Groundbreaking Biological Discoveries

Timeline of Major Biological Discoveries

1663-09-01 18:00:30

Robert Hooke

In 1663,using his own compound microscope,hooke took a smple of tree bark and saw that it almost looked like small rooms or cells.Based on his discoveries we have been able to dive deeper as to what is going on inside of those small rooms and build on our medical knowledge.

1674-09-01 18:00:30

Anthony van Lewenhook

Anthony van Lewenhook is noted as the discoverer of microorganisms. The discovery of microorganisms has led to a new understanding of animal life as well as how to protect ourselves from harmful diseases whether it be in cleanliness or our food.

1792-08-31 03:05:12

Discovery of Vitamin K

Henrik Dam discovered vitamin K by performing research on cholesterol metabolism of chicks in the early 1900's. He essentially performed his experiments by feeding the chicks a nearly cholesterol-free diet. After strenuous research, he discovered vitamin K and its importance. Henrik Dam later went on to win a Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology.

1855-08-01 03:05:12

Rudolph Virchow

Sir Rudolf Virchow's largest contribution to biology was his observation that when one gets sick, not all of the cells in the body get sick. This observation caused serious medical strides. This research meant that disease could be characterized by anatomic changes versus just by clinical symptoms.

1856-08-01 03:05:12

Gregory Mendel

From 1856 to 1863, Gregory Mendel did experiments with cross breeding pea plants. In 1865 Mendel published his research, which presented the notion of dominant and recessive genes. He also discovered that organisms inherit two factors from their parents, but only pass one down to their offspring.

1865-09-01 18:00:30

Discovery of Homeostasis

Claude Bernard is known in science for discovering some of the most important principles of organic life. The French physiologist knew that regulation of one's internal environment was imperative for life to exist, and with that he came to the conclusion that "homeostasis" was used in cells to help regulate certain variables in the body. Homeostasis served as a major stepping-stone in science allowing other people to later make groundbreaking physiological discoveries.

1869-08-01 03:05:12

Fredrick Miescher

In 1869, the Swiss physician, Friedrich Miescher, began research the building blocks of life. While studying the proteins in leucocytes, Miescher noticed a material other than proteins, which was DNA. From this he acquired the first crude refined extract of DNA. Meischer’s discovery eventually led to Watson and Crick defining the structure of DNA in the 1950s, and Oswald and MacLeod’s discovery that DNA is the hereditary molecule.

1879-08-01 03:05:12

Louis Pasteur

In 1879, Louis Pasteur and his assistant accidentally discovered the first vaccine. Pasteur asked his assistant to inject chicken with fresh chicken cholera bacteria, but his assistant forgot and injected the chickens a month later. The chickens did not die, but only become sick. When they chickens were healthy again, Pasteur injected them with the bacteria, but they were immune. From this he went on to discover the vaccine for rabies and anthrax.

1883-08-01 19:52:11

Robert Brown

In 1831 robert brown gave the earliest and most detailed description of the cell nucleus based on the drawings of Franz bauer. He was the first to discuss the role of the nucleus in plants and suggest its importance in fertilization. These findings put the thought in motion that the nucleus was the center for cellular creation.

1884-09-01 18:00:30

Artificial Insemination

The first documented case of artificial insemination was done by william pancoast. Dr pancoast injected a woman with sperm while under anestesia and she gave birth 9 months later.The woman did not know that she had been impregnated with donor sperm.

1887-05-20 19:52:11

August Weismann

Based on the work as von bineaten and sex cells. Once the two sex cells came together and had 4 chromosomes in the offspring. August Weismann discovered that chromosomes pair instead of splitting,he determined that a organism signals the sex cells to divide the chromosomes in half and coined this cell division meiosis.

1891-08-01 03:05:12

Herman Hanking

In 1891, German biologist Hermann Henking noticed the X-chromosome. While studying wasp sperm formation, Henking noticed that some sperm cells and 11 chromosomes and some had 12 chromosomes. HE called the 12th chromosomes element x because the acted and differently than the other chromosomes, but he could not see the X element while studying female grasshopper egg formation. From this he gathered that the extra chromosome helped determined the sex of offspring.

1892-09-01 18:00:30

Discovery of Viruses

Dmitry Ivanovsky was conducting experiments with tobacco leaves when he first discovered viruses. While working with the mosaic tobacco disease, Ivanovsky discovered that the agent catalyzing the disease was able to pass through a ceramic filter that was able to catch all the bacteria. Six years later Martinus Beijernick confirmed Ivanovsky's research and came up with the term "contagium vivum fluidum" meaning "soluble living germ".

1895-08-01 03:05:12

Wilhelm Roentgen

The German physicist, Wilhelm Roentgen, discovered the “X-ray” while working with a cathode ray tube in his laboratory. He filled the glass tube with a gas and sent an electrical volt through the tube, which cause the tube the fluorescently glow. When Roentgen covered the tube with black paper, he still noticed light being emitted from the tube. He experimented on his wife and found that the light went through flesh and left a shadow of bone, and his x-ray rapidly began to be used clinically.

1900-09-01 18:00:30

Discovery of Blood Types

Karl Landsteiner cross tested sera and red blood cells from himself and other scientists working in his lab. He discovered that the mixing of blood between certain individuals caused the blood mixture to clump up. This suggested the existence of at least two antibody classes. Landsteiner went on to discover the four blood types: type A, type B, type O, and type AB.

1902-08-01 03:05:12

Discovery of Action Potential

Julius Bernstein gave the first accurate description of what an "action potential" is. Bernstein developed a new instrument called the rheotome. This allowed him to figure out the exact course of time of electrical activity in nerve and muscle. This new gadget also allowed Bernstein to measure its conduction velocity.

1907-09-01 18:40:10

Thomas Hunt Morgan

Starting in 1907, Thomas Morgan began examining fruit flies. From studying the mutated flies and their genes, Morgan discovered that genes are located on chromosomes, and that they must belong to a particular chromosome. This discovery eventually led to Morgan to theorize the chromosome recombination process in which the two pairs of chromosomes can exchange with each other.

1928-09-01 18:00:30

Discovery of First True Antibiotic

The professor from London, Alexander Flemming, was working with Petri dishes one day when he accidently discovered the first true antibiotic. After conducting more research regarding this accidental discovery, Professor Flemming found that this "mold juice" had the capable of destroying a large range of bacteria. This was a stepping stone for future scientists to do a bit more research and turn this accidental discovery into a life-saving drug.

1937-08-01 19:52:11

Hans Krebs

The krebs cycle is the process by which most cells generate energy during aerobic respiration. The discovery is credidted to hans krebs based on his finding that citrate forms from oxaloacetate and pyruvate, allowing the last step to be found that makes the process a cyclical one.originall titled the citric acid cycle,it wasn’t until years later the name krebs cycle was given and accecpted for his extraordinary discovery.

1946-08-01 03:05:12

Explanation of Photosynthesis

In 1946 Melvin Calvin was able to identify the chemical reactions that take place when carbon dioxide is converted into carbohydrates.

1951-08-01 03:05:12

Rosalind Franklin

While working as a research associate for John Randall, Franklin x-ray diffraction photographs of DNA. She discovered that DNA was a double helix, and not a triple chain like generally believed. James Watson and Francis Crick published their complete structure of DNA model 16 months after Franklin's discovery, using her work. In her time she was not recognized as the true discoverer of DNA structure, but did contribute much with her discovery.

1951-09-01 18:00:30

Norton Zinder

In 1951 while working with joshua lederberg and testing for recombination in Salmonella typhimurium ,they noticed that in an experiment that had a filter,genetic materials still managed to travel. This was the discoverery of bacterial tranduction which is the transfer of geneticmaterial by bacteriophages.

1956-09-01 18:00:30

Arthur Kornberg

Arthur Kornberg received a nobel prize for his discovery of the DNA polymerase enzyme,now known as DNA polymerase I.this enzyme actively participates in the replication process in Prokaryotes.These enzymes make geneticall precise DNA and as well as repairing and rearanging DNA.

1960-08-01 03:05:12

W. Arber, H. Smith, D. Nathans

Discovery of restriction endonucleases(restriction enzymes).Restriction enzymes protect the bacterium that produced from viral infection. This is useful because this enzyme will cut any nucleotide base sequence that is not found in the genome that produces it (any DNA or RNA). These findings were later used in the production of insulin from the E-coli bacteria.

1963-09-01 18:00:30

Discovery of Measles Vaccine

John Enders, along with other scientists, used their Edmonston-B strain of the measles virus and transformed it into a vaccine. From here, they licensed it in the United States helping countless amounts of people while they did so. With measles being such a prominent virus at the time, this secured John Enders' place in biological history.

1970-09-17 10:17:31

viral enzyme reverse transcriptase

Baltimore and Temin are recognized for the discovery of the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase. They came to find that some retroviruses can cause cells to become cancerous. RT is an enzyme that makes DNA copies and inserts itself into chromosomes. Well known examples of this agent are in Aids and herpes.

1996-08-01 03:05:12

First Successful Cloning of a Mammal

The famous "Dolly" sheep was created in a lab on July 5, 1996. The cells from a female sheep were placed in an unfertilized egg, which created Dolly. Dolly was the first animal to be cloned from an adult cell and not from the DNA from embryos. The sheep was announced to the world in 1997, and sparked controversy over the ethics of cloning. Dolly gave birth through conception to a son and lived to be over 6 years old. Dolly's existence not only proved the possibility of cloning, it also led to a new therapies to prevent mitochondrial diseases in humans being passed from mother to child.

2001-08-01 03:05:12

First Draft of Human Genome

The Human Genome Project released the first draft sequence of the human genome that covers almost 90 of the genome sequence. This is very important because it will greatly help in creating more efficient drugs and therapies for sick, ill, or disabled people. When compared with the genome sequence of other species, we will have a better understanding of where humans fit in and evolved from. The researchers released the blue-print of human life for free for everyone to use.

2002-08-01 03:05:12

First Virus Built From Scratch

The virus that causes polio was built from scratch in a lab by a research team in New York, led by scientist Eckerd Wimmer. It is said that building viruses from scratch would behoove the future of the country by allowing scientists to use viruses to potentially fight Ebola, smallpox, and many other horrible sicknesses. The experiments were originally done to verify old published codes for the virus, but the results turned out better than the team expected.

2015-09-17 18:00:30

Discovery of Cytoplasm

George E. Parade, Albert Claude, and Christian de Duve discovered a gooey gel within cells between the cell membrane and the nuclear membrane. This gel-like substance, called cytoplasm, has been found to have numerous functions and plays a vital role in allowing a cell to keep its structure and shape.

Groundbreaking Biological Discoveries

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