BIOLOGY PORTFOLIO

Contributions of Scientists in the field of

Biological Sciences
 SCIENTISTS
1. William Beaumont
2. Marcello Malpighi
3. William Harvey
4. Willem Kolff
5. Rachel Carson
 WILLIAM BEAUMONT
Born: November 21, 1785 Lebanon,
Connecticut, U.S.
Died: April 25, 1853 (aged 67) St. Louis,
Missouri, U.S.
Resting Place: Bellefontaine Cemetery
Nationality: United States
 DISCOVERY
Beaumont proved once and for all that digestion
in the stomach was chemical—a product
(mostly) of the gastric juice itself
which Beaumont surmised, correctly, was
composed largely of hydrochloric acid.
The discovery lifted the doctor from obscurity,
and he became seen as the father of American
physiology. He discovered chemical digestion
on 1833.
 HOW IT HELPED MANKIND
Chemical digestion is a vital part of
the digestive process. Without it, your
body wouldn't be able to absorb
nutrients from the foods you eat.
While mechanical digestion involves
physical movements, such as chewing
and muscle contractions, chemical
digestion uses enzymes to break
down food.
 MARCELLO MALPIGHI
Born: March 10, 1628, Crevalcore, Italy
Died: November 29, 1694, Rome, Italy
 DISCOVERY
He was the first person to see capillaries in
animals, and he discovered the link
between arteries and veins that had eluded
William Harvey. Malpighi was one of the
earliest people to observe red blood cells
under a microscope, after Jan
Swammerdam.
 HOW IT HELPED MANKIND
Using the microscope, Marcello
Malpighi examined the brain and
major organs to demonstrate their
finer anatomical features. This led to
his discovery in 1661, of capillaries that
proved fundamental to our
understanding of the vascular system
in the brain and cord.
 WILLIAM HARVEY
Born: April 1, 1578, Folkestone, United Kingdom
Died: June 3, 1657, Roehampton, London, United
Kingdom
 DISCOVERY
William Harvey made the momentous
medical discovery that the flow of blood
must be continuous and that its flow must
be in one direction only. This discovery
sealed his place in the history of medicine.
 HOW IT HELPED MANKIND
William Harvey (1578-1657) performed
the greatest-ever medical
experiments, giving birth to
the science of physiology, when he
discovered the circulation of blood,
completely revising the description of
Galen (129-200), the Greek physician
and anatomist whose ideas dominated
western medicine for 1500 years.
 WILLEM KOLFF
Born: February 14, 1911, Leiden, Netherlands
Died: February 11, 2009, Newtown Square,
Pennsylvania, United States
 DISCOVERY
Willem Johan "Pim" Kolff was a pioneer of
hemodialysis, artificial heart, as well as in the
entire field of artificial organs. Willem was a
member of the Kolff family, an old Dutch patrician
family. He made his major discoveries in the field
of dialysis for kidney failure during the Second
World War.

(1945)
 HOW IT HELPED MANKIND

When Willem Johan Kolff began

work on the artificial kidney, few
medical ... The dialysis treatment
he pioneered has saved the lives
of hundreds of thousands ... The
award committee cited
Dr. Kolff for “the development of
renal hemodialysis”
 RACHEL CARSON
Born: May 27, 1907, Springdale, Pennsylvania, United
States
Died: April 14, 1964, Silver Spring, Maryland
 DISCOVERY
Rachel Carson was an American biologist well
known for her writings on environmental pollution
and the natural history of the sea. Her book, Silent
Spring (1962), became one of the most influential
books in the modern environmental movement and
provided the impetus for tighter control of
pesticides, including DDT.
 HOW IT HELPED MANKIND
Marine biologist and writer Rachel
Carson is hailed as one of the
most important conservationists in
history and is recognized as the
mother of modern environmentalism.
She challenged the use of man-made
chemicals, and her research led to the
nationwide ban on DDT and other
pesticides.