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522064218/http://studyspiritualexperiences.weebly.com/hardys-art.html | archive-date=22 May 2013 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

== Zoology ==

[[File:Discoveryboat.jpg|thumb|left|[[RRS Discovery|RRS ''Discovery'']] in the Antarctic]]

Hardy was the [[zoologist]] on the [[RRS Discovery|RRS ''Discovery'']] voyage to explore the [[Antarctic]] between 1925 and 1927, as part of the [[Discovery Investigations]]. Through his studies of zooplankton and its relationship with predators, he became expert in marine mammals such as whales. Whilst on board the ''Discovery'' he designed and later built a mechanism called the [[Continuous Plankton Recorder]] or CPR.  The CPR collects [[plankton]] samples and stores them on a moving band of silk, preserving them in formalin.  His pioneering research into plankton distribution and abundance is continued by the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey (CPR Survey).

Hardy was the first Professor of Zoology at the [[University of Hull]] from 1928 – 1942.  In 1942, he was then appointed Professor of Natural History at the [[University of Aberdeen]], where he remained until 1946, when he became [[Linacre Professor of Zoology]] in the [[University of Oxford]] and Fellow of [[Merton College]], a position he held until 1963.<ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=353}}</ref> In 1940, Hardy was made a [[Fellow]] of the [[Royal Society]].<ref name="frs"/> He was knighted in 1957.

===Evolution===

Hardy identified as a [[Darwinism|Darwinian]], he denied the Lamarckian [[inheritance of acquired characteristics]]. He was a proponent of organic selection (also known as the [[Baldwin effect]]). He held the view that behavioral changes can be important for evolution.<ref>Wyles J. S., Kunkel J. G., Wilson A. C., (1983). ''Birds, Behavior and Anatomical Evolution''. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80: 4394–4397.</ref><ref>Burkhardt, Richard W. (2013). [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730912/ ''Lamarck, Evolution, and the Inheritance of Acquired Characters'']. Genetics 194: 793–805.</ref>

===Aquatic ape hypothesis===
{{main|Aquatic ape hypothesis}}

In 1930, while reading [[Wood Jones]]' ''Man's Place among the Mammals'', which included the question of why humans, unlike all other land mammals, had fat attached to their skin, Hardy realized that this trait sounded like the blubber of marine mammals, and began to suspect that humans had ancestors that were more aquatic than previously imagined.  Fearing a backlash against such a radical idea, he kept this hypothesis secret until 1960, when he spoke and later wrote on the subject, which subsequently became known as the [[aquatic ape hypothesis]] in academic circles,<ref>{{cite journal | year=1977 | title=Was there a ''Homo aquaticus''? | journal=Zenith | first=Alister Clavering | last=Hardy | volume=15 | issue=1 | pages=4–6}}</ref> and has been promoted in particular by [[Elaine Morgan]], who acknowledged her debt to Hardy in her book ''The Scars of Evolution'',<ref>{{cite book| isbn= 978-0195094312 | title = The Scars of Evolution  | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1994 | last = Morgan | first=Elaine}}</ref> and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite journal | journal = Nutrition and Health | year = 2002 | last = Morgan | first=E | volume=16 | pages= 23–24 | title = Was man more aquatic in the past. What happens when you change the paradigm?| issue = 1 | doi = 10.1177/026010600201600106 | pmid = 12083406 | s2cid = 39428800 }}</ref>

==Study of religion==
Dating from his boyhood at [[Oundle School]], Hardy had a lifelong interest in spiritual phenomena, but aware that his interests were likely to be considered unorthodox in the scientific community, apart from occasional lectures he kept his opinions to himself until his retirement from his Oxford Chair. During the academic sessions of 1963–4 and 1964–5, he gave the [[Gifford Lectures]] at [[Aberdeen University]] on 'Evolution and the spirit of Man', later published as ''The Living Stream'' and ''The Divine Flame''. These lectures signalled his wholehearted return to his religious interests. In 1969 he founded the Religious Experience Research Unit in [[Manchester College, Oxford]]. The Unit began its work by compiling a database of [[religious experience]]s and continues to investigate the nature and function of spiritual and religious experience at the [[University of Wales, Lampeter]]. In 1973 he met with [[A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada]] and other devotees of the [[Hare Krishna movement]] and discussed [[Vedic literature]], the divine flame and [[Rabindranath Tagore]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Prabhupada |first=A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami |title=Discussion with Alister Hardy |url=http://www.prabhupadavani.org/main/Conversations/092.html |work=prabhupadavani.org |publisher=[[Bhaktivedanta Book Trust]] International |access-date=12 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719152700/http://www.prabhupadavani.org/main/Conversations/092.html |archive-date=19 July 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Hardy's biological approach to the roots of religion is non-[[Reductionism|reductionist]], seeing religious awareness as having evolved in response to a genuine dimension of reality.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hay |first=David |title=Something There: The Biology of the Human Spirit |year=2006 |location=London |publisher=Darton, Longman & Todd |pages=   }}{{page needed|date=May 2022}}</ref> For his work in founding the [[Religious Experience Research Centre]], Hardy received the [[Templeton Prize]] shortly before his death in 1985.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach |edition=3rd |first=Ralph Jr. |last=Hood |author-link=Ralph W. Hood | year=2003 |isbn=978-1-57230-116-0 |location=New York |publisher=Guilford Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/psychologyofreli0000unse/page/248 248] |url=https://archive.org/details/psychologyofreli0000unse/page/248 }}</ref>

==Family==

He was married to Sylvia Garstang (alumna of [[Somerville College, Oxford]]) in 1927.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|access-date=10 September 2016|archive-date=24 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Works==

Hardy wrote numerous scientific papers on plankton, fish and whales. He  wrote two popular books in the ''New Naturalist'' series, and in later life he also wrote on religion.

; Books
* ''The Open Sea. Its Natural History (Part I) The World of Plankton''. [[New Naturalist]] No. 34, [[William Collins, Sons|Collins]], 1956.
* ''The Open Sea. Its Natural History (Part II) Fish & Fisheries''. New Naturalist No. 37, Collins, 1959.
*  {{cite book |title= The Living Stream: Evolution and Man |publisher= Harper & Row, Publishers |place= New York and Evanston  |year= 1965 |url= https://archive.org/details/livingstream0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up |url-access= registration |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}
*  ''The Divine Flame: An Essay Towards A Natural History of Religion''. Collins, 1966.
*  ''The Spiritual Nature of Man: Study of Contemporary Religious Experience''. [[Oxford University Press]], 1979.
; Papers
* ''The Herring in Relation to its Animate Environment''. Fish. Invest. Lond., II, 7:3. 1951.
* (with E.R. Gunther) ''The Plankton of the South Georgia Whaling Grounds and Adjacent Waters, 1926-7''. 'Discovery' Report, II, 1–146.

==Recognition==

Hardy's "pioneering work" was recognised by [[South Georgia Island|South Georgia]] & South Sandwich Islands in 2011 with a set of four commemorative stamps bearing his image.<ref>[http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/%28g%29stamps_issues Stamps Issues: SGSSI Recognize the Pioneering Work of Sir Alister Hardy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225102222/http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/(g)stamps_issues |date=25 February 2013}}. 19 March 2011.</ref>

The University of Hull has named a building on its Hull Campus after Hardy.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* David Hay, ''God’s Biologist: A life of Alister Hardy'' (London, Darton Longman and Todd, 2011).

== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160113150634/http://studyspiritualexperiences.weebly.com/ The Alister Hardy Society for the Study of Spiritual Experience]
*[https://archive.today/20121223154048/http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/ahrerca.html Archives Hub]
*[http://imos.org.au/auscpr.html Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201125235/http://imos.org.au/auscpr.html |date=1 December 2008 }}
*[https://www.cprsurvey.org// The Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey (CPR Survey)]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname= Alister Hardy}}

{{Camoufleurs}}
{{Templeton Prize Laureates}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Alister}}
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Nottingham]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army officers]]
[[Category:English marine biologists]]
[[Category:Fellows of Exeter College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Merton College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Scientists from Nottingham]]
[[Category:Templeton Prize laureates]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Hull]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Linacre Professors of Zoology]]
[[Category:British parapsychologists]]
[[Category:Camoufleurs]]
[[Category:20th-century English writers]]
[[Category:New Naturalist writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English zoologists]]
[[Category:People educated at Oundle School]]