Berzelius, father of Swedish chemistry
Jons Jakob Berzelius. Engraving by Charles W. Sharpe and published by William Mackenzie, 1860. After Johan Olaf Sodermark. Smithsonian Libraries Image Gallery via Wikimedia. Public domain. Born in 1779 in East Gotland in the southern part of Sweden, Jons Jacob Berzelius descended from an old Swedish family in which many of his ancestors had […]
“Can you define the word ‘woman’?”
Jayant Radhakrishnan Darien, Illinois, United States Venus is considered to be the epitome of feminine beauty in the western world. Does it matter that she has no arms? Venus de Milo. Louvre Museum. Photo by Tupungato on Dreamstime. “The more you know the more you realize you don’t know.” — Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE) […]
Dr. Fritz Kahn and medical infographics
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace). A human head in profile divided into offices, staffed by little men, and areas of industrial production. Artwork by Fritz Kahn in Das Leben des Menschen; eine volkstümliche Anatomie, Biologie, Physiologie und Entwick-lungs-geschichte des Menschen (Kosmus publishers, Stuttgart, 1926). Chromolithograph. Via the […]
Xenotransplantation—giving animal organs to humans
Dr. Alexis Carrel. Photo originally published by Bain News Service, June 1922. From Flickr Commons project and The Evening World via the Library of Congress George Grantham Bain Collection. Via Wikimedia. No known restrictions on publication. In the early 1990s a distinguished scientist predicted that within twenty years thousands of lives would be saved by […]
Rabbit starvation (protein poisoning)
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Kitchen – Hotel Dieu, Beaune. A model of a nun preparing rabbit. Crop of photo by Elekes Andor. May 17, 2016. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. “Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean…“ — Sixteenth-century nursery rhyme Rabbit starvation (fat starvation, mal de caribou, […]
Serendipity in science and medicine
JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom Photo by Tyler Merbler. Via Flickr. CC BY 2.0. The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!”, but “That’s funny…” – Isaac Asimov Horace Walpole (son of the first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole) coined the word […]
John Hunter, his wolf dogs, and the inherited smiles of Pomeranians
Stephen Martin United Kingdom Fig 1. Title of Hunter’s Royal Society wolf dogs paper. © Author, from original, CC-BY 4.0 John Hunter, 1728-1793, was a polymathic doctor. Besides being an anatomist and clinician, he was also interested in early genetics, exemplified by his “Observations tending to shew that the Wolf, Jackal, and Dog, are […]
“Am not I a fly like thee?” Drosophila melanogaster and the human genome
Marshall A. Lichtman Rochester, New York, United States A fruit fly displaying its large red eye. Among Thomas Hunt Morgan’s many contribution to the burgeoning science of genetics, he observed some male fruit flies had a mutant white eye. By cross-breeding males with mutant white eyes with females with the dominant trait and, subsequently, […]
Was Moses an alchemist?
S.E.S. Medina Benbrook, Texas, United States Worshiping the golden calf, as in Exodus 32:1-35. Illustration from a Bible card published 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company. Via Wikimedia. “And he took the (golden) calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the […]
Trijntje Keever—a tall tale
Orit Pinhas-Hamiel Hamiel Uri Tirosh Amit Ramat Gan, Israel A life-size painting of Trijntje Keever. Unknown Painter. 1633. Via Wikimedia. There is a life-size painting in the city of Edam in The Netherlands that portrays a girl who is exceptionally tall with disproportionately long hands. The artist is unknown, but the name of the […]