Bill Hamilton: a portrait with warts and all

摘要

As readers of TREE are undoubtedly aware, William (Bill) Hamilton was one of the most influential evolutionary biologists of the second halfofthe 20th century. Ullica Segerstrale's Nature's Oracle is the first full-length biography to appear since Hamilton's untimely death early in 2000, and providcs a mass of details about both his professional and personal lives. It comveys a vivid impression of a brilliant but flawed person, who had a very strong sense of that he wanted to achieve, and a lack of social skills that seems umusual even by the low standards of many scientists.