PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Homer Jacobson

Homer Jacobson was a chemist whose work explored information theory, self-reproduction, and virus production. In 1951, he taught chemistry at Brooklyn College and studied information theory's applications to biological receptors and linguistic communication. He published an origin-of-life paper in 1955 and a train-based reproduction model in 1958. His 1966 Virustat study examined continuous virus production; by 2007, he was retired from Brooklyn College and had retracted two statements from his 1955 paper after creationist websites used it as evidence that life was no accident.

Timeline

  1. 1951

    Brooklyn College research

    In 1951, he teaches chemistry at Brooklyn College and studies information theory's applications to biological receptors and linguistic communication.

  2. 1955

    An origin-of-life paper

    He publishes “Information, reproduction and the origin of life” in 1955.

  3. 1958

    A train-based reproduction model

    In 1958, he publishes “On Models of Reproduction.” The paper describes a self-reproduction system built around a model railway track and specially adapted locomotive cars.

  4. 1966

    The Virustat study

    In 1966, he and Leslie S. Jacobson study continuous virus production with the Virustat, an apparatus built for that purpose.

  5. 2007

    Retirement and retractions

    By 2007, he is a retired chemistry professor at Brooklyn College. In 2007, he retracts two statements from his 1955 American Scientist article after creationist websites use it as evidence that life was no accident.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

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  1. Personals - Caltech Magazine calteches.library.caltech.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Chapter 5 From Idea to Reality: Designing and Building Self-Reproducing Machines in the Mid-20th Century | Rise of the Self-Replicators: Early Visions of Machines, AI and Robots That Can Reproduce and Evolve tim-taylor.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Replication and Reproduction (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2020 Edition) plato.stanford.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Virustat, a Device for Continuous Production of Viruses - PMC ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Retracting creationism blogs.nature.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Scientist Retracts 1955 Errors Now Cited as Evidence by Creationists hnn.us. Checked 19 October 2026.