His most important publication was "Variation and evolution in plants", which combined genetics and Darwin's theory of natural selection to describe plant speciation. It helped form the modern evolutionary synthesis, and still provides the framework for research in plant evolutionary biology. According to Ernst Mayr, "Few later works dealing with the evolutionary systematics of plants have not been very deeply affected by Stebbins' work".
He also researched and wrote widely on the role of hybridization and polyploidy in speciation and plant evolution; his work in this area has had a lasting influence on research in the field.
Stebbins was elected to the National Academy of Science, was awarded the National Medal of Science. He was involved in the development of evolution-based science programs for California high schools, as well as the conservation of rare plants in that state.
In 1935, Stebbins was offered a genetics research position at the University of California, Berkeley working with geneticist E.B. Babcock. Babcock needed assistance with a large Rockefeller-funded project on the genetics and evolution of plants from the genus "Crepis". "Crepis" commonly hybridized, displayed polyploidy, and could make seed without fertilization (a process known as apomixis). The collaboration between Babcock and Stebbins produced numerous papers and two monographs.
Stebbins's review, "The significance of polyploidy in plant evolution", showed how polyploidy was important in developing large, complex, and widespread genera. By looking at the history of polyploidy in plant families, he argued that polyploidy was only common in herbaceous perennials, but infrequent in woody plants and annuals. As such, polyploids played a conservative role in evolution since problems with fertility prevented the replication of new genetic material that might lead to a new line of evolution. This work continued with the 1947 paper "Types of polyploids: their classification and significance", which described Stebbins' ideas about the role of paleopolyploidy in angiosperm evolution. He argued that chromosome number may be a useful tool for the construction of phylogenies. These reviews were highly influential and helped others study the role of polyploidy in evolution.
In 1939, with Babcock's support, Stebbins was made a full professor in the Department of Genetics at UC Berkeley, after the Department of Botany failed to promote him. Stebbins taught a course on evolution. During his preparation he became excited by research combining genetics and evolution. Stebbins directed his research towards evolution. He became involved with the Society for the Study of Evolution in 1946, and was one of the few botanists in the new organization.
He worked on the genetics of grass grown for grazing, looking at polyploidy and the evolution of the Poaceae (grass family). He produced an artificial autotetraploid grass from the diploid species "Ehrharta erecta" by treatment with the chromosome doubling agent colchicine. He was able to establish the plant in the field, and after 39 years of field trials found that the tetraploid was not as successful as its diploid parent in an unchanging environment.
Rusty Wallace
Russell William Wallace, Jr. (born August 14, 1956 in Fenton, Missoui) is a retired American race car driver. Wallace won the 1989 NASCAR Cup Series. In 2013 Wallace was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
He is known for driving the number 2 Miller Lite/Miller Genuine Draft car for Team Penske in NASCAR. He raced from 1980 to 2005. He won 55 races from 1986 to 2004. Wallace won many races on short tracks such as Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway.
In 2006, he became a broadcaster for ESPN and ABC. He covered many auto racing events, such as the Indianapolis 500.
Kevin Clash
Kevin Clash (born September 17, 1960) is a puppeteer and voice actor. Clash currently performs Elmo on Sesame Street. He has also performed Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Clifford from Muppets Tonight, and Baby Dinosaur from Dinosaurs. Mr. Clash is an important part of Sesame Street Workshop. He often performs Elmo in hospitals for sick children. Mr. Clash is well known for his ability to improvise.
George Mallory
George Herbert Leigh Mallory (June 18, 1886 - June 8/June 9 1924) was a British mountaineer who took part in three expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920's. Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine both disappeared somewhere high on the North - East Ridge in an attempt to get to the top. The pair's last known sighting was a few hundred feet from the summit. Mallory's fate was unknown for 75 years until his body was discovered in 1999. Whether they made it to the summit or not still remains a mystery.
George Mallory was famous for replying to the question "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?" with the reply: "Because it's there", which has been described as "the most famous three words in the history of mountaineering". Some questions have been raised inquiring whether Mallory had actually said it, or if it was a newspaper reporter making it up.
Mallory was born in Mobberly, Cheshire, the son of Herbert Leigh Mallory (1846 - 1943), a clergyman who changed his name to Leigh-Mallory in 1914. George had two sisters - one older, one younger - and a younger brother called Trafford-Leigh Mallory, the World War II Royal Air Force commander.
In 1896, Mallory went to Glengorse, a boarding school in Eastbourne on the south coast of England, having already transferred from a school in West Kirby. At the age of 13, he won a scholarship to Winchester College. In his second - to - last year at Winchester, he was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering by a master, R.L.G Irving, who took a small number of pupils climbing in the Alps every year. In October 1905, Mallory entered Magdalane College, Cambridge to study history. There, he became good friends with several members of the Bloomsbury Group including James Strachey, Lytton Strachey, Rupert Brooke, John Maynard Keynes, and Duncan Grant, who painted many portraits of Mallory. Mallory was a keen oarsman and rowed in his college "eight", but he did not (as has been written elsewhere) row for Cambridge in the annual Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race.
After getting his degree Mallory stayed in Cambridge for a year writing an essay he later published as Boswell the Biographer (1912). He lived briefly in France, where Simon Bussy painted his portrait, now in London's National Portrait Gallery. On his return he decided to become a teacher. In 1910 he began teaching at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, where he met the poet Robert Graves, then a pupil; in his autobiography, "Goodbye to All That", Graves remembered Mallory, who acted as best man at Robert Graves' wedding in 1918, fondly both for his encouragement of Grave's interest in literature in poetry and his instruction in climbing. Graves recalled: "He (Mallory) was wasted (as a teacher) at Charterhouse. He tried to treat his class in a friendly way, which puzzled and offended them."
While at Charterhouse he met his wife, Ruth Turner, a taxi driver who lived in Goldalming, and they were married in 1914, just six days before Britain and Germany went to war. George and Ruth had two daughters and a son: Clare, born 1915; Beridge, known as 'Berry' (1917); and John (1920). In December 1915 Mallory joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as 2nd lieutenant and in 1916 participated in the shelling of the Somme, under the command of Major Gwilym Lloyd George, who was son of then Prime Minister David Lloyd George.
After the war he returned to Charterhouse, resigning in 1921 to take part in the first Everest expedition.
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