CARL HENRICH BRAUN

German botanist

 The one who discover about cells are the basic unit
of life
ALEXANDER BRAUN WAS BORN IN MAY 10, 1805,
REGENSBURG, BAVARIA AND DIED DURING
MARCH 29, 1877, BERLIN. HE WAS THE CHIEF
BOTANIST OF THE “NATURE PHILOSOPHY”
SCHOOL, A POLICY ATTEMPTING TO EXPLAIN
NATURAL PHENOMENA IN TERMS OF THE
SPECULATIVE THEORIES OF ESSENCES AND
ARCHETYPES THAT DOMINATED EARLY 19TH-
CENTURY GERMAN SCIENCE.
DESPITE HIS LIFELONG OBEDIENCE TO VITALISTIC
PRINCIPLES, BRAUN ADDED IMPORTANT
QUALIFICATIONS TO THE CELL THEORY, THE
CONCEPT OF THE CELL AS THE BASIC UNIT OF
LIFE. HE ALSO DID COLLABORATING WITH THE
GERMAN BIOLOGIST KARL SCHIMPER, HE
ATTEMPTED TO ESTABLISH AN IDEALIZED PLANT
MODEL BASED ON THEIR OBSERVATION THAT THE
ARRANGEMENT OF LEAVES ON THE PLANT STEM
IN MANY CASES DESCRIBES A SPIRAL PATTERN
ACCORDING TO FIXED GEOMETRIC RULES.
BRAUN TAUGHT BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY AT THE
KARLSRUHE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL (1833–46) AND
WAS PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
FREIBURG, BREISGAU (1846–50), BEFORE HOLDING THE
SAME POSITION AND SERVING AS DIRECTOR OF THE
BOTANICAL GARDEN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN
(1851–77). HE DEVOTED MUCH OF HIS CAREER TO THE
STUDY OF CRYPTOGAMS (NON-SEED-BEARING
PLANTS), WHICH LED HIM TO HIS THEORETICAL
SYSTEM OF PLANT STRUCTURE EXPOUNDED
“OBSERVATIONS ON THE APPEARANCE OF
REJUVENATION IN NATURE . . .”). (1851)
WHILE HE ARGUED AGAINST THE
INDUCTIVE REASONING CHARACTERISTIC OF
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH, HIS WORK ENCOURAGED THE
SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF PLANT MORPHOLOGY; HIS
RECOGNITION OF THE BASIC UNITY OF ORGANISMS IN
FORM AND FUNCTION BY DEFINING THE CELL IN
TERMS OF CYTOPLASM ENVELOPED BY A FLEXIBLE
MEMBRANE CONSTITUTES PERHAPS HIS MOST
IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO MY
PRESENTATION .