Narwhal tusks and snowflakes – celebrating Dundee’s first biologist

Anna Day

Sir D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson was Dundee’s first professor of biology – the starting point for the massive growth of life sciences that is now one of the principal employers in the city.

An extraordinary polymath who combined interests in biology, mathematics and classical art and literature, his work continues to inspire scientists, artists and architects alike.

During the 32 years that D’Arcy lived and worked in Dundee, he built up one of the most impressive natural history museums in the country, travelled to the far corners of the globe as part of an international inquiry, researched and wrote one of the most influential science books of the century and became involved in the social and cultural life of his adopted city.

Although he produced numerous publications in his lifetime, today, D’Arcy is best known for one book, On Growth And Form.

It celebrates its centenary this year and is still used all over the world. Described as “the greatest work of prose in 20th Century science”, it was a pioneering work, suggesting that the development of living organisms was influenced by physical and mathematical laws.

D’Arcy used examples throughout the natural world, from nautilus shells and narwhal tusks to soap bubbles and snow flakes.

Today his surviving collection can be seen in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at Dundee University, and he is also honoured by a plaque in Discovery Walk at the waterfront and – more unusually – by the restaurant named after him on Old Hawkhill.

Anna Day is Unesco Dundee City of Design and Cultural Projects Manager.

Professor Sir D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson.