Margaret Bastock
{{short description|British biologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Margaret Bastock
|image =
|image_size =
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|birth_date = 22 March 1920
|birth_place = Warwick, Warwickshire, England
|death_date = 10 June 1982 (aged 62)
|death_place = Charminster, Dorset, England
|work_institutions = Oxford University
|alma_mater = Oxford University
|doctoral_advisor = Niko Tinbergen
|known_for = Genetic research, which established that genes affect behaviour
}}
Margaret Bastock Manning (22 March 1920 – 10 June 1982){{cite web|url=https://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=FPg86&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Margaret&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Bastock&gsln_x=0&msbdy=1920&msbpn__ftp=United+Kingdom&msbpn=3257&msbpn_PInfo=2-%7C0%7C0%7C3257%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C&msddy=1982&msdpn__ftp=United+Kingdom&msdpn=3257&msdpn_PInfo=2-%7C0%7C0%7C3257%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C&mssng=Aubrey+&mssns=Manning&catbucket=rstp&MSAV=1&uidh=57k&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=330064831690&dbid=1030&ml_rpos=1|title=Ancestry Library Edition|website=Search.ancestrylibrary.com|accessdate=23 December 2017}} was an English zoologist and geneticist. She carried out influential work in the 1950s, establishing links between genes and behaviour.
Life and career
Margaret Bastock was born on 22 March 1920 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England to Andrew John Bastock and Frances Louise Cooke.{{cite web|url=https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/interactive/2997/41039_b001900-00634/138135316?backurl=https://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gst=-6&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults|title=Ancestry Library Edition|website=Ancestrylibrary.com|accessdate=23 December 2017}} When she was old enough she began a degree at Oxford University, but her studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, 1939. During the war she worked for the BBC, but afterwards she returned to Oxford and completed her undergraduate studies in zoology.[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W9W-4P47V63-2&_user=121739&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F2007&_rdoc=3&_fmt=summary&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236693%232007%23999259997%23666088%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=6693&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=26&_acct=C000010018&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=121739&md5=446b04121600a4e5a92883e89d1c049e] {{dead link|date=December 2017}}
Bastock then became a member of St Anne's College, Oxford and studied motivational drives in animal behaviour, working with Desmond Morris. In 1950 she began working towards her D.Phil. in Nikolaas Tinbergen's laboratory.Kruuk, H. 2003. Niko’s Nature: the Life of Niko Tinbergen and his Science of Animal Behaviour. Oxford: Oxford University Press. She studied the relationship between behaviour, genetics and evolution using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.[http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/156853955x00184 THE COURTSHIP OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER], 1955; doi 10.1163/156853955X00184; ISSN 0005-7959/EISSN: 1568-539X In 1956, she published the first evidence that a single gene could change behaviour. She studied a mutation called yellow in Drosophila and showed that this gene or a closely linked gene affected the fly's mating behaviour.“A gene mutation which changes a behaviour pattern”. Bastock, M. 1956. Evolution, 10: p. 421-39.
Personal life and death
After completing her D.Phil., Bastock continued working on courtship behaviour and wrote a textbook on the subject. She collaborated with another student of Tinbergen, Aubrey Manning, whom she married in 1959. Bastock moved to Edinburgh with Manning in the 1960s and they had two sons. Bastock continued to work in science, studying child development and aggressive behaviour. She died of cancer on 10 June 1982 in Charminster, Dorset, aged 62.{{Cite web |date=2018-11-11 |title=Aubrey Manning obituary |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/11/aubrey-manning-obituary |access-date=2022-06-05 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}
Key publications
- “Some comments on conflict and thwarting in animals”. Bastock, M. Morris, D, Moynihan, M. 1953. Behaviour, 6: p. 66-74.
- Courtship: a zoological study. Bastock, M. 1967. London, Heinemann.
See also
References
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Category:20th-century British zoologists
Category:British women geneticists
Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford