Contributors to Biological Knowledge

GALENGalen of PergamonAelius GalenusClaudius Galenus

• Galen was the originator of the experimental method in medical investigation, and throughout his life dissected animals in his quest to understand how the body functions. Some of his anatomical and physiological observations were accurate - for example, he proved that urine was formed in the kidney (as opposed to the bladder which was common belief). His most important discovery was that arteries carry blood although he did not discover circulation.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/galen.shtmlSystematized the science of AnatomyDeveloped the Scientific Method

Andreas Vesalius

• Did human dissections• Furthered the study of

human anatomy.

• Surgery and anatomy were then considered of little importance in comparison to the other branches of medicine. However, Vesalius believed that surgery had to be grounded in anatomy. Unusually, he always performed dissections himself and produced anatomical charts of the blood and nervous systems as a reference aid for his students, which were widely copied. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/vesalius_andreas.shtml

William Harvey

• Discovered circulation• Established the Science of

Physiology

• Harvey's research was furthered through the dissection of animals. He first revealed his findings at the College of Physicians in 1616, and in 1628 he published his theories in a book entitled 'Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus' ('An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals'), where he explained how the heart propelled the blood in a circular course through the body.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/harvey_william.shtml

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

• Pioneer of Microbiology

• As well as being the father of microbiology, van Leeuwenhoek laid the foundations of plant anatomy and became an expert on animal reproduction. He discovered blood cells and microscopic nematodes, and studied the structure of wood and crystals. He also made over 500 microscopes to view specific objects.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/van_leeuwenhoek_antonie.shtml

Carolus Linnaeus

• Pioneer of Taxonomy• http://www.tutorvista.com/content/biology/biology-iii/living-organisms/carolus-

linnaeus.php#

He made an attempt to classify living organisms to two kingdoms-the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom. He divided each of these kingdoms into smaller groups called classes. Each class was split into orders. Each order was divided into genera and each genus into many species. Each of these groups was formed on the basis of certain specific morphological features. He described about 5,000 species of plants in his famous book Genera Plantarum.

Another significant contribution from Linnaeus is the system of binomial nomenclature wherein Linnaeus initiated the idea of giving a scientific name to every plant and animal species. He proposed the idea of giving a scientific name consisting of two words - the first word describing the name of the genus and the second word describing the name of the species.

Jean Baptiste Lamarck• Lamarck's scientific theories were largely

ignored or attacked during his lifetime; Lamarck never won the acceptance and esteem of his colleagues Buffon and Cuvier, and he died in poverty and obscurity. Today, the name of Lamarck is associated merely with a discredited theory of heredity, the "inheritance of acquired traits." However, Charles Darwin, Lyell, Haeckel, and other early evolutionists acknowledged him as a great zoologist and as a forerunner of evolution. Charles Darwin wrote in 1861:

• Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention. This justly celebrated naturalist first published his views in 1801. . . he first did the eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all changes in the organic, as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html

Louis Pasteur• Pasteur's various investigations

convinced him of the rightness of the germ theory of disease, which holds that germs attack the body from outside. Many felt that such tiny organisms as germs could not possibly kill larger ones such as humans. Pasteur now extended this theory to explain the causes of many diseases - including anthrax, cholera, TB and smallpox - and their prevention by vaccination. He is best known for his work on the development of vaccines for rabies

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pasteur_louis.shtml

• Developed vaccines for rabies & anthrax

• Developed Pasteurization• Disproved the Spontaneous

Generation Theory

Gregor Mendel

• Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments in his garden. The observations he made while growing peas in his monastery's garden became the foundation of modern genetics and the study of heredity

• http://www.biography.com/people/gregor-mendel-39282

Charles Darwin• Influenced by the ideas of

Malthus, he proposed a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring. Gradually, the species changes over time.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml • Established the concept of natural selection

• Developed the modern theory of evolution

Paul Ehrlich• German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich was a

pioneer in the fields of chemotherapy (treatment of disease with chemical agents) and hematology (the study of blood). He was born in Strehlen, Germany (now Strzelin, Poland), worked for several years under under Robert Koch, and shared the 1908 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Ilya Mechnikov. He worked with Emil von Behring to develop a diphtheria antitoxin, released in 1892, and worked with Sahachiro Hata (1873-1938) to develop salversan, an arsenic derivative that proved the first effective treatment for syphilis, and was introduced in 1910.

• http://www.nndb.com/people/238/000086977/

• Used chemotherapy to treat syphilis.

• Developed the diphtheria anti-toxin

Thomas Hunt Morgan

• http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312650/morgan.htm

• Established the Gene Theory

• Showed the physical basis of heredity

Morgan formed the Chromosome Theory of Heredity after his fruit fly experiment. He was proven correct in his assumptions that chromosomes contain many genes, and that some chromosomes are related to sex. He also proved that genes on one chromosome were inherited together, and genes on different chromosomes were not. He noticed that there were no exceptions to his general rule. He formulated three laws that go with his theory of heredity:

Genes are inside of chromosomes. A certain gene is at the same spot on each chromosome, and that spot is called the locus.

Crossing Over, or the subtle exchange of fragments of chromosomes, only takes place between homologous chromosomes.

The frequency of a cross-over is directly in proportion to how far apart the chromosomes are in the cell nucleus. The farther apart they are, the more they cross over. http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312650/morgan.htm

Sir Alexander Fleming

• Discovered Penicillin• Ushered in the age

of antibiotics

• In 1928, while studying influenza, Fleming noticed that mould had developed accidentally on a set of culture dishes being used to grow the staphylococci germ. The mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. Fleming experimented further and named the active substance penicillin.

• It was two other scientists however, Australian Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, a refugee from Nazi Germany, who developed penicillin further so that it could be produced as a drug.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/fleming_alexander.shtml

Dorothy C. Hodgkin

• Determined the structure of Penicillin and Vit. B12

• Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910 –1994) received the 1964 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for determining the structures of several biologically important compounds using X-ray crystallography. She is often referred to as a founder of the science of protein crystallography. Hodgkin and her mentor, J. D. Bernal, were the first to successfully apply X-ray diffraction to crystals of biological substances, beginning in 1934 with pepsin, an enzyme that breaks down proteins in the stomach. Hodgkin's contributions to crystallography included solving the structures of cholesterol, lactoglobulin (a protein found in milk), ferritin (a protein aiding in iron storage, found in the liver and spleen), tobacco mosaic virus, penicillin, vitamin B12, and insulin. She also developed methods for indexing and processing X-ray intensities.

• http://www.asbmb.org/uploadedfiles/AboutUs/ASBMB_History/nobel_winners/50s60s/1964Hodgkin.html

James Watson, F.H.C. Crick & Maurice Wilkins

• In 1962 James Watson (b. 1928), Francis Crick (1916–2004), and Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004) jointly received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their 1953 determination of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Because the Nobel Prize can be awarded only to the living, Wilkins’s colleague Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), who died of cancer at the age of 37, could not be honored.

• http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history/themes/biomolecules/dna/watson-crick-wilkins-franklin.aspx

Jonas Salk & Albert Sabin

• Drs. Jonas E. Salk and Albert B. Sabin were the pioneers and researchers who discovered the vaccine and serum to combat polio, a crippling and killing disease that affected millions of people throughout the world annually.

Melvin Calvin

• Calvin received the 1961 Nobel prize in chemistry for identifying the path of carbon in photosynthesis.

Barbara McClintock

• http://www.biography.com/people/barbara-mcclintock-9391014

• Showed that genes can move from one location to another on a chromosome

• Scientist Barbara McClintock received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in Botany. She specialized in cytogenetics, particularly the study of chromosomes in corn. She discovered the role of "controlling elements" in genetic regulation and transposition. Her work was considered too radical (or simply ignored) until it was replicated in the late 1960s. McClintock received the Nobel Prize in 1983.

Famous BiologistInstructions:• Choose a scientist from the following list and research their

life and biological contributions• Make a PowerPoint presentation about this scientist and

include their contributions to biology• The presentation must be 12 slides minimum, including the

cover slide.• The presentation must include 6 -8 pictures or photographs• When you finish the presentation, e-mail the PowerPoint to

me at mdsfortu04@yahoo.com• Also, print off handouts of the slides (print 6 per page) and

turn this into me with your name, date, and period in the upper left-hand corner

• Presentation, including slide print out and emailed presentation is due on November 22, 2012.

Famous Biologists• Paul Ehrlich• Thomas Hunt Morgan• Sir Alexander Fleming• Dorothy C. Hodgkin• James Watson• Francis Harry Compton

Crick• Maurice Wilkins• Jonas Salk• Albert Sabin

• Melvin Calvin• Barbara McClintock• Galen• Antonie von Leeuwenhoek• Andreas Vesalius• William Harvey• Louis Pasteur• Gregor Mendel• Jean Baptiste Lamarck• Charles Darwin• Carolus Linnaeus

• End of Presentation