W. D. Hamilton

William Donald "Bill" Hamilton, FRS (1 August 1936 – 7 March 2000) was an English evolutionary biologist, widely recognised as one of the most significant evolutionary theorists of the 20th century.

Hamilton became famous through his theoretical work expounding a rigorous genetic basis for the existence of altruism, an insight that was a key part of the development of a gene-centric view of evolution. He is considered one of the forerunners of sociobiology, as popularized by E. O. Wilson. Hamilton also published important work on sex ratios and the evolution of sex. From 1984 to his death in 2000, he was a Royal Society Research Professor at Oxford University.

Early life

Hamilton was born in 1936 in Cairo, Egypt, the second of seven children. His parents were from New Zealand; his father A. M. Hamilton an engineer, and his mother B. M. Hamilton a medical doctor. The Hamilton family settled in Kent. During the Second World War, the young Hamilton was evacuated to Edinburgh. He had an interest in natural history from an early age and would spend his spare time collecting butterflies, and other insects. In 1946 he discovered E. B. Ford's New Naturalist book Butterflies, which introduced him to the principles of evolution by natural selection, genetics, and population genetics.

WD

WD may refer to:

Wądół, Pomeranian Voivodeship

Wądół [ˈvɔnduu̯] (German: Charlottental) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kołczygłowy, within Bytów County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of Kołczygłowy, 16 km (10 mi) west of Bytów, and 93 km (58 mi) west of the regional capital Gdańsk.

For details of the history of the region, see History of Pomerania.

The village has a population of 82.

References

Coordinates: 54°7′48″N 17°16′2″E / 54.13000°N 17.26722°E / 54.13000; 17.26722

Emperor Wu of Han

Emperor Wu of Han (30 June 156 BC – 29 March 87 BC), born Liu Che, courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China, ruling from 141–87 BC.

Emperor Wu's reign lasted 54 years — a record that was not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later, although he has remained the longest reigning Emperor of Han ethnicity. His reign resulted in vast territorial expansion, development of a strong and centralized state resulting from his governmental re-organization, including his promotion of Confucian doctrines. In the field of historical social and cultural studies, Emperor Wu is known for his religious innovations and patronage of the poetic and musical arts, including development of the imperial Music Bureau into a prestigious entity. It was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly or indirectly. Many new crops and other items were introduced to China during his reign.

As a military campaigner, Emperor Wu led Han China through its greatest expansion — at its height, the Empire's borders spanned from modern Kyrgyzstan in the west, to Korea in the east, and to northern Vietnam in the south. Emperor Wu successfully repelled the nomadic Xiongnu from systematically raiding northern China, and dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian in 139 BC to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi of modern Uzbekistan. This resulted in further missions to Central Asia. Although historical records do not describe him to be aware of Buddhism, emphasizing rather his interest in shamanism, the cultural exchanges that occurred as a consequence of these embassies suggest that he received Buddhist statues from Central Asia, as depicted in the murals found in the Mogao Caves.