CHARLES DARWIN

1809-1882

BORN:FEBRUARY 12,1809 IN THE MOUNT,SHREWSBURY,UNITED KINGDOM

DIED:APRIL 19,1882 (AT AGE 73) IN DOWN HOUSE, UNITED KINGDOM
NATIONALITY:BRITISH
FAMOUS FOR:THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, EVOLUTION BY
NATURAL SELECTION, AND COMMON DESCENT
FAMOUS FOR:THEORY OF EVOLUTION
AWARDS:ROYAL MEDAL (1853),WOLLASTON MEDAL (1859), AND COPLEY MEDAL (1864)

CHARLES DARWIN WAS A BRITISH SCIENTIST WHO KNOWN FOR HIS SUPPORT OF EVOLUTION
AND HIS PUBLICATIONS THAT HELPED BRING THE IDEA INTO THE SCIENTIFIC MAINSTREAM. HIS
THEORY REGARDING NATURAL SELECTION WAS SUPPORTED BY SUFFICIENT SCIENTIFIC
EVIDENCES THAT ARE COLLECTED DURING HIS TRAVELS AROUND THE GLOBE.

MAKING THE THEORY

IN 1836, DARWIN RETURNED TO ENGLAND AND STARTED TO SOLVED THE RIDDLES OF HIS OBSERVATIONS
AND UNDRESTAND HOW SPECIES ENVOLVE.. HE THEN PROPOSED A THEORY OF EVOLUTION BY THE
PROCESS OF NATURAL SELECTION AFTER GETTING INFLUENCED BY THE IDEAS OFMALTHUS. ACCORDING
TO HIM, THE ANIMALS AND PLANT SPECIES THAT ARE BEST SUITED TO THEIR SURROUNDINGS WILL
SURVIVED AND REPRODUCE EASILY. THEY WILL THEN PASS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS THAT HELPED THEM
SURVIVE TO THEIR OFF SPRING. GRADUALLY, THE SPECIES CHANGE OVER TIME.

IN 1838, DARWIN JOINED WITH ANOHTER SCIENTIST WHO HAD SIMILAR IDEAS ON EVOLUTION. IN 1859,
DARWIN PUBLISHED HIS BOOK ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION. IT WORK
WAS CRITICIZED WIDELY SO HE TRIED TO ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS IN AN ADDITIONAL FIVE EDITIONS
WHICH WERE PUBLISHED DURING HIS LIFETIME. CHARLES DARWIN DIED IN 1882 AND WAS BURIED IN
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
 GREGOR MENDEL
(1822-1884)

BORN:JULY 22, 1822 IN HEINZENDORF BEI ODRAU, AUSTRIAN EMPIRE (NOW CZECH REPUBLIC)
DIED:JANUARY 6, 1884 (AT AGE 61) IN BMO, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY (NOW CZECH REPUBLIC)
NATIONALITY:EMPIRE OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
FAMOUS FOR:CREATING THE SCIENCE OF GENETICS
FAMOUS FOR:MODERN GENETICS

MENDEL'S EXPERIMENTS AND RESULT

MENDEL USED HIS FREE TIME TO CONDUCT HIS HEREDITY EXPERIMENTS. BY STATISTICALLY ANALYZING
THE EXPERIMENTS OF BREEDING, HE HAD VENTURED INTO A UNIQUE AREA OF STUDY. HIS STUDIES
COUPLED WITH HIS VAST KNOWLEDGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES WERE WHAT GUIDED HIM THOURHTN THE
EXPERIMENTS. HE MOSTLY OPTED TO USE PURE VARIETY PEA PLANTS THAT HAD BEEN CULTIVATED IN A
CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERE. MENDEL CROSSBRED SEVERAL SEEDS AND THEN COLLECTED THE RESULTS
BASED ON THE SEVEN OBVIOUS VARIATIONS AND SEEDS.

MENDEL CAME TO THE CONCLUSIONS THAT TALL PLANTS CREATED BOTH LONG AND SHORT OFFSPRING
WHILE SHORT PLANTS ONLY CRATED SHORT OFFSPRING. AFTER DISCOVERING THAT ONLY A THIRD OF THE
LONG PLANTS CREATED LONG OFFSPRING, HE INFERRED THAT THERE WERE TWO TYPES OF LONG
PLANTS-ONE THAT DID NOT BREED TRUE PLANTS THE OTHER THAN BRED TRUE PLANTS.

EVEN AFTER MAKING THESE CONCLUSIONS, HE STILL PROCEEDED WITH THE EXPERIMENTS. HE HOPED TO
FIND MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THE OFFSPRING BY CROSSBREEDING DIFFERENT SEZED PLANTS.
HE WAS UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT CROSSING A SHORT PLANT WITH A LONG ONE WOULD RESULT IN A
MEDIUM SIZED PLANT, BUT HE WOULD LATER DISCOVER THAT THIS WAS NOT THE CASE.

HE CONTINUED CROSSING DIFFERENT PLANTS AND CALCULATING THE RESULT, MENDEL PLANED SOME
PEA PLANTS THAT HAD A CROSS OF SHORT AND LONG GENES AND SOME WITH ONLY LONG GENES, HE
THEN POLLINATED SOME OF THE PLANTS HIMSELF.

MENDEL'S CONCLUSIONS
ALL THE NATURALLY POLLINATED PLANTS FROM THE CROSS OF LONG-SHORT PLANTS GREW LONG WHILE
ONE OF LONG PLNATS THAT WERE UNNATURALLY POLLINATED GREW SHORT. HE DEDUCTED THAT THE
TALLNES OF THE PLANTS WAS ITS DOMINANT TRAIT WHILE THAT OF SHPORTNESS WAS A RECESSIVE TRAIT.
THESE RESULT WERE NOT DEPENDENT ON WEHTER THE PLANTS WAS FEMALE OR MALE. MENDEL CAME
TO THIS CONCLUSIONS AFTER ROUGHLY EIGHT YEARS AND HE INCLUDED OVER 30,000 PEA PLANTS IN HIS
INVESTIGATIONS.

THE FIRST HEREDITY LAW, WHICH IS THE LAW OF SEGREGATION, IS ENTIRELY BASED ON MENDEL'S
OBSERVATIONS REGARDING THE BREEDING OF PLANTS. IT STATES THAT GENES (UNIT OF HEREDITY) ARE
IN PAIRS AND PAIRED GENE BECOMES DIVIDED WHEN THE CELL IS DIVED. EACH PAIRED GENE IS PRESENT I
IN BOTH HALVES OF THE EGG OR SPERM
 CLAUDE BERNARD
(1813-1878)

BORN:JULY 12, 1813 AT SAINT-JULIEN

DIED:FEBRUARY 10, 1878 (AT AGE 64) AT PARIS
NATIONALITY:FRENCH
FAMOUS FOR:PHYSIOLOGY
FAMOUS FOR:BLIND EXPERIMENTAL METHOD FOR OBJECTIVE RESULTS

CLAUDE BERNARD WAS A FRENCH PHYSIOLOGIST WHO WAS A PIONEER IN THE INTRODUCTION OF BLIND
EXPERIMENTS AND THE DISCOVERY OF HOMEOSTASIS. AS A RESULT, HE BECAME ONE FRANCE'S BEST
KNOWN SCIENTISTS. THE COURSE OF BERNARD'S PROFFESIONAL CAREER WAS NOT ALWAYS SMOOTH,
AND AT TIMES HIS EXPEWRIMENTS EVEN CAUSED FRICTION WITHIN HIS OWN FAMILY.

EXPERIMENT AND CONTROVERSY

BERNARD WAS FASCINATED WITH THE MECHANICS OF DIGESTION. HE MAED A NUMBER OF EXPERIMENTS
IN WHICH HE MADE OPENINGS IN TO THE STOMACHS OF LIVE ANIMALS IN ORDER TO STUDY THEIR
WORKINGS. THIS BROUGHT HIM CINSIDERABLE OPPOSITION FROM THOSE WHO WERE OPPOSED TO
VIVISECTION, A GROUP WHICH ALSO INCLUDED SEVERAL MEMBERS OF BERNARD'S OWN FAMILY.

HOWEVER, HIS EXPERIMENTATION DID RESULT IN A NUMBER OF IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES, INCLUDING THE
FINDING THAT THE SMALL INTESTINE PLAYED A KEY ROLE I THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. HIS
EXPERIMENTATION ALSO HELPED SHOW THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PANCREAS.

IN 1857, BERNARD DISCOVERED GLYCOGEN, THE LARGE MOLECULE FOUND IN ANIMAL'S LIVER WHICH
ACTS AS A RESEVE STORE OF CARBOHYDRATES AND HELPS TO REGULATE BLOOD SUGAR. SINCE
GLYCOGEN WAS CRATED OUT OF MULTIPLE SMALLER MOLECULES, BERNARD DEMONTRATED THAT
ANIMALS DIGESTIONS DID NOT WORK IN THE SAME WAS AS THOSE OF PLANTS, WHISH WERE ONLY ABLE
TO BREAK LARGE MOLECULE INTO SMALLER COMPONENT PIECES. INSTEAD, THEY COULD WORK IN THE
OTHER DIRECTION AS WELL BY CREATING THOSE LARGE MOLECULES OUT OF SIMPLER SUBSTANCES.