History of biology

-Jean Baptiste Denys was the first to perform a blood transfusion on a 15 year old boy

-Sheep's blood was used thinking that the purity of the animal would contradict the "bad" in humans

-Surprisingly, the transfusion was successful but further transfusions failed leading to transfusions being banned

1667:

Blood

-During the 1600's it was believed life arose from inanimate matter Frencesco Redi coducted an experiment using three jars with meat in them to contradict this belief

-The first jar was open and led to maggots on the meat, the second one was sealed and had no maggots, the third jar had a layer of gauze on the top which led to maggots on the surface of the gauze

-Redi successfully proved that maggots came from fly eggs, dissproving spontaneous generation though many people disregarded it because that was the theory they knew for a long time

1668:

Meat in a jar

-Anton Van Leewenhoek created a one lens microscope with curators providing magnifications up to 270 diameters

-With the lens, you could observe blood, insects and other small particles

-Leewenhoek was the first person to explain bacteria. This microscope lead to other discoveries suh as the cell theory.

1674:

Microscopy

-Edme Mariotte was a french physicist and a plant physiologist. She discovered the law that the volume of a gas varies inversely with pressure

-Mariotte stated that the law only holds if there's no change in the temperature

-This is widely known as Boyle's Law, he concluded that plants synthesize materials by chemical process

1676:

Plant processes

-Joseph Priestley was the first to observe photosynthesis in plants

-He discovered oxygen and accidentally brought us soda water

-After he discovered oxygen, one of his many experiments produced a new gas called nitrous oxide which became the first surgical anesthetic

1772:

Priestly

-Jan Igenhousz was Dutch physician and scientist who studied Joseph Priestley's work to discover the process of photosynthesis in the green parts of plants

-Igenhousz showed that light is essential to the plant process

-This discovery lead to finding chloroplasts and other plastids teaching us how plants get their energy

1779:

Igenhousz

-German physiologist Theodor Schwann developed the cell theory stating that all living things are composed of cells and a cell product

-Schwann was known for his microscopic investigations on the accordance in the structure and growth of plants and animals

1839:

Cellular biology

-Rudolf Virchow the "Pope of medicine" and the "Father of modern pathology" is well known for his contribution to the cell theory

-He published cellular pathology, his work clarifies and states that all cells come from other cells

-Virchow proved that all diseases can be traced back to cells, changing how doctors diagnose diseases

1858:

Cellular biology

-Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" which is the foundation of evolutionary biology

-This explains the theory of natural selection

-Members of a species not suited to the environment are less likely to live than those more suited who will reproduce and and create new generations

1859:

Evolution

-Louis Pasteur published a germ theory that proved bacteria causes disease, he later on created vaccines for anthrax and rabies.

-Robert Koch in Germany took this research and isolated certain bacteria that caused TB and cholera, he discovered antibodies could fight bacteria and strengthen the immune system.

-Another of his discoveries was a stain to help see bacteria, all of his work led to a study of disease prevention and the treatment of disease by vaccines and immune serums now called immunology.

1861:

Bacteriology

-Gregor Mendel discovered independent assortment of traits, dominant and recessive expression

-The traits would appear in pairs then separate in the gametes, eventually they would recombine in pairs in the offspring

-He discovered that traits were passed down from plant to plant in some cases but some not

-He developed the Law of Segregation and is credited with being the founder of modern genetics

1866:

Genetics

-Walter Flemming studied chromosomes during division and was able to visualize the threadlike materials as the cells were dividing, he called this process mitosis.

-In his book Zell-substanz, Kern und Zelltheilung (Cell-Substance, Nucleus, and Cell-Division), he explains the process of division.

-Most of what we learn about mitosis is due to Flemming and his observations.

1875 & 1882:

Cellular division

-Crawford Long discovered anesthesia and used ether for it during a surgery.

-Long noticed that ether used for recreational uses led the users to feel no pain from injuries.

-James Venable was the subject who got a cyst removed from his neck and felt no pain because of ether.

1878:

Medicine/surgery

-Using a sample of the medulla plate from an embryonic chicken, Wilhelm Roux maintained a warm saline solution to observe the process.

-His observations led us to knowing about the growth of tissues or cells separate from the organism Wilhelm Roux established the principle of tissue culture.

-He also formulated the mosaic theory of development after his work on early development in frog eggs.

-He demonstrated that the fate of various cells may differ depending on their position in the embryo.

1885:

Cellular biology

-Eduard Buchner demonstrated that the fermentation of carbohydrates results from the action of different enzymes contained in yeast and not the yeast cell itself.

-He showed that an enzyme (zymase) can be extracted from yeast cells and that it causes sugar to break up into carbon dioxide and alcohol.

-His studies revealed fermentation as a chemical process and discredited the protoplasm theory.

1897:

Cellular biology

-Ivan Pavlov was studying saliva commands in dogs when he created an experiment, he would ring a bell then give them food, he continued this action a few times until they associated the sound of a bell with food and began to drool.

-His experiment and findings led to more studies on behavior and reactions, these studies are famously used today for overcoming phobias

1898:

Doggy Slobber

-Karl Landsteiner discovered the human ABO blood group system by doing an experiment with mixing the blood of scientists at his lab

-He suggested blood could be used in paternity cases and in crime cases when blood samples were left at the crime scene

-Landsteiner laid the foundation for the modern medical practice of blood transfusion.

1902:

Hematology

-Sutton observed that during the process of cell division (meiosis), each sperm or egg receives only one chromosome of each type.

-He stated they were in pairs and carried the inheritance DNA, he published the Biological Bulletin, "On the Morphology of the Chromosome Group in Brachystola Magna"

1902:

Genetics

-Fredrick Blackman determined the rate of photosynthesis by proposing the law of limiting factors

-This law stated that when a process depends on a number of factors, its rate is limited by the pace of the slowest factor

-His work provided an introduction to photosynthesis

1905:

Energy in plants

-Frits Zernike invented the phase contrast microscope allowing scientists to view and study colorless and transparent biological materials

-Scientists were able to study the internal structure of the cell without staining and killing them

-Ernst Ruska also invented the electron microscope which we still use today

1932:

Microscopy

-George Beadle and Edward Tatum proved chemical reactions in the body were caused by enzymes (proteins) which are heritable traits

-They distinguished the connection suspected between genes and metabolism, the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis was introduced. This proved that genes and proteins must be related somehow

1940:

Cellular process

-Oswald Avery identified DNA to be the genetic material that transfer genes into bacteria cells, and transform them genetically.

-We have discovered more about cells and our genetics because of his discovery

1944:

Genetics

-Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins revealed that DNA is in the form of a double helix.

-This statment led Thomas Watson and Frances Crick to determine the structure of the base pairs which enabled replication producing two identical daughter helixes.

-They demonstrated how it was possible for genetic instructions to be carried in organisms and passed on to the next generation after generation

1953:

Genetics

-The very first human heart transplant was done by surgeon Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa on Louis Washkansky

-After Washkansky’s surgery, he was given drugs to ease his immune system and prevent his body from rejecting the heart. 18 days later he died from double pneumonia, although this happened,his new heart had functioned normally until his death.

-This led to more attempts at heart transplants and we now how to do them quite often with 85%-90% survival rate

1967:

Medicine

-R.H Whittaker came up with the five kingdom classification which we use today to organize living organisms

-The criteria used to separate the organisms were cell structure, body organisation, mode of nutrition and reproduction, and phylogenetic relationships

-The five kingdoms are Prostita(single-celled eukaryotes), Monera(prokaryotes), Fungi (fungus and related organisms), Plantae(plants) and Animalia(animals)

1969:

Classification

-The discovery of a 3.2 million year old female skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia with a smaller skull similar to apes and proof that it walked upright like we do today

-This discovery gave scientists a better understanding for the growth, development and sexual dimorphism

-Scientists are forever learning more about human origins and discovering new facts

1974:

Anthropology/Evolution of humans

-With the help of Lynn Margulis, James Lovelock developed the Gaia hypothesis stating that organisms interact with an inorganic environment to create a self-regulating complex system to maintain the necessary conditions for life

-This hypothesis is not validated but it does give us a better understanding for our earth and what kinds of ecosystems we live in

1979:

Gaia Hypothesis

- Luis Alvarez suggested that an asteroid the size of San Francisco, traveling faster than a bullet, slammed into Earth 65 million years ago

-He claimed the impact from the asteroid delivered a destructive blast a thousand times more powerful than all the nuclear weapons combined, most of the world was in a blanket of thick black debris

-His theory brought an international panel of 41 experts in geology, paleontology and other related fields to examine it. Because of Alvarez, we have a pretty good scientific idea of how the dinosaurs became extinct and mammals came to be

1980:

Extinction

-Hox genes control the development of our head-to-tail anatomy as embryos,recently, similar genes controlling the eyes of insects and our own eyes have also been discovered

-These similar genes are best explained passed down from a common ancestor hox genes are highly conserved in vertebrates, occur in clusters, and are uninterrupted by other genes

-The discovery of hox genes have helped us understand passed on genes from parents to children.

1980:

Hox genes

-On September 14th,1990 a four year old girl was the first gene therapy patient, she was being treated for adenosine deaminase deficiency which left her defenseless against infections

-The doctors extracted her white blood cells from her body, replaced them with the normal cells which make adenosine deaminase,the corrected cells were then re-injected

-Gene therapy treats genetic diseases by fixing what's wrong with the defective genes, this has helped many people overcome their diseases

1990:

Genetics

-Genetically modified seeds were introduced to the United States for commercial use

-Genetically modified crops are made through the process of genetic engineering where commercial interest genes are transferred from organism to organism

- the point is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species which will lead us to new discoveries about plant species

1996:

Genetics

-A new species of Hominid was found on an Indonesian island,up until this discovery there was belief that there were only two species in Asia

-The remains of an individual who only stood (3 ft 7 in) in height was nicknamed "hobbit"

2004:

Evolution

-Shinya Yamanaka introduced a way to change adult cells into stem cells

-Laboratory stem cells are able to make any type of cell in the body and are called induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS cells)

-This discovery proves that any dividing cell in the body can now be turned into a pluripotent stem cell

2006:

Stem cells

-President Barack Obama issued an executive order to remove barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cells

-This states that the secretary of health and human services must support and and conduct responsible,scientific and law abiding human stem cell research including human embryonic stem cell research

2009:

Stem cells

In 1665 Robert Hooke created the first microscope, in 1674 Anton Van Leewenhoek created a one lense microscope and in 1839, Theodore Schwann stated that all living things are composed of cells and a cell product using the microscopes. When Hooke created the very first microscope, you could see bacteria and cells that you couldn't with the normal eye. With Leewenhoek's microscope, it was a more advanced microscope than Hooke's so that he could observe blood and everything in it. With the aid of these two inventions, Schwann proposed the cell theory. Due to the microscope, Schwann could observe the structure and growth in plants and animals. All three of these are very important to discovering new information about cells and other biological mysteries.

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Schwann's cell theory in 1839, the first human heart transplant in 1967 and the truth to extinction in 1980 were the most important discoveries in the history of biology. Schwann's cell theory proves that every living thing on Earth is made up of one or more cells and it helps us identify if the organism is living or not. People could say that fire is living if we didn't have the cell theory but it's not made up of cells. The human heart transplant in 1967 was extremely important and was a huge step in surgery because we are now able to save lives with heart transplants. This discovery led to more transplants with different organs which is vital today in saving lives. The truth to the extinction of dinosaurs was discovered in 1980, they say an asteroid the size of Manhatten destroyed the dinosaur era leading to the first homo sapiens. This is astronomically important because it shows us where our kind first began and gave us some insight to how our world looks today and why.

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