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Timeline of biology and organic chemistry
Timeline
of
biology
and
organic chemistry
320 BC
-
Theophrastus
begins the systematic study of
botany
1658
-
Jan Swammerdam
observes red
blood
cells under a
microscope
1663
-
Robert Hooke
sees
cells
in
cork
using a microscope
1668
-
Francesco Redi
disproves theories of the
spontaneous generation
of
maggots[?]
in putrefying matter
1676
-
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
observes
protozoa
and calls them "animalcules
1677
- Anton van Leeuwenhoek observes
spermatozoa
1683
- Anton van Leeuwenhoek observes
bacteria
1765
-
Lazzaro Spallanzani
disproves many theories of the spontaneous generation of cellular life
1771
-
Joseph Priestley
discovers that plants convert
carbon dioxide
into
oxygen
1798
-
Thomas Malthus
discusses human population growth and food production in An Essay on the Principle of Population
1801
-
Jean Lamarck
begins the detailed study of
invertebrate
taxonomy
1809
- Jean Lamarck proposes an inheritance of acquired characteristics
theory of evolution
1817
-
Pierre-Joseph Pelletier[?]
and
Joseph-Bienaime Caventou[?]
isolate
chlorophyll
1828
-
Karl von Baer
discovers the
eggs
of
mammals
1828
-
Friedrich Woehler
synthesizes
urea
; first synthesis of an
organic compound
1836
-
Theodor Schwann
discovers
pepsin
in extracts from the
stomach
lining; first isolation of an animal
enzyme
1837
- Theodor Schwann shows that heating air will prevent it from causing putrefaction
1838
-
Matthias Schleiden
discovers that all living plant tissue is composed of cells
1839
- Theodor Schwann discovers that all living animal tissue is composed of cells
1856
-
Louis Pasteur
states that microorganisms produce
fermentation
1858
-
Charles R. Darwin
and
Alfred Wallace
independently propose
natural selection
theories of evolution
1858
-
Rudolf Virchow
proposes that cells can only arise from pre-existing cells
1862
- Louis Pasteur convincingly disproves the spontaneous generation of cellular life
1865
-
Gregor Mendel
presents his experiments on the crossbreeding of
pea
plants and postulates dominant and recessive factors
1865
-
Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz
realizes that
benzene
is composed of
carbon
and
hydrogen
atoms in a hexagonal ring
1869
-
Friedrich Miescher
discovers
nucleic acids
in the
nuclei
of cells
1874
-
Jacobus van 't Hoff
and
Joseph-Achille Le Bel[?]
advance a three-dimensional stereochemical representation of organic molecules and propose a tetrahedral carbon atom
1876
-
Oskar Hertwig[?]
and
Hermann Fol[?]
show that fertilized eggs possess both male and female nuclei
1884
-
Emil Fischer[?]
begins his detailed analysis of the compositions and structures of
sugars
1898
-
Martinus Beijerinck
uses filtering experiments to show that
tobacco mosaic disease
is caused by something smaller than a bacteria which he names a
virus
1906
-
Mikhail Tsvett[?]
discovers the
chromatography
technique for organic compound separation
1907
-
Ivan Pavlov
demonstrates conditioned responses with salivating
dogs
1907
- Emil Fischer artificially synthesizes
peptide
amino acid
chains and thereby shows that amino acids in
proteins
are connected by amino group-acid group bonds
1911
-
Thomas Morgan
proposes that Mendelian factors are arranged in a line on
chromosomes
1926
-
James Sumner[?]
shows that the
urease
enzyme is a protein
1928
-
Otto Diels[?]
and
Kurt Alder[?]
discover the
Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction[?]
for forming ring molecules
1929
-
Phoebus Levene[?]
discovers the sugar
deoxyribose
in nucleic acids
1929
-
Edward Doisy[?]
and
Adolf Butenandt[?]
independently discover
estrone[?]
1930
-
John Northrop[?]
shows that the pepsin enzyme is a protein
1931
-
Adolf Butenandt[?]
discovers
androsterone[?]
1932
-
Hans Krebs
discovers the
urea cycle
1933
-
Tadeus Reichstein[?]
artificially synthesizes
vitamin C
; first
vitamin
synthesis
1935
-
Rudolf Schoenheimer[?]
uses
deuterium
as a tracer to examine the
fat
storage system of
rats
1935
-
Wendell Stanley[?]
crystallizes
the
tobacco mosaic virus
1935
-
Konrad Lorenz
describes the
imprinting
behavior of young
birds
1937
-
Theodosius Dobzhansky
links
evolution
and genetic
mutation
in
Genetics and the Origin of Species
1938
- A living
coelacanth
is found off the coast of southern
Africa
1940
-
Donald Griffin[?]
and
Robert Galambos[?]
announce their discovery of
sonar
echolocation
by
bats
1942
-
Max Delbruck
and
Salvador Luria
demonstrate that bacterial resistance to virus infection is caused by random mutation and not adaptive change
1944
-
Oswald Avery
shows that
DNA
carries the
genetic code
in
pneumococci[?]
bacteria
1944
-
Robert Woodward[?]
and
William von Eggers Doering[?]
synthesize
quinine
1948
-
Erwin Chargaff
shows that in DNA the number of
guanine
units equals the number of
cytosine
units and the number of
adenine
units equals the number of
thymine
units
1951
-
Robert Woodward[?]
synthesizes
cholesterol
and
cortisone
1952
-
Alfred Hershey[?]
and
Martha Chase[?]
use radioactive tracers to show that DNA is the genetic material in
bacteriophage
viruses
1952
-
Fred Sanger[?]
,
Hans Tuppy[?]
, and
Ted Thompson[?]
complete their chromatographic analysis of the
insulin
amino acid sequence
1952
-
Rosalind Franklin
uses
X-ray
diffraction
to study the structure of DNA and suggests that its sugar-phosphate backbone is on its outside
1953
-
James Watson
and
Francis Crick
propose a double helix structure for DNA
1953
-
Max Perutz
and
John Kendrew[?]
determine the structure of
hemoglobin
using X-ray diffraction studies
1953
-
Stanley Miller
shows that amino acids can be formed when simulated
lightning
is passed through vessels containing
water
,
methane
,
ammonia
, and
hydrogen
1955
-
Severo Ochoa
discovers
RNA polymerase
enzymes
1955
-
Arthur Kornberg[?]
discovers
DNA polymerase
enzymes
1960
-
Juan Oro[?]
finds that concentrated solutions of ammonium cyanide in water can produce the nucleotide organic base adenine
1960
-
Robert Woodward[?]
synthesizes chlorophyll
1967
-
John Gurden[?]
uses nuclear transplantation to
clone
a
clawed frog[?]
; first cloning of a
vertebrate
1968
- Fred Sanger uses radioactive
phosphorus
as a tracer to chromatographically
decipher
a 120 base long RNA sequence
1970
-
Hamilton Smith[?]
and
Daniel Nathans[?]
discover DNA
restriction enzymes
1970
-
Howard Temin[?]
and
David Baltimore
independently discover
reverse transcriptase
enzymes
1972
-
Robert Woodward[?]
synthesizes
vitamin B-12
1972
-
Stephen Jay Gould
and
Niles Eldredge[?]
propose
punctuated equilibrium
effects in evolution
1974
-
Manfred Eigen[?]
and
Manfred Sumper[?]
show that mixtures of nucleotide monomers and
RNA replicase[?]
will give rise to RNA molecules which replicate, mutate, and evolve
1974
-
Leslie Orgel[?]
shows that RNA can replicate without RNA-replicase and that
zinc
aids this replication
1977
-
John Corliss[?]
,
Jack Dymond[?]
,
Louis Gordon[?]
,
John Edmond[?]
,
Richard von Herzen[?]
,
Robert Ballard
,
Kenneth Green[?]
,
David Williams[?]
,
Arnold Bainbridge[?]
,
Kathy Crane[?]
, and
Tjeerd van Andel[?]
discover chemosynthetically based animal communities located around submarine
hydrothermal vents[?]
on the
Galapagos Rift[?]
1977
-
Walter Gilbert
and
Allan Maxam[?]
present a rapid
gene sequencing
technique which uses cloning, base destroying chemicals, and
gel electrophoresis
1977
- Fred Sanger and
Alan Coulson[?]
present a rapid gene sequencing technique which uses
dideoxynucleotides[?]
and gel electrophoresis
1978
- Fred Sanger presents the 5,386 base sequence for the virus PhiX174; first sequencing of an entire
genome
1983
-
Kary Mullis
invents the
polymerase chain reaction
1984
-
Alec Jeffreys
devises a
genetic fingerprinting
method
1985
-
Harry Kroto[?]
,
J.R. Heath[?]
,
S.C. O'Brien[?]
,
R.F. Curl[?]
, and
Richard Smalley
discover the unusual stability of the carbon-60
Buckminsterfullerene
molecule and deduce its structure
1990
-
Wolfgang Kratschmer[?]
,
Lowell Lamb[?]
,
Konstantinos Fostiropoulos[?]
, and
Donald Huffman[?]
discover that Buckminsterfullerene can be separated from
soot[?]
because it is soluble in
benzene
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