As for the previous edition, which was "off the hooke" it was none other than Robert Hooke, the scientist who coined the phrase "cell". He was one of those super scientists in that he wasn't content with describing and coining the word "cell" but also described a physical law too. He also wasn't that far off working out gravity and he made his own microscopes so he could draw small creatures. Basically if he was around today he'd put a dozen different types of postdocs out of work. I'm jealous as I'm more likely to break a law than have one named after me.
You should start thinking of compiling you work as a good "History of Biology" course. Boveri and Sutton at the top, came up with the chromosome theory of inheritance. Walther Flemming at the bottom actually found chromosomes and their distribution during mitosis but, unaware of the concept of genetic inheritance, didn't quite realise how important his discoveries were.
ReplyDeleteIt could be a "fun" teaching aid for students, I guess. Probably need to throw in some more info rather than the wiki links. Flemming made some pretty key observations but it just shows how it's the interpretations that can be key to the real revelations. He was probably unlucky in that Mendel's work had been forgotten and not yet rediscovered at the time and it sounds like this was a key factor for Boveri and Sutton.
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