HUXLEY

the name of an English family of scientists and writers. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) was a biologist who publicly supported Darwin’s ideas about evolution, and became known as ‘Darwin’s bulldog’. He also invented the word agnostic , to describe a person who is not sure whether or not God exists. His son Leonard Huxley (1860–1933), a writer, had three famous sons. The first, Julian Huxley (1887–1975), was a biologist and writer who was well known for his appearances on the radio and television programme The Brains Trust and later became director of UNESCO (1946–8). The second, Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), an author, is best known for his novel Brave New World (1932), which describes a future society in which people are born in factories and controlled by a continuous supply of drugs and sex. From 1937 Aldous Huxley lived in California , where his experiences with drugs became the subject of a later book, The Doors of Perception (1954). The third famous son, Andrew Huxley (1917– ), is a scientist who received the Nobel Prize in 1963 for his description of how animal muscles work. He was made a knight in 1974.