Aristotle – famous for the classification of living things
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Carl Linnaeus – known as the father of modern taxonomy
1707–1775
A botanist, physician and zoologist all at the same time, Linnaeus came up with the system of naming, ranking, and classifying organisms that we still use today. It was his vast collection of specimens of plants, animals, and shells that lead to Linnaeus' coming up with a way of grouping and naming species. He separated all living things into 3 kingdoms; animals, plants and minerals, subdividing them into classes, then into orders and then finally into genera and species. You've heard of Homo sapiens right? Homo is the genus and sapiens the species – as you can see still very much in use today.
A walk along the timeline of life
Galen – famous for introducing medical experimentation
129–161 AD
The life work of Greek physician, Galen, revolutionised the way in which medical research was and is conducted. Galen had a major influence on the development of many fields of medicine including anatomy, pathology, physiology and neurology. Notable discoveries include the identification of the differences between veins and arteries, and recognising that the larynx generates voice.
Carl Linnaeus – known as the father of modern taxonomy
1707–1775
A botanist, physician and zoologist all at the same time, Linnaeus came up with the system of naming, ranking, and classifying organisms that we still use today. It was his vast collection of specimens of plants, animals, and shells that lead to Linnaeus' coming up with a way of grouping and naming species. He separated all living things into 3 kingdoms; animals, plants and minerals, subdividing them into classes, then into orders and then finally into genera and species. You've heard of Homo sapiens right? Homo is the genus and sapiens the species – as you can see still very much in use today.
Aristotle – famous for the classification of living things
384–322 BC
Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, is often not considered when it comes to great biological discoveries but his work on the classification of living things was revolutionary at the time. Referred to as the 'Ladder of Life', Aristotle's classification system was still in use up until the 19th century – that's a long time. Aristotle was the first to person to recognise the relationships between species and organise accordingly.
Charles Darwin – famous for the theory of evolution
1809–1882
Probably the most famous naturalist of all time, Darwin's contribution to biology and society is beyond imagination. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, the existence of new species occurring via the process of natural selection. His theory of evolution was published in On the Origin of Species in 1859 and it caused quite the stir – Darwin was disputing the longheld belief that all species had been created by God at the beginning of the world. Evolution by natural selection combined with Mendelian genetics is now accepted as the modern evolutionary synthesis and forms the foundations of much biological scientific endeavour.
Gregor Mendel – the founder of modern genetics
1822–1884
Mendel's extraordinary contribution didn't receive its just recognition until long after the friar's death – you could call him the Van Gogh of the biological world. Mendel used peas to discover and demonstrate the laws of genetic inheritance, coining the terms dominant and recessive genes in the process. The laws were rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century and provided the mechanism by which Darwin's theory of natural selection can occur. The two theories combine to form our current understanding of the evolutionary process.
In this assignment, we made a timeline of Earth's history to better understand when and how some major events happened on our planet. We used a strip 10 meters long to represent the 4.6 billion years of Earth's history, where 1 million years was represented by 2 mm. One very significant major event is the creation of Earth itself, which happened 4.6 billion years ago. Nothing as we know it would exist if this collision did not happen to form our planet. The increase of oxygen in the atmosphere and organisms which use oxygen for life processes which happened in the Ordovician is an important event in Earth's history. This laid the foundation for processes such as photosynthesis and respiration, which are essential. The majority of organisms today are descended from these first organisms. The extinction of the dinosaurs was a very significant event in Earth's history as well. It happened during the Mesozoic Era and gave way for mammals to dominate. This paved a path for humans and other mammals to come into existence because the dinosaurs were very dominant at the time and the smaller mammals stood no chance.
In our scale, 1 million years was represented by 2 mm. It was surprising for how much of Earth's history there was no life. Being able to see this visually represented really put so much of history into perspective for me. Before doing this timeline, I knew that the Precambrian Era was 88% of Earth's history but when we scaled our timeline accordingly, I began to really understand how significant a part of history this is.
Humans have made up such a small part of Earth's history, and it is surprising how much they have changed the planet in such an relatively insignificant amount of time. Humans are now the dominant species, but have been around for not even a speck in terms of geologic time.
One question I have is, how significantly have humans changed the planet in relatively small time that they have occupied it?
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek – known as the father of microbiology
1632–1723
Leeuwenhoek is well known for his contributions to microscopy, and how he applied this to the field of biology. He revolutionised a technique for creating powerful lenses, which some speculate were able to magnify up to 500 times. Leeuwenhoek used the microscopes to find out more about the living world – his discoveries include bacteria, the vacuole of the cell, and the banded pattern of muscle fibres.
Robert Hooke – famous for discovering the cell
1635 – 1703
Hooke was primarily a physics and chemistry specialist but his discovery of the cell has been monumentally impactful on the world of biology. Hooke had an extraordinary ability to manipulate microscopes, and when applying this ability to looking closely at a thin slice of cork observed empty spaces contained with walls - terming them cells. We now know that cells are the building blocks of all life.
Watson and Crick – famous for discovering the structure of DNA
1962
Francis Crick and James Watson shot to fame in 1962 for their discovery of the structure of DNA, winning the medical Nobel Prize in the process. Their model of DNA (double helix) explains how DNA replicates and how hereditary info is coded and passed on. The discovery of structure has led to a much more developed understanding of function – used in disease diagnosis and treatment, forensics, etc.
Wilmut & Campbell – famous for being the first scientists to clone a mammal
1996
Need we say more? Keith Campbell and Ian Wilmut cloned a mammal, famously named Dolly the Sheep! The pair cloned Dolly using a single adult sheep cell and a process of nuclear transfer. Dolly died after only 6 years but cloning continues - although still not perfected and certainly not ready for human application – yet!