1. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch microscopist who made the bulk of his contributions while working as a chamberlain in Delft. Though he lacked scientific training, he had a special passion for grinding lenses into simple microscopes and observing the natural world. The Encyclopedia Britannica lists a number of elements of the microscopic world that Leeuwenhoek was among the first to accurately describe, including spermatozoa, striations in muscle tissue, mouthparts of insects, fine structures in plants, and red blood cells.
Arguably the most important contributions Leeuwenhoek made to the field of science were those that directly contested the long-standing theory of spontaneous generation. Using his own techniques, the details of which are a mystery to this very day, he was able to discover the truth behind the lifecycles of numerous creatures believed to spontaneously generate from organic material, such as fleas and granary weevils.
2. Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist who was born on December 27th, 1822. Most of his study was done in Paris, where he acquired a doctorate in science in 1847. Shortly after, he investigated recent discoveries in the field of chemistry, an endeavor that eventually led him to the discovery of molecular asymmetry, fathering the field of stereochemistry. This discovery earned him enough attention to be appointed as a chemistry professor at the University of Lille in Lille, France.
While serving as a chemistry professor, Pasteur was approached with the problems of a local distillery, launching the scientist’s research into alcoholic fermentation. As he solved the various issues at the distillery, he gathered the evidence and knowledge that led him to...
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...kept the culture. When he returned to the culture to see what happened, he noticed that the bacteria had seemingly been destroyed. This eventually led him to the discovery of lysozyme, a naturally occurring enzyme in the mucous that can destroy certain types of bacteria.
Fleming’s most famous discovery, however, is that of penicillin, and again, it occurred quite by accident. Echoing the discovery of lysozyme, the story of penicillin begins with a contaminated bacterial culture, this time with a mold. Again, Fleming allowed the culture to mature, and found that the growth of the bacteria had been severely inhibited by the presence of the mold, which was later identified as a member of Penicillium. Fleming and his team did not, however, manage to convert the antibiotic into a useful form, so they shared the 1945 Nobel prize with the researchers that did.
The Factor of War in the Development of Penicillin The discovery, development and subsequent use of penicillin can be considered to be one of the most important breakthroughs in medical history. There were many factors, which were involved in the development of penicillin, and it could be argued that war was the most important, but other factors were also responsible. Alexander Fleming was working in London as a bacteriologist in 1928 when he noticed that a growth of a mould called penicillin produced a substance that actually killed the germs he was working on. He realised that this might be very important and a year later he wrote an article about his findings. However, Fleming did not have the facilities or the support to develop and test his idea that penicillin could fight infection, and he didn't develop it further.
Penicillin, derived from the mold Penicillium, is the first antibiotic to successfully treat bacterial infections on humans. It was accidentally discovered by scientist, Alexander Fleming. While Fleming was growing Staphylococcus, a serious and often deadly infection, in a dish, he noticed the bacteria had stopped growing after a mold found its way
A remarkable breakthrough in medicine occurred in the late 1800s through the work of Louis Pasteur. Pasteur's experiments showed that bacteria reproduce like other living things and travel from place to place. Using the results of his findings, he developed pasteurization, which is the process of heating liquids to kill bacteria and prevent fermentation. He also produced an anthrax vaccine as well as a way to weaken the rabies virus. After studying Pasteur's work, Joseph Lister developed antisepsis, which is the process of killing disease-causing germs. In 1865 before an operation, he cleansed a leg wound first with carbolic acid, and performed the surgery with sterilized (by heat) instruments. The wound healed, and the patient survived. Prior to surgery, the patient would've needed an amputation. However, by incorporating these antiseptic procedures in all of his surgeries, he decreased postoperative deaths. The use of antiseptics eventually helped reduce bacterial infection not only in surgery but also in childbirth and in the treatment of battle wounds. Another man that made discoveries that reinforced those of Pasteur's was Robert Koch. Robert Koch isolated the germ that causes tuberculosis, identified the germ responsible for Asiatic cholera, and developed sanitary measures to prevent disease. (1)
and opened doors for later scientists that were in his field of organic synthesis. He was a
Hans Spemann was the next person to make an important discovery in 1902. He attempted to split apart a two-celled embryo of a salamander. He accomplished this task by using a baby’s hair to split th...
He realized that snake embryos had bumps where there should be legs. Which mean they probably evolved from a creature with legs. He noticed that whale embryos had teeth, but adult whales did not have teeth. The most shocking of his embryotic studies involved human embryos. He noted that the human embryos as slits around the neck, the same in fish. The difference is that in fish the develop into gills, and in human the become the bones of the inner ear. This showed that humans must be descended from fish. This led him to the conclusion that all species were somehow connected. He theorized that beginning with a common ancestor, species had changed dramatically over generations. Some species may add new body features, or lose them. He called this descent with
For many year, scientists have been researching and experimenting to understand how life on earth began and what was the turning point. Many studies and research were done in order to answer this question. After many years of research, scientists finally discovered the essence of life to be the cell. In order to consider something alive, the cells in the organism should be able to grow, reproduce, have the ability to process information, and carry out chemical reactions (Freeman 1). Even though cells are small, they are very complex and they are the functional unit in the human body. After discovering the cell, scientists wanted to know what is the structure of the cell. Under a microscope, an english scientist by the name of Robert Hooke was able to first observe the cell under a microscope using a part of a tree (Karp 2). Scientists divided cells into two different categories; eukaryotic cells and prokaryotic cells; each category has specific characteristics that defines each kind of cell. For instance, eukaryotic cells have a membrane bound organelle called the nucleus as well as ...
He is also known for advancing the science of fingerprints. In 1910 he was authorized to start a small forensic laboratory in the Palais de Justice which he directed until 1951.While there he worked on criminal identification methods including poroscopy- the microscopic examination of fingerprints; analyses of body fluids, hair and skin; and graphometry or handwriting analysis. He is the man responsible for coming up with the theory that when two objects come in contact with each other they leave some kind of material matter behind. This theory was later called Locard’s Exchange Principle. The idea is that the evidence can be used to associate objects, individuals or locations with one another." A person typically loses about 100 hairs a day.
The greatest discoveries do not come from a single source. It takes many different sources coming together as one, a compilation of information to lead to a significant discovery. For example, in what seemed like a race for the double helix, several different scientists had to make excellent progress in their works. all of the different discoveries related to the broad subject of dna had to be mended together in order for the final discovery of the true structure of DNA. to come about.
Ehrlich's major contributions to science began as soon as he became a doctor. Now a doctor Paul Ehrlich became assistant and eventually the senior house physician at the Charite Hospital in Berlin. While working at the hospital, Eh...
The development in the late 19th century of techniques for staining cell parts enabled scientists to detect tiny cell structures that were not actually seen in detail until the advent of the electron microscope in the 1940s. The development of various advanced optical techniques in the 20th century also increased the detection power of the light microscope for observations of living cells.
“... Antony van Leeuwenhoek considered that what is true in natural philosophy can be most fruitfully investigated by the experimental method, supported by the evidence of the senses; for which reason, by diligence and tireless labour he made with his own hand certain most excellent lenses, with the aid of which he discovered many secrets of Nature, now famous throughout the whole philosophical World.”
Lamarck worked Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and later at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle where he became a professor of zoology. In 1801, he published Système des Animaux sans Vertebres, a landmark in invertebrate taxonomy. It was him that originated the distinction between...
The microscope created new possibilities in the study biology. It allowed scientists to look into a completely new view of cellular biology. Galileo is credited with the invention of the microscope. Two of the main pioneers in microscope usage were Robert Hooke and Antonie von Leeuwenhoek.
Alcohol is a class of organic compounds that is characterized by the presence of one or more hydroxyl groups (-OH) attached to a carbon atom. Alcohol was unknowingly produced centuries ago when fermentation occurred to crushed grapes (Pines, 1931). In today’s society alcohol is produced for the use of household products such as varnishes, cleaning products, but is more commercially important in the liquor business. A chemical process called fermentation accomplishes the production of ethanol, the alcohol or liquor. From there, the ethanol goes through distinct processes to become the dark and clear liquors on the store shelves.