Top 10 Biological Discoveries
Haleigh Kozlowski, Matt Oakes, Alex Lemon, Christy Nguyen
Criteria
- Has an influence on the scientific community
- Ability to serve as the scientific foundation for newer research
- Applicability into other fields
Criteria
EKG
10
The first electrocaridogram (ECG) was recorded with a mercury capillary electrometer in 1887 and exhbited two poor disortions
The EKG has given people the ability to alert someone of a heart issue if there is one, such as tachycardia/ bradycardia and even if an heart attack is occuring
Viruses
- Discovered in 1890 by Dmitri Ivanovsky
- Studied the casue of tobacco mosaic disease
- The bacteria was much smaller
9
- Martinus Beijerinck in 1898
- Conducted the same experiment
- Called it a virus
- Discovery has led to vaccine developement, gene therapy and disease treatment
First Crystallized Enzyme
- Discovered in 1926 by Jacob Sumner
- First to crystallize an enzyme— urease
- Demonstrated that enzymes are a type of protein
- Guides research in the biochemistry field
- Further research on catalase
- Trypsin, amylase, lipase
8
Mobile Genetics Elements
- 1950 - Barbara McClintock
- Discovered transposons in maize
- Genes move on the chromosomes (Transposition) via crossover
- Identified transpostion as a cause of genetic variation.
7
- Gives insight into genome evolution, used to increase yield/prevent disease in agriculture and influences treating disease
Phospholipid Bilayer
- Researched in 1939 by James Danielli
- Previous research by Gorter and Grendel
- Discovery leads us into research about ion channels, active transport, passive transport
- Structure and makeup of the phospholipid bilayer guides the way that it functions
6
Germ Theory
5
Scientific theory for many dieases
-stated many diseases are caused by microrganisms
by Louis Pasteur in 1861
we rely on this pasturization-preserves food
Without vaccines and culture methods we could not have been able to fight diseases of cattle and humans
Laws of Heredity
- 1865- Gregor Mendel
- Completed a series of experiments on pea plants
- Basis of knowledge for the field of genetics
- Gives us a general understanding of how traits are inherited
4
Krebs Cycle
- Discovered by Hans Krebs in 1937
- Step of aerobic respiration
- Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes
- Major method of energy production
- Used a machine to detect oxygen consumption
3
Antibiotics
- Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin from mold in bacteria in 1928
- 1937- Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were able to purify penicillin
- 1945 - Penicillin available for public use in US
2
- Allowed discovery of more antibiotics (streptomycin, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, vancomycin)
- Many bacterial infections, previously untreatable, could now be treated.
Microscopes
1
The compound microscope (1665) by Robert Hooke
It Provided the first glimpse into the fundamental unit of life
This allowed us to find microorganisms that are blind to the naked eye