Lancelot Law Whyte (4 November 1896 – 14 September 1972) was a Scottish philosopher, theoretical physicist, historian of science and financier.
He was a soldier during the First World War, returning to enter Trinity College, Cambridge and studying physics under Ernest Rutherford.
To earn a living, White entered industry and banking in Britain, but he returned to Germany for a year, where he met Albert Einstein.
These factors control mutations as well as an »internal selection«, a particular kind of evolution separately optimizing processes in the cell.
Biologist Robert E. Hillman gave the book a negative review, commenting "in a weak and ill-supported effort to deemphasize the role of natural selection in evolution Whyte has detracted from what could have been a fine analysis and philosophical discussion of the latest advances in the chemical basis of heredity and evolution.